BOAT: Wilmot's Lane

• Overall Rating: 3
• Location: Outwood, Surrey.
• OS Explorer Map 146, 'Dorking, Box Hill, & Reigate'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: TQ329454
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 19' 20" W000 10' 00"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference:  TQ329446
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 18' 50" W000 09' 90"
• To see: the windmill in Outwood, Outwood Common.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

Starting at it's northern end on leaving (the amusingly titled) Gayhouse Lane, this byway starts life as a tarmac driveway to a barn, but quickly changes to an earthen surface and plunges into woodland. It is a somewhat narrow lane, but never dramatically so, due to the drainage ditch that runs alongside the lane on its eastern side and the occasional mature tree on the western side.

Unrutted and easy going (even more so since I cleared a fallen tree, with much gusto and chivalry, at around the mid point of the lane!) there is nothing to present a challenge or danger whilst driving it. After winding its way through the trees and proceeding gently downhill, the lane ends back on the tarmac where a footpath crosses the lane at Wilmot's Farm. A pleasant if brief drive.

Supposedly Britain's oldest working windmill (aren't they all?!), never-the-less Outwood Mill is certainly worth a look (prior permission required) and National Trust-owned Outwood Common is a great place for a walk or a picnic on a glorious summer's day.

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