After about 70 yards, turn left at a fork and pass Swiss Cottage on your right. This was the home of John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor of the television, between 1929 and 1932. Straight ahead is a car park with the National Trust information centre, café and gift shop. To your right is the path to the summit viewpoint and the memorial to Leopold Salomons (who purchased the Box Hill estate for the nation) with lovely views across to Leith Hill, Hindhead, Dorking and Ranmore.
Facing the memorial, take the right-hand path and at the first fork in the woods take the left-hand track steeply downhill following the North Downs Way signs through the woods to the River Mole. Cross via the stepping-stones or footbridge.
Keep straight on to the car park exit. Cross the A24 and pick up another North Downs Way sign slightly to your left. Follow the track under the railway bridge and through a wooden gate marked Denbies Wine Estate. Go uphill and curving to the left, you reach a tarmac lane and a crossroads after about 70 yards. Go left, downhill to the Denbies Visitor Centre.
This is a great lunch stop after an appetite sharpened by the slopes of Box Hill. The Indoor Garden Conservatory serves hot lunchtime food or try the Gallery Restaurant where typical dishes include baked sea bass, cinnamon-roasted poussin and pan-fried calves’ liver—with panoramic views over the vineyard.
The 45-minute optional winery tour and tasting costs £7.25 per adult and is a good introduction to the wines on offer. Located in a valley with a similar chalk soil structure as the Champagne region of France, Denbies grows many grape varieties, including Reichensteiner, Müller-Thurgau and Ortega, and it produces Yew Tree—a 100 per cent Pinot Noir wine—and Redlands, a Dornfelder/Pinot Noir blend, and a very popular sparkling wine.
It is a short walk back to Dorking station along the route taken earlier in the day, though it may seem longer if you have a large bag of wine to carry.
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