[2] The National Trust visitors' centre provides both a cafeteria and gift shop, and panoramic views of the western Weald may be enjoyed from the North Downs Way, a long-distance footpath that runs along the south-facing scarp slope.

[23] The course of the road runs in a southwesterly direction across Mickleham Downs,[24] before turning south to cross the River Mole at a ford close to the site of the Burford Bridge Hotel.

[25] A hoard of nine Roman coins, including bronze folles dating from the reigns of Diocletian, Maximian and Constantius I, was discovered on Box Hill close to Broadwood's Folly in 1979.

[32]) The Mickleham Parish Records credit Hope's widow, Louisa de la Poer Beresford (whom he had married six years previously), with allowing "free access to the beauties of this hill",[32] however day-trippers had been arriving in significant numbers for more than a century before that.

[43][44] The LBSCR ran dedicated excursion trains to Box Hill on Bank Holiday weekends and over 1300 day-trippers were recorded arriving at Westhumble station on 6 August 1883.

[50] Following World War II, National Trust acquired Headley Heath, a geologically distinct area of heathland which lies to the north-east of Box Hill village, the majority of which was given as a single donation in 1946.

[50] In the latter half of the 19th century, growing public concern over the ability of the British armed forces to repel an invasion (stoked, in part, by the serialisation of George Tomkyns Chesney's 1871 novella The Battle of Dorking[52]), prompted the government to announce the construction of thirteen fortified mobilisation centres, collectively known as the London Defence Positions.

[58][59] (In common with the majority of the eleven other mobilisation centres, the forts were designed for the use of the infantry only and the stored ammunition was intended for the use of mobile field artillery which would be deployed nearby as required.

)[59] The main flat-roofed buildings were built in brick and reinforced concrete and were protected from artillery fire by crescent-shaped earth blast banks, surrounded by an outer ditch.

[51] A reform of defence policy by the Secretary of War Viscount Haldane in 1905 resulted in all 13 centres being declared redundant, and both forts were sold back to the estate trustees in 1908.

At Boxhill Farm, where access to the river from the north bank was required for the herd of dairy cows, a row of twelve concrete cylinders were cast as an anti-tank measure.

Initially an island, this dome-like structure was drained by the ancestors of the rivers which today cut through the North and South Downs (including the Mole, Wey, Arun and Adur).

[78] Since the chalk contains a very high percentage of calcium carbonate, it can be dissolved by ground water and solubilisation of the rock at the base of the hill may have produced the slabwise slumping or subsidence visible at the top of the Burford Spur.

[76][note 8] The northern side of Box Hill (corresponding to the dip slope of the cuesta of the North Downs) is cut by six combes, also created by Ice Age watercourses.

[98] Scrub clearance along the side of the Zig Zag Road to provide space for spectators began in January 2012, after a pre-race survey (commissioned by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) showed that the work was likely to increase biodiversity.

[102] Wild garlic grows alongside bluebells under the tree canopy beside the River Mole at the western edge of the hill, giving the area its distinctive smell in springtime.

From the National Trust Visitor Centre, the route turns eastwards, running along the escarpment and through the urban area of Box Hill village, reaching a maximum elevation of 216 metres (709 ft) above Ordnance Datum.

After 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi), the circuit begins a continuous descent to the valley of the River Mole, passing to the south of Leatherhead, before turning southwards again through Mickleham to return to the start.

[125] The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 and London–Surrey Classic, for amateur and professional cyclists respectively, have taken place annually following the Games and, although the course has undergone several alterations from the 2012 Olympic course, the two races always include a climb of Box Hill.

The structure was refurbished in 2009 to extend its working life by at least 25 years; modifications included the relining of the water bowl, repair of cracks in the walls and roof, as well as the provision of a new access staircase.

In the presence of a crowd of thousands that included visitors from London as well as the local "quality gentry",[140][141] Labilliere was buried without any religious ceremony, having reportedly said that the world was "topsy-turvey" and that it would be righted in the end if he were interred thus.

[160] His son, Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet (1817-1880), was a Chemistry Professor at Oxford University from 1865 to 1872, and is chiefly known for his investigations into the allotropic states of carbon and for his discovery of graphitic acid.

[166] His mother, Lady Warburg, gave the land for Boidier Hurst Camp Site to the District Scout Associations of Leatherhead and Epsom and Ewell in 1946[167] and her family donated the neighbouring, 9-hectare (22-acre) Heath Plantation to the National Trust following her death in 1952.

[177] The North Downs Way long-distance footpath from Farnham to Dover, crosses the River Mole at the Stepping Stones and then runs from west to east at the top of the scarp slope, passing in front of the Salomons Memorial.

[182] A watercolour entitled Box Hill, Surrey dated 1861 by William Leighton Leitch (1804–1883), which depicts the view looking northwards from the top of the Burford Spur before the Zig Zag Road was built, is part of the Royal Collection.

He writes extensively about the area around Box Hill in his travelogue, A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1724–1727), which describes the country shortly before the start of the Industrial Revolution.

[185] He records that in the late 17th century, Sir Adam Browne the then landowner, approved the fitting out of a cave or vault close to what is now the Salomons Memorial, to supply 'refreshment' to visitors to the hill.

A group of young Dissenters from Dorking were so disgusted by the 'debauched' behaviour that the sale of alcohol encouraged (which took place even on Sundays), that they stormed up the hill one Saturday night and blew up the cavern with gunpowder.

[187] Celia Fiennes, a contemporary of Defoe, described Box Hill in her travel memoirs, which were published in 1888 (almost 150 years after her death) under the title Through England on a Side Saddle.

[191] In his comic novel, Box Hill, published in 2020, British author Adam Mars-Jones tells the story of a same-sex relationship between a teenager and an older man, set within the Surrey motorbiking fraternity of the mid-1970s.