Dorking; Friday, 05 July, 2024

I had a half days leave booked, so after finishing work I packed my bag and wandered down to the station to catch the train over to Box Hill and Westhumble. I had two options, one involved changing in Sutton and waiting 28 minutes, the other had me changing in West Croydon, Epsom and Leatherhead but only waiting a combined 26 minutes. Given how risky connections are with UK trains I decided to be daring and take the four train option, which worked perfectly with no issues and after a short walk down the hill from the station I was at the hotel checking in.

After checking in and dropping off my stuff I headed out of the hotel and picked up the bus the couple of stops into the centre of Dorking. Despite being well beyond the M25 for a weird historical quirk the bus stop outside the hotel has a London Buses roundel and the 465 is a red London Bus for its entire route from Kingston to Dorking so my oyster card was accepted for the trip into town.

I had a bit of a wander around the centre of Dorking before heading over to the towns Museum to have a look around that. It’s an interesting little museum charting the history of the town from the prehistoric era – complete with Dinosaur spine – through to the modern times. Perhaps the most interesting part is the display on the geology of the area with the Mole River having cut a narrow pass through the North Downs which eventually led to the rise of Dorking as an important town. Even today the main road and railway line both follow the course of the valley that the Mole created.

From the museum I walked the short distance to the nearby bus stop and picked up a bus heading about a mile and half away from town to the nearby village of Brockham and hopped off at the golf course to head up into the high ground and the ruins of Betchworth Castle.

The Castle was actually a fortified medieval manor house located on the top of the hill overlooking the surrounding countryside. Today much of the building has crumbled away, and today access to the site isn’t permitted due to the risk of falling masonry, instead you can walk around the outside of the site with the fence allowing you to get quite close to the building.

Having looked around the castle I headed back down to the main road and caught the bus back towards Dorking, hopping off at the station and walking the ¾ mile back to the hotel where I popped up to my room and grabbed my swimming trunks so I could take advantage of the hotel outdoor pool.

Despite the ongoing drizzle, the pool was quite a bit warmer than the surrounding air so it was really quite pleasant to be floating around in the water. I spent about an hour in the pool, having to finally get out as they were about to close it for the evening. After a quick poolside shower to wash the worst of the chlorine off I headed back to my room and had a very nice long hot shower, though – quite naturally given the fact the whole area is built on chalk – getting any kind of lather going with the shampoo or shower gel was almost impossible.

Freshened up, and no longer smelling of chlorine I headed back down to the bus stop outside the hotel and caught the bus back into Dorking to find a restaurant for dinner, after which I headed back to the hotel for a nightcap in the bar before turning in for the night.