BOAT: Marshes Hollow

• Overall Rating: 3
• Location: Liphook, Hampshire.
• OS Explorer Map 133, 'Haslemere & Petersfield'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: SU852317
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 07' 90" W000 78' 40"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: SU853321
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 08' 20" W000 78' 20"
• To see: not much.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

This byway follows a seemingly common pattern in this neck of the woods in that it involves a short but steep hill climb! We drove it from south to north. Starting from its junction with Haslemere Road (B2131) the green lane proceeds for around 200m as a metalled driveway that serves a sizeable house after crossing a pretty ghyll in pleasant woodland.

At the end of the driveway, with the house to the west, the tarmac ends and the slightly rutted mud surface takes over as the ascent begins. This is a relatively steep climb that rises around 70m in a 200m stretch of track, so although it's not really all that hard going it is certainly not simple, even more so since the foliage that lines the lane has seemingly recently been cut back.

Just before the end of the byway on Hewshott Lane, and in a phenomenon more common around East Horsley in Surrey, a random brick-arch bridge appears which the trail passes under without any fuss (there's almost enough headroom for a Forward Control to get through, though we wouldn't personally chance it!). After passing through we took a picture and submitted a record here of some invasive, non-native rhododendron bushes and submitted it to the Plant Tracker database via our app. This is a great way to make our favourite hobby even more rewarding and to 'give back' to nature at the same time.

This is Byway 41 according to Hampshire County Council, and since it is otherwise un-named we christened it Marshes Hollow after the house it serves. Byway 40 is just to the east, but since it is extremely short and a dead-end we can't be bothered to review it!

View Marshes Hollow in a larger map