Walking the River Wey Part 8: Guildford to Godalming
Where the North Downs Way crosses the Wey Navigation
Start: Guildford Station, Guildford GU1 4UT
Finish: Godalming Station, Godalming GU7 1EU
Distance: 8.9 km (5.5 miles)
Elevation Change: +49m / - 42m. Net +7m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other Routes Touched (walk): Wey Navigation Footpath, Wey-South Path, North Downs Way, Scholar’s Trail, Guildford and Shalford Disused Railways Walk, The Fox Way
Other Routes Touched (cycle): Surrey Cycleway
Cafe / pubs on route: Several at the start and end at Guildford and Godalming. Plus: The Ragged Robin (6.3 km in)
Map: Guildford & Farnham Map | Godalming & Farnborough | Ordnance Survey | OS Explorer Map 145
Links: Wey Navigation, River Wey, River Wey and Godalming Navigations (National Trust), Guildford, Godalming
This is the eighth of a series of short circular walks along the River Wey and the Wey Navigation canal in Surrey. The guidance below will help you navigate but don’t use it as a fully accurate turn-by-turn guide. Always take a map and/or a GPX route and prepare well for the weather and terrain.
Similar to Section 7 this is a station-to-station walk with a train connection between them. We parked near Guildford Station for the start of the walk and returned from Godalming Station at the end. There’s plenty of parking options at Guildford Station however we started 1 km away at Dapdune Wharf which has free parking for National Trust members.
Navigation is especially easy for this section as it follows the towpath on the north-western side of the canal for most of the way, crossing over to the southern side at Bridge Road Godalming. The only part to watch out for is at the start where the path across the islands at Millmead has been temporarily closed and you need to take a diversion of ~0.5km along Millbrook (A281), returning to the towpath after the Weyside pub.
Along the route you’ll pass the bridge where the North Downs Way crosses the canal with a very small beach next to it. We were there on a warm summer’s day and a lot of dogs were making the most of the beach for a dog party. Further down you’ll pass the disused section of the railway that once connected Shalford station to the mainline heading south. There’s also several WW2 Pill-boxes on the route guarding over the canal.
At Godalming you’ll reach the end of the navigable / canalised section. Beyond this the river Wey continues west towards Tilford where it splits with 2 sections leading to different sources. This is the final section of the Wey Navigation walks, but there’s one more walk that follows the river to Eashing.
Previous section (north): Walking the River Wey Part 7: Worpleston to Guildford
Next section (south): Walking the River Wey Part 9 - Godalming and Eashing (blog post coming soon)