Nine of the walks on this site involve the Shoreham neighbourhood, in the Darent Valley. This is good, because Shoreham is a decent little place with its four fine pubs, vineyard, Battle of Britain museum, river walk and houses from down the centuries. And it has a station, served by trains from London Blackfriars (sometimes Victoria too) via Peckham Rye and Bromley South, and Sevenoaks. Otford down the road is alright too. My walks use the valley rims, east and west; the valley floor along the river and the ‘dry’ valleys (geographical feature – not a reference to any shortage of pubs!) that flank the main one. The Darent river itself rises south of Westerham, on the shallow slope of the Greensand ridge and its early stretches can be seen on walks 15 and 21. Try not to drive through the village itself. On the east side of the village there’s a car park by the station and a huge layby almost opposite the station. On the west side there’s a free car park at Filston Lane. Best of all though, arrive by train if possible. There’s only one (tiny) shop in the place, so don’t expect to do your shopping there.
It’s a great village to stroll around, explore the ancient church and paths that skirt the northern side, around the back of the vineyard. Full details can be found on each Shoreham walk page. The Darent Valley path itself, which the walks here take in stretches of, is 19 miles long, starts by Sevenoaks station and ends at Dartford, as the river enters the Thames. So that’ll take awhile.
The sublime nine Shoreham walks
- Shoreham circular 3.5 miles (western side of valley)
- Shoreham to Eynsford one way train walk 4 miles (valley floor mostly)
- Otford-Romney St-Shoreham-Otford 5.5 miles (eastern side and beyond)
- Shoreham-Otford circular 5 miles (western side and valley floor)
- Mysterious eastern valleys of Shoreham 5.5 miles (eastern side and beyond)
- Shoreham mk2, the eastern rim 3.5 miles (eastern and valley floor)
- Shoreham-Polhill Bank 4 miles (western side)
- Fackenden Down and Beyond 4 miles – as featured in The Guardian (eastern side)
- Polhill Bank and Pluto 4 miles – starts from Andrews Wood/Shacklands Rd car park
- Each walk has a PDF download option to print out and GPX map to follow
Shoreham station is most convenient for the eastern walks but it’s only a half-mile walk down Station Rd to connect with the western valley ones, too. Each of the walks can be adapted into something much longer by joining them together.