Mad Jack Fuller Folly Trail | Stonegate to Robertsbridge | Free Hike 28km (17mi)

Grade: 🥾🥾 🥾Level 3.5/5
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📖SUMMARY:
🥾28km (17mi) | Ascent 660m | Descent 686m | Max Elevation 192m
🚊Train: Return ticket London Bridge 🔁 Robertsbridge
⛳️ Meeting Point: 2 Options
1- London Bridge train station - Ticket office | 08:30 (Train is at 08:54)
2- Stonegate - Outside train station | 09:55
⚠️This is a Point to Point (not Circular) Hike
📍Hike start: Stonegate train station | 10:05
🔚Hike finish: Robertsbridge train station | approx. ~18:00

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🚊TRAIN TICKET INFORMATION:
I would recommend you get:
🎟️Super Off-Peak Day Return ticket London Bridge 🔁 Robertsbridge (direct) with a Network Railcard is £17 (instead of £25.60).

• ➡️Outbound: London Bridge 08:54 → 09:56 Stonegate
• ⬅️Inbound: Robertsbridge Any Off Peak Train → London

💡If you’d like to join other hikers using a Network Railcard, please arrive earlier so we can organise small groups. Note that each card can cover up to 4 people.
🚦Visit National Rail for details
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📕ABOUT:
We’re heading deep into the High Weald to follow the trail of one of England’s most extraordinary eccentrics : John “Mad Jack” Fuller (1757–1834). A 22-stone Sussex squire, MP, philanthropist and chronic drinker, Fuller bankrolled J.M.W. Turner’s paintings, kept Michael Faraday in a job, helped save the Royal Institution from bankruptcy and saved Bodiam Castle from demolition. He also left six bewildering stone follies scattered across the fields around Brightling, which we’ll be tracking down one by one.
He’s a complicated figure. The fortune that funded these follies came from sugar plantations in Jamaica worked by enslaved people, and Fuller used his seat in Parliament to oppose abolition.
The landscape we’ll walk through holds both his philanthropy and that legacy, worth remembering as we go.
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⭐️HIGHLIGHTS:

• The Pyramid — Fuller’s 25-foot mausoleum in Brightling churchyard. Local legend says he was buried sitting upright at a table with a bottle of claret, top hat on, broken glass scattered across the floor to stop the Devil’s footsteps. (Restorers later confirmed this was, sadly, nonsense.)
• The Tower — a fairytale turret rising out of an empty field, with no agreed reason for existing
• The Temple — a rotunda where Fuller is said to have hosted raucous parties of dubious propriety
• The Sugar Loaf — a 10-metre stone spire allegedly thrown up overnight to win a drunken wager that Fuller could see Dallington church spire from his dining room
• The Brightling Needle — a 65-foot obelisk on the second-highest point in Sussex, possibly commemorating Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, possibly built just to give villagers work
• The Observatory — the one folly with an actual purpose, built for Fuller’s astronomical interests

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💷COST: Free
This hike is completely free to join but participants need to purchase their own transport tickets.
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🎒WHAT TO BRING:

• 2L Water
• Packed lunch and snacks
• Comfortable walking/hiking shoes
• Weather-appropriate clothing (layers, waterproofs, hat, sunscreen)
• Optional: trekking poles, camera

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✅WHO CAN JOIN:
• ‍‍Our hikes are open to adults aged 21 and over.
• For safety reasons, we’re not able to include children.
• We love animals, but pets (including dogs) can’t join our hikes.

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🚨RSVP & ATTENDANCE:
RSVP only if you plan to attend. Please cancel as early as possible if you can no longer make it so others can join. A no-show means you RSVPed but did not attend or cancelled just before or after the start time. Repeated no-shows or late cancellations without a valid reason may lead to removal. Reliable regulars who end up on a waitlist may message the host for priority consideration.

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☯️STAYING TOGETHER:
A dedicated back marker is not always present, so please keep others in sight and avoid moving too far ahead or falling too far behind. Faster walkers should wait at junctions. The hike leader will pause at key points to regroup and reduce the chance of anyone becoming separated from the group.

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⚠️ DISCLAIMER:
By joining, you confirm that you have read and accepted the group policy on the About page. You are responsible for your own safety, and neither the host nor the group can be held liable for injury, loss, or damage.