Nutley - Sheffield Forest Loop

Sheffield Forest to Nutley Windmill loop

Fingers crossed that Spring might just have arrived. The weather people reckoned it might just reach double figures today in some sunshine but out walking there was a keen breeze and we think it probably only reached 8 degC. Still that is a lot better than the past month and we were grateful for the lovely blue sky and sunshine.

We had picked a circular walk which just touched the western edge of the Ashdown forest and then looped around the village of Nutley and through the Sheffield forest.

By carefully choosing the starting point we reckoned to hit Nutley around 12-30ish for lunch at the only pub on the walk - and yes, Ivan had phoned them to ensure they cooked lunch on Mondays! So we parked up at a hamlet called Furner's Green and set out about 10-30. (Link here Furner's Green, East Sussex TN22

The walk only had written instructions and almost immediately we got lost! Out with the GPS and whilst we were studying the technology and maps a lady walking her dog came past  and said "you need to go that way" ! So being obedient men we did! However, we were off the actual route at that time so we used the map and GPS to devise a modified loop that 20 mins later got us back onto the right instructions.

The walk was very steep in places and dipped in and out of woodland. One sign that we are on the edge of Spring was the wonderful displays of Snowdrops that we kept coming across. Also, the gorse was just starting to show its vivid yellow blooms. We even saw a couple of early Primroses and a couple of Daffodils

Whether we were tired from missing a couple of weekly walks or maybe our detour had put us behind schedule but after struggling up some big hills we found we had only covered 5 miles and we were nowhere near Nutley or its Windmill!

A terrific "Wealden House" at Chapel Wood













The trouble with Windmills is that they tend to be built on the top of hills and eventually we saw the one we needed to reach and yes, it was 1.5 miles away up a hill! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutley_Windmill

Nothing for it but to push on and at 12-45 we passed said Windmill and looked forward to the 1.5 mile downhill section on the other side and the only Pub on the route. At 1-30 two very tired walkers slumped into the Nutely Arms, not quite the quaint inn we hoped for but it had beer and food. Good food but poor beer choices - we only had a choice of lager or Guinness so it was two pints of the Black stuff we quaffed.

The good thing was that after lunch we only had 3 miles to go which was very beneficial because the legs didn't want to move very fast.

Nice walk and maybe one to do again when the Bluebells come into flower.



Stats for the walk were ...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)	Av Speed (mph)
04/03/2013	19750	10.4	04:08	1243	1783	1691	2.6