I originally visited Farley Hill in 1980 and found it to be sandy with ironstone and covered with beech trees, rhododendrons and laurels. At that time I recorded what appeared to be a platform on the brow, half a metre high by 10 m across, very obscured by mature laurels. In January 2014 I decided to take another look.
The hill is traversed by a public footpath around the north side, and as the landowner is unknown, I hopped over a broken fence and did some non-destructive trespassing. I suspect the land may be in the ownership of Unsted Park House which is Grade 2 listed and dates from 1780. It sits on the south side of the hill and is now a special school for children with Asperger’s Syndrome. The north face of the hill is covered in deciduous trees, with the eastern side having bracken ground cover, but towards the western side it becomes increasingly overgrown with rhododendrons and some holly. Unfortunately the nearer one gets to the alignment the thicker the growth and it proved too difficult to reach the desired location. I found no sign of the platform seen in 1980 and after all this time I cannot recall how it looked. The hill is crisscrossed with what appear to be eroded landscape features, paths and ditches, possibly associated with Unsted Park House, and the platform may well have been a viewing spot with a bench. There is an excellent view along the alignment, which is obscured higher up from the public footpath running along the north side of the lower slope. The photograph below shows a clear sightline north all the way to Whitmoor Common, through the Wey gap with the beginnings of the Hog’s Back to the left, and Pewley Down to the right. The tall structure in the far distance is in the centre of Woking.
