Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
Three businesses, one strange and beautiful pool, and a free trail that quietly turns an afternoon into a proper day out.
Hidden Treasures of the Silent Pool is a free, self-guided trail run together by Mandira's Kitchen, Albury Organic Vineyard and Silent Pool Distillers. Pick up a trail sheet from any of the three, follow the clues around this corner of the Surrey Hills, and learn the stories and history hidden across the site, including the pool's own legend.
Complete it and hand it in to enter a prize draw for Albury wine, Silent Pool Gin and meals from Mandira's Kitchen. Our bit of it is a 400-year-old converted cowshed serving Indian food, chai and Afternoon Tea seven days a week. Do the trail or do not; the chai is good either way.
What you actually eat here
Lunch, seven days a week
Lunch is Indian street food, the kind Mandira grew up eating. Samosa chaat with tamarind drizzle, papri chaat, biryani, kathi rolls, keema pav, the forbidden chilli cheese toast, all handmade with our own chutneys. Chai ice cream and lychee martini sorbet if you have room.
The weekend thali
At weekends we make a limited number of thalis: a round platter of small dishes that changes every week. They must be pre-booked and are picked up Friday or Saturday.
Freezer meals to take home
The same food, cooked by hand in small batches and frozen the same day. Take a stack home after lunch, or have them delivered anywhere in the UK, free over £100.
A barn above one of England's strangest pools
Silent Pool is a spring-fed former chalk quarry on the Albury Estate, so still and so clear it looks lit from below. Tennyson came here to think. Agatha Christie's car was found just up the hill at Newlands Corner in 1926. Our barn sits on the track just above all of it, where pilgrims once walked the old North Downs way and the smell of ground cardamom now drifts across the hills by mid-morning.
Good questions, briefly answered
What is the Hidden Treasures of Silent Pool trail?
A free, self-guided trail run jointly by Mandira's Kitchen, Albury Organic Vineyard and Silent Pool Distillers, with clues and stories around the Silent Pool area of the Surrey Hills.
How do I take part?
Pick up a trail sheet from any of the three venues, follow the clues, and hand the completed sheet back in to enter the prize draw.
What can you win?
Prizes include Albury wine, Silent Pool Gin and meals from Mandira's Kitchen.
Is it free and is there food?
Yes, the trail is free. Mandira's Kitchen, one of the three venues, serves Indian lunch, chai and Afternoon Tea seven days a week.
Plan your Hidden Treasures day
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Plan your Hidden Treasures day →