August 5, 2016 by ammcculloch49

A fantastic blog on the North Downs

Steve Gale’s North Downs and Beyond blog is a great place to learn more about the wild flowers, bird life and other fauna of the downs. He’s got a relaxed writing style and a depth of knowledge that can only come from getting out there and observing, measuring, chronicling. Give it a read.

2 thoughts on “A fantastic blog on the North Downs”

Hanna | August 6, 2016 at 3:07 pm

Very tempting suggestions for hikes. Wonderful pictures!! Too bad the North Sea is between me and your great suggestions for walks.
A circular hike is a good idea. Or by public transport, and go back to the starting point.
Best regards ,
Hanna

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- ammcculloch49 | August 8, 2016 at 9:23 am
  
  Thanks Hanna, hope you can make it over to try the walks!
  adam
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person

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Short Kent walks near London

Short Kent walks near London

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Altostratus, Downe, March

View from Fackenden Down, March 2023

Bough Beech nature reserve

Lullingstone, December

Downe walk under altostratus cloud

Cudham church

Ide Hill sunset, February

Sunbeam at Mariners Hill over the low weald of Kent.

Sunshine on beech trees, Downe, January

Lullingstone winter

Beech trees catch the late afternoon sun, Downe

Lullingstone, 17 December, 2022

Lullingstone winter

Rosehip and Elderberry, Frackenden Down

View over the Weald from Rooks Lane, Underriver.

View on Underriver walk, November

Knole stag, October

Mist obscures Sevenoaks, pictured from Polhill

Meadow brown butterfly on scabious flower on side of Fackenden Down

The 140-steps up White Hill to start the walk (I did it in reverse) under a green canopy

View across dry valley at Austin Spring

Southernmost end of Magpie Bottom

View from Romney Street, August, Fackenden Down walk

The Samuel Palmer pub

View across Fackenden Down into the Darent Valley

Church, Stone Street, on Oldbury walk, July

Cudham walk

Cudham walk, July, between point 2 and 3, the field short cut

Cudham walk

Cudham: looking back at Point 7, high summer

Pyramidal orchid in the Andrews Wood-Meenfield Wood gap, June

View over Summer Isles from Ben Mor Coigach, near Ullapool, May.

Bluebells in Emmetts Garden/Scord's Wood, April 2022

Bluebells in Emmetts Garden/Scord's Wood, 2022

Azalea at Emmett's Garden

Wild garlic, Scord's Wood

Scord's wood, sun-dappled in spring sunshine

View from Ide Hill community store and car park

Faded bluebells Emmett's Garden

Meenfield Wood, April 2022

Flooded woods, Bough Beech, March

Looking back as you join Cacket's Lane

Lamb at point 5

Petts Wood walk, March

Downe walk, February

A cloud layer produces a false sunset at Ide Hill, January

Gorse, Keston Common

Polhill view October

Ash dieback at Polhill

Keston Pond in autumn

Sycamore tree, Meenfield Woods, Shoreham

Wheat above Heaverham

Pasture on the North Downs escarpment near Otford and Shorehill Rd

The escarpment of the North Downs at Heaverham

Wheat and storm clouds near Heaverham

St Clere estate house

Wheat and storm on the North Downs Way near Heaverham/Kemsing

Peacock butterfly on marjoram

Aubretia at Ightham Mote

View from Point 5 (Shoreham Mk2, and Fackenden Down walk)

Knole

Downe near point 3, autumn

Downe, autumn, Darwin's field

Kettleshill Farm oasts

Underriver

Bough Beech

Rain shaft on the Weald

Dancing beeches

Bough Beech

Bough Beech a bit later

Letts Green

St Katharine's Church, Knockholt

Pilgrims Way

St Julians club, point 2-3

The view from the car park at Cudham

Beech trees on the sunken path

Cliffe

Cirro cumulus and I think cirrus uncinus, 2020, August

Cirrocumulus, August, 2020

Fair weather at dusk, Cudham

Mackerel sky (cirrocumulus) above dense cumulus forming a thunderstorm over London, August 2020

View from the top

Rainy July day. Point 5-6, looking back, on top of the scarp

A hot July day in the Darent Valley

Comma, Sepham Farm

Mitchell and Peach lavender, point 3-4

Point 3-4

Knole woods point 1

After leaving Romney St

Near Pilcher memorial, Austin Lodge

Foxglove, Newtye Hurst wood, Hever walk

Ightham Mote

Scabious

Alfalfa with small bee

Ransomes, One Tree Hill walk

Near Bough Beech

Tudor houses, Chiddingstone

Ide Hill church rhodedendrons

Lullingstone castle

Hawthorn tree, Downe

Willmott Hill bluebells

Downe

Willmott Hill view

Gorse

Eynsford Castle

Ashdown Forest sunset with distant anvil cloud

Classic cumulonimbus to the north, seen from Wat Stock Farm near Chiddingstone, May 2018. Storm was 90 miles away.

Knole pond in winter

St Mary's Church, Downe

Fragrant orchid, Magpie Bottom

Cirrus at Fackenden Down, June, 2019

Cumulonimbus seen from Downe, probably over Edenbridge, June 8, 2019.

View over Magpie Bottom from Austin Spring, June 2019

Point 4-5, the Cudham valley

Rhododendrons, Hever, Kent. Blue sky and vapour trail

Cirrus, Fackenden Down, 2019, June

Downe storm to south

Downe

Down House, April, 2019

Bluebells

Downe bluebells 2019

Stratus breaking up, Dungeness

Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm at sunset.

Brexit Phone Box by The Pilot pub in Dungeness. An art installation

Dusk on an amazingly mild February day at Fackenden Down above Otford Mount

Trees near Dunstall Farm, dusk

Dunstall farm house

Cliffe

Point 6-7, Lullingstone, December 27

Sunset. Twilight. Dusk. Gloaming Lullingstone, December 27

Line of trees. Lullingstone, winter.

Lullingstone, December 27

Lullingstone, winter 2018. Darent Valley view

Lullingstone sunset

Meenfield wood

Darent Valley from Shacklands Rd footpath to Meenfield wood

Fackenden Down autumn

Near Rooks Hill

Fackenden Down, Shoreham

Darent Valley above Shoreham

Near Mill Lane, Shoreham, Kent.

Hut. Rye Harbour

Vineyards, Epesses. The south-facing slopes along Lake Geneva between Lausanne and Vevey-Montreux are lined with ancient vineyards set on terraces that date from Roman times. They produce mostly white wine from the chasselas grape. Pictured is a vineyard at Epesses near the larger village of Cully.

Les Rochers de Naye. The foreground view is dominate by the limestone pinnacles of the 6000ft Dent de Corjon

Teddybear cholla cactus (cylindropuntia bigelovii) in Joshua Tree national park's cactus garden. The spines get embedded in your skin despite you not realising you'd touched them. I was picking them out for days afterwards.

Joshua trees are extraordinary. Members of the yucca family they are pollinated by various sub species of yucca moth in different parts of the desert. Like the pinyon pines they are threatened by climate change.

The road to the cactus garden commands views of the Colorado desert including the eco-disaster that is the Salton Sea and settlements with picturesque names like Slab City and Bombay Beach

A variety of flora in Joshua Tree national park. One of the trees here (left, back) is a pinyon pine, once a great food source for Native Americans and still a vital part of the area's ecology. Sadly, global warming and pine bark beetles have seen the pinyon trees die off in many areas of the park

Vast thunderstorm over Bucks, seen from Chiddingstone, with cumulus congestus and cumulonimbus,Kent, May 2018

Conifers point 8-9

Chartwell from the Mariners Hill loop

Hosey Common

Hosey Common green (and car park) point 8

Looking back at conifer trail after point 8

Wilmot Hill near Stone Street

View from Wilmot Hill

Near Bitchet's Green, Stone Street

Knole

Cliffe

Classic autumnal Kent view from Emmett's Garden looking across Bough Beach to Chiddingstone and the Weald

Late flowering rose at Emmetts Garden

Walk 12 near point 3

Shoreham v Sidcup Sep 2, 2017

RSPB view

The nuke power station from the RSPB reserve, late summer 2017

RSPB view

The beach

Camber Sands and golf course

Looking west, Camber Sands

Sea buckthorn, Camber

B17 Flying Fortress prepares to land at Biggin Hill, near Downe

Penshurst

Hever church (St Peters)

Tulips, Emmetts Garden. 2017, Ide Hill

Bluebells, Emmetts/Scords wood, 2017

Weald view from Octavia Hill seat, Ide Hill

Emmetts black, red, white tulips 2017

View from Ide Hill country store

The Castle Inn, a beautiful pub in a Tudor building next to Chiddingstone Castle

Woods waking up in early spring, Hever

Near Austin Spring, winter

Larches point 2

Tree tunnel after Austin Lodge Point 4-5

Looking west to London

Romney St view

Point 3 in winter

Eynsford Lullingstone flinty field, winter

Eynsford, Lullingstone, Kent. Flinty field.

Eynsford walk. Viaduct

Ide Hill, view from Scord Wood in winter

Near Scord Wood, looking south east, early winter

Shetland pony, Downe

Darent valley autumn

Red Arrows seen from near Downe

Red Arrows

River Eden and water meadows from near Penshurst

Ancient 'holloway' through sandstone on the Eden Valley Path at Hill Hoath

Azaleas at Emmetts

Ice fall from cloud over Penshurst April 30, Hever walk

Thunderstorm near Hever

Storm developing west of Hever

National Trust gem Ightham Mote

Dead pine, Eeyore's Gloomy Place, Ashdown Forest

Ashdown Forest walking in Eeyore's Gloomy Place

Gorse, Ashdown Forest

Heather at Gills Lap, Ashdown Forest

Sleet shower just south of Ide Hill

Deer on bumpy ground at Knole

River Darent at Lullingstone

Darent river at Lullingstone

Water feature … Darent at Shoreham

Darent and gardens, Shoreham

Fog at Ide Hill

Ide Hill National Trust woods, in November 2015

Wilmots Hill near Ightham Mote

Shackland Rd, Shoreham

Mistimed walk... an autumn moon rises over the Darent Valley

On path heading down toward Ightam Mote

16th-century Pickmoss cottages, Otford

Old shop sign in Otford

Gill's Lap, Ashdown Forest

Red Arrows, 13/6/15 near Biggin HIll

The steps up/down the ancient woods above Shoreham station Point 1-2

Bluebells on the Ide Hill walk in Scord Wood

Bluebells on the Ide Hill walk, near Emmetts Gardens, Kent

Wood anenomes, early spring, One Tree Hill, Sevenoaks

Pine woods, eastern Knole

Lullingstone and castle, summer

Bare field on the North Downs ridge, Knockholt Pound

Approaching final woods, Downe, February

Red kite, Downe, February

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2 thoughts on “A fantastic blog on the North Downs”