Mole Valley parkrun

This parkrunday I went back to Mole Valley parkrun for the second time, just shy of 4 years after my first visit. Last time, I was more or less at the top of my fitness, this time pretty much at the bottom. But it was fun nonetheless: a glorious, beautiful hilly monster.

I have been a Surrey Regionnaire for a while, but since living in Wimbledon I am very close to Surrey, I had visited some events before starting this site. After ticking Mole Valley parkrun off again, I am only missing one event to cover all Surrey events also here and on my YouTube Channel.

I picked this week for Mole Valley for two reasons, one boring and one masochistic. The boring one is obviously challenged-related. A second visit to a long established event won’t give me many new challenge progress items, but this week it was a prime number event at Mole Valley parkrun, so why not? The masochistic one was that this parkrunday was going to be the hottest day of the year so far: I remembered this event as a gorgeous, scenic one, so how great would it look at 30 degrees, right?

What I did not remember was that there is basically no tree cover at all around the course. And you definitely feel that when the sun is shining over you. And this is not an easy one. When I came here the first time 4 years ago, I thought this was the hilliest, most painfully hard parkrun I had ever been to. Now, with many more events under my belt, I have visited many that can definitely compete: Church Mead parkrun, Lullingstone parkrun, Wendover Woods parkrun, Huddinge parkrun just to name a few. Eventually, I will check which one the most painful ones really are!

Mole Valley parkrun is hard, sure. But it is gorgeous, fun and satisfying. Come, be ready for the pain and enjoy the beautiful views and the great facilities after the event! If you want to run in a winery, you have a flatter option just South East of the M25, Squerryes Winery parkrun. Both gorgeous, in different ways, but the views win at Mole Valley parkrun!

Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Mole Valley parkrun!

Trip to Mole Valley parkrun and parking

Mole Valley parkrun takes place on the grounds (and hills) of the beautiful Denbies Wine Estate. A beautiful, large vineyard that has developed over the years into a multi-service activity and leisure destination. The estate is not far from London, just outside the major Surrey town of Dorking.

The official event site gives us some surprising news: such a beautiful, bucolic location is only 15 minutes walk from any of 3 train station: Dorking Train station, Dorking Deepdene station and Box Hill station. Plenty of connections to the Capital and the South Coast are available. Dedicated bike lanes are available to reach the Estate: if you enjoy cycling on hills, this could be a great afternoon addition to your parkrunday!

If you are driving, the Estate is very easy to reach, not far from the M25. At Junction 9, follow the A24 South and the entrance to the estate will not be far. However, the official event site comes with an important caveat: do not use the postcode, but input ‘Denbies Wine Estate’. Apparently, the postcode will bring you somewhere else.

Once you get on location, drive through the gates and continue towards the main building. Large, free car parks are available on both sides of the main, tree-lined access carriage lane. The car parks are just a couple of minutes walk from the main building or Mole Valley parkrun’s meeting point.

Mole Valley parkrun: start and briefings

The final approach to the Estate and its car parks is quite grand, with a beautiful, imposing tree lined road framing the beautiful main buildings. As you cross past it and walk in front of the main building, just walk up and down a little grassy mound, you will soon see Mole Valley parkrun’s meeting place to the side of a large field.

The meeting point, with finish funnel and volunteers area is on the corner of the fields closest to the main building. A shaded little slope is just by the side of it: nice place to sit away from the sun before the event, but, especially, after you go through the hills and need to recover after the event.

The New Joiners Briefing was held in the field, past the finish funnel. It was fairly standard, with special attention for tourists: I am sure this event gets a good amount of them! Afterwards, everyone moves towards the open start line on grass by the little slope and the RD starts giving the main briefing. He used a loudspeaker, but even then I was not able to hear much of what was said.

After the briefing, everyone turns facing the side of the field at the feet of the vineyards and the countdown starts. No need to struggle for position on this wide open start line on grass.

3, 2, 1.

Time to go!

Mole Valley parkrun course review – star ratings

Mole Valley parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 377 parkrunners on the day of my second visit to Mole Valley parkrun. Looking at historical attendance levels, this seems to be in line with long term average, with most parkrundays seeing a field of around 350-400 people, regardless of season. There is the occasional day when more than 400 people show up and the special Christmas event in 2025 broke 500. I am pretty sure even with 500 people on the course, everyone had a nice time! The start line is quite open and you might only feel a big of congestion on the corners of the initial field loop, but you can take them wide or narrow and get past it. It is also a one lap course, so the field will spread out well, especially when the ascent starts.

There are no bottlenecks around the course, but there are a few tight turns. These are mostly the 4 corners of the initial field loop and the first left turn to start going up the hill. Except the latter, most are wide enough to let a large field get through unimpeded. The only other notable point is at the end of the uphill section, when you start going down the second main descent. A tight left turn gets you onto the steepest descent. It is a bit gravelly here, so pay attention not to slip, especially if you are wearing road shoes.

Surface-wise, the whole course is on hard, occasionally gravelly, paths. Paths were very hard on the day of my visit, which meant I was often looking for grassy verges to have a more pleasant running experience. I was wearing road shoes and, while it is definitely doable, I would probably recommend trail shoes in all seasons here. They will definitely come handy when muddy, but I think they would also provide a better grip when it is as hard and dry as it was when I visited last.

Elevation-wise, at 92m elevation gain over a single lap, hills are one of the definitions features of this course. It is, mostly, uphill during the first half and downhill during the second half. There are 2 main uphill straights. The first one comes immediately after the initial loop and it is long, but not too steep. The second one comes after a straight segment across the vineyards and it is shorter but steeper. They are both quite painful if you are not used to running hills, so this is definitely not a a PB course. In terms of downhills, the first one is fairly gentle and fun, the second one starts steep and slippery before becoming more gentle and pleasant.

This is a scenic event. Except the initial 500m or so, it is all run up and across beautiful vineyards with views across the valley on the Surrey Hills. Take some time for the views, they are worth it!

Course design is quite simple. You start the single lap with full perimeter of a field, then turn right and climb a hill, cross the vineyards and climb another hill, then turn back and slowly descend back to the field.

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

At the start, you head towards the hill on open grass. It’s probably no more than 20/30 metres before you have to turn 90 degrees right and run the segment of the field perimeter running along the foot of the hill. Then you go around the other 3 sides of the field,, pass by the start again and run that segment a second time. The second time, however, you turn left at the end of it. I hope you have been saying your prayers while running around the field, because after that turn, you will start questioning your life choices. It’s going to be a deeply metaphysical experience.

The first uphill is fairly straight. Longer than steeper, running on a path with vineyards on its left and trees on its right. As you slog your way up, the views become more interesting on your left, with the beauty of the hills slowly surrounding you. There is a short bit where gradient levels off roughly mid way, but besides that it’s pretty much consistent uphill. Eventually you reach the top, where you turn 90 degrees left suddenly, by a bench in what is probably a panoramic spot. The bench was being dedicated to a well loved parkrunner who had passed away about a year ago when I visited, with people leaving flowers on it.

As you turn left, take a few seconds to breath and watch around. The views are gorgeous. The path in front of you is flat for a short while, then it starts offering a slight, welcome downhill. You are now cutting across the vineyards, with rows and rows of grapes on both sides. Tiny and lined up, offering views across with their tiny May sizes. The downhill transitions to a flat before giving way to another short uphill. At the end of this long vineyard crossing, there is another 90 degrees right turn. And after that turn, hell is waiting for you.

This is the next big uphill. This is steeper. This is not much shorter, if at all. You keep climbing with a similar background to towards the opposite side of the hill. It is gruesome. It is painful. It will be seen as rewarding when you will be having parkbreakfast, but not while you are in it. No, not while climbing that. At the end, you reach the boundaries of a little forest and turn hard left. The first descent. And to make it fun, this is steep, gravelly and potentially slippery. It is short and there is a left turn fairly soon which makes it even more slippery. You want to let gravity give u some life back, but you have to hold back not to fall and roll all the way back to the car park. Missing the funnel and today’s credit. Can’t have that.

After that turn, the downhill gradient decreases and you find yourself on the last long straight, heading all the way back towards the original first ascent segment. This segment is on a net downhill gradient, alternating flat segments with slightly undulating ones and it will eventually get you close to the Estate building. Here you will cross a paved path and get back onto the same straight segment all the way to the original uphill bit. Turn right then and go downhill for another 100/150 metres before reaching the first field again.

This time, just turn right and sprint. Only one segment left and you are in the finish funnel. Alive. And somehow having collected some positive memories that will paint the climbing ordeal in pastel colours.

Congratulations on completing Mole Valley parkrun!

Facilities at Mole Valley parkrun

The Denbies Wine Estate is set up quite well to receive a large number of visitors. While the main attraction are the vineyards on the hills and the beautiful views many different paths offer, the main building is big, spacious and inviting. On the day of my visit there was also a football tournament going on and I saw several groups of bikers taking a break here too.

According to the main official event site, toilets are available, but only open after 9am. Since the estate also operates as a hotel, I suppose there is a small chance they might be flexible or you might be able to sneak in, but I did not check how easy that would be. After the event, toilets are in the building past the gift shop.

The ‘cafe’ can be accessed either from a window opening up onto a covered outside sitting area or as a self service bar accessed through the gift shop. There is a good selection of both sweet and savoury food.

At Mole Valley parkrun I had a lemon and white chocolate muffin, a lemon soda and a single espresso. This cost me roughly £8.3, not terrible considering location and quality.

Mole Valley parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂

The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

I called Mole Valley parkrun The Beautiful Beast of Surrey in my YouTube video and I stand by it. There is no doubt it is beautiful, but it is as painful as it is beautiful: those hills are merciless! On the other side, the views and the overall atmosphere at the Denbies Wine Estate make up for it. In part at least.

This event comes highly recommended. I visited twice and I am sure I will be back again, eventually. It is a great experience, don’t let the hills scare you.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Mole Valley parkrun team for your hospitality, once again!