Kent

The autumn rush and a Tudor epic
by

The autumn rush and a Tudor epic

Despite recent heavyish bursts of rain the walks here are still relatively mud-free. With friends I wielded together two Kent Weald walks on Saturday, the Chiddingstone and Hever circulars, making a pleasing figure-of-8 route of about 11 miles throughout the heart of Tudor Boleyn country. We stopped at two pubs, the Leicester Arms in Penshurst, a really lovely place I hadn’t been to for ages, and the good ol’ Castle Inn in Chiddingstone. The original plan was to include the excellent Henry VIII too, at Hever, but we needed to make up time for a rendezvous in Penshurst. But we did manage to pop in to St Peters church for a look at the wonderful medieval effigy of Margaret Cheyne. Larkins beer was served at both pubs and we tucked into a superb chilli con carne at the Castle Inn. Autumn colours were exceptional and the paths still very solid, with a few decent puddles dotted around. Rain slashed down towards the end of the walk but there were still plenty of leaves still attached to branches to help keep us dry. There were a few buzzards and red kites around but we didn’t see any redwings which we had hoped had arrived from the near continent by now. And yes, I still can’t believe Penshurst Place hasn’t set up a footpath along its southern edge to meet the Eden Valley Path and so avoid hikers having to walk up/down that terrible road.

Hever church (St Peters)

Things will get muddier fairly quickly once we get to the end of the month so it will be wellies before long, or stout waterproof hiking shoes.

Here is the GPX map of the Hever/Chiddingstone/Penshurst figure of 8 – I’ll give it its own page soon.

GPX maps

I’ve updated all the URLs of the OS GPX maps listed for the walks for easier access (somehow the OS had sort of rerouted them or altered the hyperlinks). They should all work much better now.

A very summery type of autumn
by

A very summery type of autumn

High pressure is dominating the weather and the near-drought continues. There is no mud on any of the walks, which once would have been unheard of for mid-October. For the past week it’s felt as if summer’s lease has no intention of expiring anytime soon. Amid mild temperatures and cerulean skies we enjoy the spectacles of the season as the greens of September become more mottled and varied as they meld into the yellows, oranges and reds of November. Rosehips, elderberry and sloes decorate the hedgerows and fungi mystically appear in woodland and grassy fringes. I’m not one for foraging; I much prefer to look and leave well alone (apart from blackberries).

Birdlife still seems somnambulant: I’ve been hoping for migrations but in this still weather nothing much seems to stir. A week ago, in the wake of Storm Amy, hundreds of house martins passed overhead heading east with the wind, as a full moon rose in a purple sky. But this was in Lower Sydenham not on the Kent walks. My only notable sightings have been a kingfisher on River Eden on the Chiddingstone walk; red kites over Lullingstone and Downe; grey plover and lapwings on the ever-expanding shoreline at Bough Beech reservoir (I’ve never seen the water so low); and buzzards at Polhill.

My walk at Fackenden Down today (pictured) was serene, colourful and wonderfully warm. But this isn’t autumn, surely. Lovely though it was, I would quite like to feel a fresher breeze, walk with the threat of a squall, squish through a puddle and ponder whether to wear wellies or trainers. That time will come I guess, I’ll enjoy summer’s lease while it lasts.

September walks
by

September walks

September and October are two of my favourite months for a stroll. Somehow the light seems sharper, the cloudscapes change more quickly, birds and other creatures are on the move and colourful, mysterious fungi appears. There may be mud to contend with of course so a comfortable pair of wellies may come into their own before too long. I wouldn’t rule out a return of summer yet though, just because it’s raining ferociously as I write. All of the walks sparkle at this time of year but I particularly enjoy the woody One Tree Hill routes, Oldbury and Petts Wood in September. Just an atmosphere thing really.

Talking of cloudscapes, my walk at Downe on Saturday was set to a backdrop of dramatic shower clouds. I was happy to see the worst of them pass to the north, only to discover with some alarm that it had grown a nasty looking limb that was heading my way. My alarm doubled on seeing three forks of lightning flicker to earth. Amid hailstones the size of… er… dried lentils, my swift walk turned into an undignified dash across the final field back to the car in fear of a big flash.

  • 1 Looks far away…
  • 2 Something coming…
  • 3 Oh my gawd…
Quiet North Downs, busy South Downs; all good
by

Quiet North Downs, busy South Downs; all good

A walk around Birling Gap in East Sussex amid the famous Seven Sisters chalk cliffs was just the tonic for a dreamy August last afternoon. It’s a brilliant trip that we do fairly regularly. We started on the beach at Eastbourne with a picnic while enjoying the August airshow, before hitting Beachy Head and the Gap. After a pint at the superb Tiger Inn in ancient East Dean, we topped off the adventure with a 45-minute sunset stroll along the lower Cuckmere river from the Seven Sisters visitor centre to the sea. It was blissful but busy with tourists and folk down from London … which is just fine with me; it’s great to see everyone out enjoying the beautiful countryside, and the joy people were feeling in the sea air was kind of infectious. It felt a bit like going to the cinema – the pleasure of a shared experience of wonderful scenes is a great thing. Sussex by the Sea is a special place.

  • Comma butterfly, Chevening
  • View from scarp above Chevening
  • Looking up at the Seven Sisters
  • Birling Gap
  • Visitors at Birling Gap
  • River Cuckmere, sunset
  • Gleaming chalk cliffs, Birling Gap
  • Queue for the bus, Birling Gap
  • The chalk cliffs were fascinating close up
  • Near Chevening House
  • View of the Vale of Holmesdale near Chevening
  • North Downs view
    View from the top of the scarp, near Knockholt
  • An egret at dusk in the Cuckmere river
    An egret at dusk in the Cuckmere river

The following day it was back to the North Downs for the Knockholt / Chevening route; the first time this year I reckon. As mentioned in my previous post I was tipped off by a helpful KWNL’er that there was a useful diversion at the Point 5 which means you don’t have to walk on Sundridge Road anymore. And so there was. It was great. Very sleepy, dry, Augusty, quiet. And so few people! I missed the crowds at Birling Gap. Well, I didn’t reeeeeally; I love solitude too. Without the waves, gleaming chalk, and sea breeze, the western North Downs don’t have quite the easy allure of their southern counterparts; but for quiet, great views, glimpses of the medieval past and atmosphere they are wonderful. But so few south-east Londoners seem to quite know what’s on the doorstep – which is the point of this website I suppose.

How to use Kent Walks Near London
by

How to use Kent Walks Near London

It’s a great time of year for walking, as the visitor figures at Kent Walks Near London are showing. Wildflowers, birdsong, the sound of the breeze in the foliage, dry conditions and warmth are all balm for the soul – and how needed in these perplexing times.

It’s been great to bump into walkers using the website lately; generally all have been on the correct route and enjoying themselves! Only one couple were off piste, and this was because they had been following Bromley council’s signs for the Cudham circular rather than read the pdf they were holding of the Cudham Chalk Paths walk.

Ide Hill, Kent
Looking south-west across the Weald from Ide Hill

A smartphone can help

It’s been mentioned to me lately that it is still quite easy to take the wrong path at times. I really recommend using the GPX on the smartphone with takes you to my routes at Ordnance Survey or AllTrails. Here’s my Fackenden Down route at Ordnance Survey maps (actually done in reverse, but it doesn’t matter as the dot will show you where you are against the route whichever way round you’re doing the walk). If it all sounds a bit technical and you don’t want to be marching around peering at your phone, don’t worry – just take your time and read the instructions ahead so you’re not stopping every time there’s a side path and wondering if you should go down it. And if it does go wrong, enjoy that too… the countryside will still be lovely and all will come right in the end. It’s Kent, not the Amazon.

flax
Flax (linum) in a field in May, on the Fackenden Down route (walk 19), May 2025

A lot of KWNL users print off the PDF and go from there, but be warned: the PDFs are space-limited so I have to abbreviate at times. I think it’s best to use a combination of GPX map, the website on your phone and the pdf or just use a paper OS map just to check out the route in advance. Perhaps one day I’ll invent a special talking SatNav for KWNL so I can say ‘turn right, climb over the stile’ in real time. Actually, no; who wants that?

Contact me with route complications/updates

I really would appreciate people telling me when I need to update information, however. I can’t cover all the walks all the time so when things change – as they did on the Downe and Cudham walks in the past couple of years – it’d be great to get a heads up! Also, please send in bird/wildlife or plant observations… all welcome.

My best email is ammcculloch49@gmail.com for comms. I don’t bother with Facebook or Instagram much anymore (maybe I should try harder with the latter) – there’s just too much of all that and I consider social media to be run by awful people determined to do bad things generally. I deleted Twitter and I’m now on Bluesky if that’s any good to anyone (amackentwalks.bsky.social) but please excuse any tangential rantings you come across – I have other interests apart from walking (saxophone, Tottenham Hotspur etc) so it all ends up in one place.

Bluebells 2025 – the winner!
by

Bluebells 2025 – the winner!

The season is now over. It was as beautiful as ever at its peak, but this year the dry weather and maybe the cold wind, were not conducive to the bloom’s longevity. Last weekend at Ide Hill and Emmetts Garden the bluebells were gorgeous but already well on the wane. In fact at Ide Hill, brambles have taken over some of the areas where once bluebells thrived. Some of my favourites this year were at the top of Wilmot’s Hill near Ightham Mote; but what has struck me in recent weeks is how pretty bluebells are when mingled with other flowers – notably cuckoo flowers, red campion and stitchwort – at the foot of hedgerows. The Bough Beech walk has some of my favourite examples, Underriver too. Oh yes, and below Polhill Bank on the path to Sepham Farm, where you are likely to be serenaded by yellowhammers (that’s a bird by the way, not a construction tool).

  • New Year’s Wood, Cudham
  • New Year’s Wood, Cudham
  • Emmett Gardens
  • Wild garlic and bluebells, Emmett
  • Emmett Gardens
  • Scord Wood, near Ide Hill
  • Ide Hill 2025
  • Wilmott Hill bluebells
  • Cuckoo flowers and bluebells near Bore Place, Bough Beech
  • Wood anemones and early bluebells, Andrew’s Wood, near Shoreham
  • Lullingstone

So, to the winner and runners-up of the annual Kent Walks Near London bluebell competition:

  1. New Year’s Wood, Cudham chalk paths walk
  2. Hedgerow bluebells, Bough Beech walk
  3. Top of Wilmot’s Hill, One Tree Hill figure of eight walk

Last year’s winner, the Blueberry Lane meadow, at Knockholt was obviously utterly stunning but the rules state that the same location can’t win the following year. I actually visited New Year’s Wood very early in the bluebell season, before they’d quite found their colour, but the seas of young flowers in the late afternoon sunlight were truly beguiling in that quiet, mysterious wood.

Please contact me with any omissions in my not particularly extensive bluebell research. The season only lasts a couple of weeks so it’s not always possible to get around all the walks to view them – I didn’t go to High Elms, Oldbury, Petts Wood, Meenfield Wood (recently scarred by timber work) or Lullingstone over the past month so no idea how good they were.

Greening time and an early grass snake
by

Greening time and an early grass snake

To the accompanying sounds of chiffchaffs, blackcaps, wrens, tits, dunnocks and robins, I trekked the Polhill/Pluto route from Andrews Wood car park on Shackland Road. Suddenly there’s a sheen of green in the tree canopies; in fact there are canopies – not just stark branches – the colour scheme has seamlessly moved on from the gentle grey/browns of winter. Below the greening trees wood anemones and early bluebells are mixing with celandine, early cowslips, primroses and the odd cuckoo flower to add pixels of vibrant hues. I was delighted to spot a long, thin and beautifully patterned grass snake after hearing leaves rustling under a bush, but I couldn’t bring the camera to bear in time: damn autofocus! Slow worms were plentiful though, but you have to know where to look and avoid disturbing them. Buzzards took delight in the clear sky and subtle breezes. A fantastic walk.

  • View across the mouth of the Darent Valley from Polhill in early April
    View across the mouth of the Darent Valley from Polhill in early April
  • The greening of Meenfield Wood
  • Wood anemones and bluebells, Andrew’s Wood
  • Just blue sky and fresh foliage, Meenfield Wood
  • Gorse and early foliage across the valley from Meenfield Wood to Andrew’s Wood
Circular walk sign confusion alert
by

Circular walk sign confusion alert

It’s great to bump into walkers using my instructions; I can usually spot the pdfs a mile off! But it’s not so great when those walkers are lost … while cycling on Sunday I bumped into two intrepid hikers on Sunday in Downe. Unfortunately, they were trying to follow the Cudham Chalk Paths walk but had gone rather off piste. They had thought that the green and yellow signs for the much longer Cudham Circular walk, as advertised by Bromley Council and Long Distance Walks Association, were route markers for the more modest walk at KWNL. I was able to explain the error and direct them (hopefully) back towards Cudham but the thought that people were using existing signs to follow my walks was terrifying. Please don’t do that! There are no KWNL walks that have specific signposts; the routes are only here on this website.

Winter weekends and the wonder of staying in
by

Winter weekends and the wonder of staying in

I have a country walking addiction. It’s so integral to my life rhythm that it’s hardly thinkable that a weekend will pass without being able to get out to the Kent countryside for a few hours to enjoy the fresh air and exercise. So it’s quite something that for the second weekend in a row I’m going to fail in my mission!

There is a saying ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing’. Well I agree with the latter bit; I’ve got plenty of bad clothing. But I think we can all rightfully take umbrage with the glib opening statement. There is definitely such a thing as bad weather and it seems to arrive in the early hours of every Saturday morning and finish sometime after dark on Sunday!

The result has been that I’ve busied myself with other tasks, and entertained myself in other ways. I’ve survived. I’ve even enjoyed myself. I went to the cinema to see Conclave (excellent). I booked theatre tickets to see Dr Strangeglove (also excellent, and a much-needed good laugh). I practised the saxophone a lot. I read books. I got a filthy cold. The intensity of these weekly storms and the rainfall totals suggests the climate crisis models were entirely correct. But let’s not get too depressed: the wind farms must be pouring out the megawatts.

One of my favourite winter pictures on a west Kent walk: deer at Knole, February 2021. Header pic from a few days later also at Knole. Snow, eh? It doesn’t happen often enough for me

Photo memories of perfect walks

You’ll have noticed (or not), I’ve finally got round to replacing the autumn photographs on the Kent Walks header image to winter images. Each of those photos bring back memories of particularly beautiful walks with unusual light and atmospheric conditions, all taken since 2020 I reckon. The snowy scenes were in January and February 2021 and December 2022. Each of those walks, at Fackenden, Knole, and Lullingstone, with sons and a friend was pure magic. Snow does that to a scene. Taking photos was easy, apart from the risk of frostbite. But I’ve hardly used the camera in the past couple of months; all the best light has been mid-week when I’ve been busy at work. So I’ve given the shutter-clicking a bit of a rest. The newsletter has also had a rest, but I will get it going again in January when hopefully I will have something new to say about this landscape on our doorstep that I love so much.

Weald of wonder near Westerham
by

Weald of wonder near Westerham

An El Classico of an autumn day. And about time too. We decided that the Hosey walk on the Greensand ridge route at Westerham was the one for us, given the foliage, and views of the Weald from Mariner’s Hill. This time last year the Heaverham circular walk at Kemsing provided something very similar but the warmth of that late October 2023 day seemed freakish at the time. Today was more normal, just a lovely day – neither warm nor cool. The leaf colours, especially in the little valley of the infant River Darent, were superb as hopefully the photos below show, and the vista across the roof of Churchill’s Chartwell gaff as magnificent as ever. I was expecting to see redwings recently arrived from the Netherlands and generally more birds flocking together. But nothing much happened on that front, although mistle thrush were heard and a large buzzard lifted off close to us in one meadow. A pint at the Westerham Brewery place on the way back was an outstanding finale. However, the effect wore off as my football team lost.