Greyhound approved walks in and around Surrey
Newark Priory is a ruined priory next to the River Wey at Newark Lock between Ripley, Send and Pyrford and to the east of Woking Palace. It is a Grade I listed building and protected Scheduled Monument, meaning it should forever remain in ruins just like it is today.
Ashtead Common, owned by the City of London Corporation, is regarded as a prime example of relic wood pasture, valued for its historic landscape and important habitat. Its 495 acres are a mosaic of woodland, grassland, scrub and various wetland habitats including ponds, streams, ditches and springs.
Shalford's water meadows were once farmland used for growing hay and grazing cattle. They are a reminder of the area's once "intensive" farming history (although clearly not intensive by today's farming standards). In the Middle Ages, ditches and channels were created in natural riverside meadows and then deliberately flooded to turn them into water meadows, a practice imported from Europe. How very international.
Hornecourt Wood is an ancient Wealden beech woodland on the National Trust's Harewoods Estate in Outwood.
Royal Common, just outside Elstead, is part of the Longmoor Training Area owned by the Defence Estates, which also covers large parts of Hankley, Elstead and Ockley commons. Public access is allowed across the Defence Training Estate provided you adhere to the Surrey Commons Military Lands Byelaws 1978. Army training here (when it takes place) revolves around logistics and minor infantry manoeuvre exercises and you're unlikely to come to any harm, but make sure you follow the instructions of troops if you do encounter any.
Papercourt Lock is a lock on the River Wey Navigation, now owned and maintained by the National Trust. The Wey was one of the first British rivers to be made navigable, and opened to barge traffic in 1653. It is a 15-mile waterway linking Guildford to the Thames at Weybridge.
The Devil’s Punch Bowl, part of the Hindhead Commons, is a large natural amphitheatre near Thursley and Hindhead, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and managed by the National Trust.
Between Epsom, Ewell and Chessington, Horton Country Park is a local nature reserve covering 150 hectares, parts of which are used as a golf course, a children’s adventure farm (Hobbledown) and an equestrian centre. It’s a patchwork of fields, hedgerows, woods and ponds and considered to be of great wildlife and historical interest.
Nestled away behind the picturesque village of Chilworth you’ll find the ruins of the Chilworth Gunpowder Mills, one of the earliest examples of a gunpowder mill in the country.
Reigate Heath covers an area of about 60 hectares and is a local nature reserve, common and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Regarded as an important site because of its mosaic of lowland acid grassland and dry heath, Reigate Heath is a nationally rare habitat that supports a wide range of uncommon plants and invertebrates associated with free-draining, sandy soils.
Walks with Rena 