Rogate Common & Durleighmarsh
Petersfield
On this walk, children will enjoy stopping at the farm to pick fruit and vegetables, including pumpkins in October, and going to the tea-room with a garden play area.
Making our way from Rogate Common to Durleighmarsh Farm
The Basics
Time: 1 hour 50 mins
Distance: 6.2 km / 3.9 miles
Terrain: Woodland paths, gentle inclines, farm tracks.
Pushchair: This route is not suitable for pushchairs.
Dogs: Dogs are welcome on the walk, but they are not allowed in the fruit picking fields or the farm shop.
Refreshments: The Tea Barn at Durleighmarsh
Toilets: For customers of The Tea Barn.
Public Transport: There is a bus stop on the A272 at the bottom of the track to Durleighmarsh Farm, it is served by Stagecoach 54 Petersfield to Chichester or Stagecoach 91/92/93 Petersfield to Midhurst.
Parking: You can either start your walk at Durford Heath car park, Hill Brow, free (Postcode: GU31 5DS - W3W: ///lakeside.trap.snow) or at Durleighmarsh Farm Shop/The Tea Barn, assuming you will be a customer (Postcode: GU31 5AX - W3W: ///fishery.hillsides.impressed)
The woodland of Rogate Common
The highlight of this walk near Petersfield is the pick-your-own farm shop where strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are ripe for the picking in summer, and pumpkins in autumn. There is also an excellent tea-room with play things in the garden. To reach Durleighmarsh, our walk takes you along the West Sussex and Hampshire border and through the woodland of Rogate Common.
The Route
This walk can be started from Durford Heath car park at Hill Brow or from Durleighmarsh Farm Shop & The Tea Barn. Advantages of parking at Durford Heath are that the walk can be completed when the farm shop is closed and it also places that tea room at a half way point. Advantages of parking at Durlerighmarsh are that you can put any produce straight into your car. Please note you should plan to use either the tea room or the farm shop if you use this car park.
Our directions begin from Durford Heath car park. If you park at Durleighmarsh, you will need to walk up the track to the right of the farm shop - it is The Sussex Border Path and the same track that you drove in on. Walk under the footbridge and continue for a few minutes before joining the walk at step 4.
Beginning at Durford Wood car park, take the permissive footpath starting beside the information board. The road should be parallel to the path but away to your left. At a fork, keep left. Then at the next junction of paths, veer up to the left and join the vehicle access track next to a telegraph pole. Turn right and follow the track. Where the track widens out into a logging area, many paths will converge. Keep straight and to the right of this space. Ignore the first woodland path on your right with a barrier. Follow the finger post pointing in the direction of the ‘public way’. Do not walk to the house, but instead fork left just before you see a rusted blue sign saying ‘private road, no cars, access only’.
Keep straight on the public way, ignoring any paths to your right. The path will initially pass under trees, but these will later give way to open fields and then after that, views will open up ahead. The path will get progressively sandier and you should remain on the same path until you reach a collection of farm buildings and machinery. Keep right of the buildings and continue straight on the same path, which will become a tarmac lane.
After you pass some worker’s caravans and a pumping station to your right, leave the tarmac lane and take the public way on your right. This path is much narrower and more enclosed by vegetation than the previous one. Continue straight and ignore the bridle way to the right when you see it. At the junction with a wide vehicle track, you have a choice to make. Turn left if you wish to visit Durleighmarsh Farm Shop and Pick Your Own as well as The Tea Barn (5 minutes each way, return to this point). To continue the walk, turn right.
Walk up the Sussex Border Path and keep left where the path splits with a private track to your right. Then, where the space opens up to your right, ignore a footpath to your right and then a footpath to your left, but keep going straight on until you reach the point where the path ahead has a ‘private property’ sign.
The public footpath will veer right and you will be walking with fields to your right and ancient woodland to your left. Soon the tree type will noticeably change to the conifer plantation of Rogate Common. After a fallen tree, begin heading downwards with the same path. At a green ‘Sussex Border Path’ badge on a post, the path will split around a central line of trees - keep left. When you reach the National Trust sign for Durford Heath and a De La Salle Brother’s sign, turn right. Follow this path with the boundary to your left until you reach the Durford Wood car park (if you parked at Durleighmarsh, continue from the car park through steps 1-3).
Gain access to the member's only area of our website where you will find the complete A-Z library of all our PDF files. This includes over 220 self-guided walks ready to print or download, as well as various children's activity sheets. You will also find a digital membership card, giving you access to our current discounts.
Did you know?
Durleighmarsh Pick Your Own is open Monday – Saturday from 10am to 4pm (last entry 3.30pm) and Sunday from 10am to 3.30pm (last entry 3pm). There is a £2 charge per person to enter the fields and then your fruit is charged by weight in addition to that. The strawberry crop can be intermittent, so we advise checking their Facebook page for stock updates.
If you enjoyed this walk…
…try this walk at Compton Down where you can also pick pumpkins in autumn
Follow us to see our new walks and get regular updates on our old ones:
