Apart from the 7Km hiking trail at Bukit Timah Hill that I used for regular workout on weekends, I worked out a new hiking trail in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve that will allow me to push beyond my regular 7 klicks. It starts at Bukit Timah MRT Station.
Read this before you go:
Let's Get Going
This 10Km hiking trail for Bukit Timah Nature Reserve includes the small Hindhede Nature Park, the more strenuous Bukit Timah Hill and flat-ground Dairy Farm Nature Park. It will also lead to all three quarries in the nature reserve.
It will be easier to open the map in Google Map app and continue to read this post. All points are marked on the map for easy reference. Locations of the up-going steps are also indicated with a "stair" symbol.
I will use Beauty World MRT Station as the starting point since it is an easy-to-locate landmark for most people.
Start: Get to Beauty World MRT Station on the Downtown Line and exit the station via Exit B. Follow the route above to Bukit Timah Hill. Since you will be starting the walk here, consider this as the starting point.
Point 1. You will come to the car park for Bukit Timah Hill. The Visitor Centre for Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is just behind the car park. There is a trail leading to Hindhere Nature Park at one corner. If you wish to stroll through Hindhede Nature Park, take a left-turn at the carpark entrance and walk towards a little staircase by the trees.
Enter the park and keep turning left until you reach the Look Out Point at Hindhede Quarry. Enjoy the scenery. After the quarry, continue on the path and keep to left-turning paths until you are at the visitor centre. This will complete a loop around the park. 🚩 You can opt to skip Hindhede Nature Park and head to the visitor centre. Point 2: At the Visitor Centre, get ready for the uphill hike. The restrooms are opposite the visitor centre across the tarmac path. When ready, take the tarmac path — this path is known as Hindhere Drive, but I will call it the "main path" for short.
Point 3: Instead of following the main road up the hill, walk about 20 metres and turn right at the first junction to South View Path. Skip the next junction and continue onto Taban Path, it is a short 300 metres loop and will lead you back to South View Path eventually.
Point 4: After a short downhill flight of steps, the trail will start going uphill for the rest of the loop. It is a good stretch to start warming up the legs.
Point 5: At the end of Taban Path, you will be at a junction with South View Path again, turn right or you will be heading back to the visitor centre.
Point 6. At the next junction, ignore Kruing Path that leads to the main path. Continue straight on South View Path. After passing South View Hut, the path will continue onto Cave Path, which will have more uphills than downhills since it should be leading you up Bukit Timah Hill eventually.
Point 7. At the junction with Catchment Path, turn left and continue until you reach the main path. Do ignore the closed Rock Path due to hazards of falling trees.
🚩 To go to MacRitchie Reservoir from Bukit Timah Hill, turn right and walk on Catchment Path till you exit the trees.
Point 8. On the main road, turn right towards the summit.
Point 9. At the junction near Simpang Hut, keep right and you will see a flight of steps leading uphill about 60 metres ahead.
Point 10: Take the flight of steps to the summit. This will be your last long flight of uphill steps for this hike, so do it. The main path will also lead you to the summit, but it is too easy.
Point 11. At the summit, take a short break, catch your breath and do some stretching exercises. This spot is only 163.63 metres above sea level, so it's not something to wow about. The real essence of hiking in Bukit Timah Hill lies in the nature trails off the main path.
Point 12. Leaving the summit, take the main road. Skip Rengas Path on the first junction and continue walking to the next one that leads to Jungle Fall Path.
Point 13. Along Jungle Fall Path, you will come to one of the meanest flight of steps in Bukit Timah Hill — some steps are foot-high. But you will be walking downhill. Follow the trail till the next junction.
Point 14. At the end of Jungle Fall Path, you will be at a junction with Diary Farm Loop, turn right.
Point 15. At this junction, the uphill steps is Rengas Path back to the summit, ignore that path, turn left and continue on Diary Farm Loop all the way to Diary Farm Hut. There are multiple short uphills and downhills along this trail but is rather easy to walk.
Point 16. At Diary Farm Hut, exit Bukit Timah Hill by turning right to Diary Farm Nature Park. The trek will be easier from here onwards.
Point 17. On the tarmac road, turn right towards Wallace Education Centre.
Point 18. Turn left and walk into Wallace Trail. Follow the single-path trail until you are at Wallace Eduction Centre. (The centre is currently under renovation but the restrooms are opened to public.)
Point 19. To continue the hike, turn right and you will pass Point 18 and 17. Follow the tarmac road all the way until the next junction.
Note: Do not walk on any biking trails for your own safety.
Point 20. Walking on tarmac road can get monotonous, so turn left onto the coarsely-paved trail here.
There is a split on this path into two ways, but both ways will join again later. In terms of distance, they are roughly the same, so going either way will not make any difference. As a general rule of thumb, keep to the left from this point onwards to avoid walking in circles.
Point 21. At this junction, follow the sign to Dairy Farm Quarry, which is about 500 metres away. The path will merge with some biking trail near the quarry, so look out for cyclists.
Point 22. At Diary Farm Quarry, stop and take in the scenery. At times, there will be rock climbers on one of the cliff face of the quarry. From here, U-turn back to Point 21 and turn left towards Singapore Quarry. Continue walking on the wide tarmac road till you reach the end of the road — about 1.3Km away.
Point 23. At Singapore Quarry, take a break and enjoy the scenery.
When ready to continue, walk back along the tarmac road.
Point 24. You will see a signpost on your left and a small path to Fuyong estate. Exit the trail, cross a small field and a playground and you will be at The Rail Mall.
This new 10Km trek will end at The Rail Mail since Bukit Timah Rail Corridor is currently undergoing improvement works. Once the work is completed, you will have the option to stop either at The Rail Mall after 10Km or do an additional 2Km to Beauty World Centre.
Alternatively, you can choose to start at The Rail Mall and walk in reverse direction from I did. Then, you can end the hike at Beauty World Centre or MRT station. However, that will mean starting the hike with easy walking and ending with tougher uphill and downhill climbs at Bukit Timah Hill.
If the recommended route does not suit your preference, do modify it so you can have lesser uphill climbs or simply go in opposition directions from the recommendation. Enjoy the trek!
Or try the shorter route: