May 7, 2016 by ammcculloch49

Two new walks on the Kent Weald, via Hever, Chiddingstone and Penshurst

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I’ve added two new circular walks, a bit further than the others from south-east London, at Hever (walk 9) and a few miles to the east, Chiddingstone/Penshurst (walk 10). They are both possible on public transport from south London: trains from East Croydon run to Hever and Penshurst, but unfortunately neither station is en route; being 1.5 miles from the start in the case of Hever and two miles from the walk for Chiddingstone/Penshurst. Both are lovely and quiet; Hever has more woods and sandstone outcrop, whereas Chidd/Pens is more meadowy and crosses the river Eden twice. Each has a small section on roads where you have to be careful. The bit on the road at Penshurst on the Chiddingstone walk is particularly bad so don’t do it with younger kids. Both walks use the Eden Valley Path for the first half. Hever, Chiddingstone and Penshurst are all Tudor villages with great houses linked with Henry VIII, the Boleyns and others so these walks, or parts of, are particularly good for youngsters studying that period at school. Both have great pubs: the Henry VIII at Hever and the Castle Inn at Chiddingstone.

Here’s a reminder of the historical connections of the walks on this site and a map of their locations.

• Penshurst Place (nr Tonbridge) Tudor home (many scenes from Wolf Hall were shot here) with great adventure playground and superb gardens. On Chiddingstone circular
• High Elms nature reserve (nr Bromley): excellent nature centre with orchards, ponds, cafe, wildlife information plus gardens (free). Close to Downe circular
• Hever Castle (nr Edenbridge), quite expensive but a great day out. Anne Boleyn’s childhood home. Often a bit crowded. Hever circular starts here
• Emmett’s Gardens: (nr Ide Hill/Brasted) great gardens for azaleas, tulips, bluebells with south facing escarpment, lovely view. Lubbock family connection. On the Ide Hill circular
• Knole: (Sevenoaks) super Tudor pile, but public not allowed in gardens (boo). Knole Park brilliant for walking though and close to One Tree Hill walks on this site
• Lullingstone Country Park (Eynsford): on the Shoreham to Eynsford walk; a great area for strolling. Tudor gatehouse to much altered castle
• Down House (Downe/Bromley): Charles Darwin’s house always fascinates with interesting gardens. On the Downe circular walk

And here are those walks again. They work for me at all times but in the spring I’ve always favoured the Otford circular via Romney St and the Ide Hill walks for some reason.

April 16, 2016 by ammcculloch49

Best bluebells near Shoreham, Orpington, Downe

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Walkers on the Shoreham Circular route will see very few bluebells unless they make a slight detour, extending the walk slightly by continuing up the hill at point 7 (instead of taking the path on the right) then turning right at the top and walking to point 9 along the lovely straight bridlepath through Meenfield Wood. Here, on either side of the track, the bluebells right now are magical, the spacing of the trees and lack of leaves allowing exactly the right light conditions for them I suppose. The photos above don’t do them justice whatsoever. The blue line on the map below shows the detour. There are also great bluebells near Shoreham on the Otford Circular walk between points 5 and 6, and the copses between points 8 and 9. For the Downe Circular, to add bluebells, turn left at Point 3 instead of right and walk for a couple of minutes into the woods at Downe Bank (also pictured above), then just retrace your steps. You won’t have to deviate from the route to find endless blue vistas on the Ide Hill Circular, however: there are wonderful displays on Ide Hill itself and in Scord woods and Emmetts Gardens, all en route.

April 10, 2016 by ammcculloch49

Bluebells north-west Kent 2016

(Read 2020 bluebells post here.) A lot of wild flowers are a bit confused at the moment. A warm winter without any prolonged cold snaps led to a bit of a false start in February. But since then the weather has struggled for sunshine and real warmth so blooms such as magnolia haven’t hit their stride. I’ve seen individual bluebells flowering since early February but now we are on the cusp of the great transformation of the woods. At Downe Bank last week things seemed particularly advanced though the bluebells won’t be at their best I reckon until the final weekend of April. Here’s a reminder of the best walks for bluebells on this site.

1 Ide Hill-Toy’s Hill circular walk via Emmett’s Gardens.

Here, bluebells are everywhere. Especially brilliant in Ide Hill NT woods and on the south-facing slope of Emmetts Gardens in Scord Woods.

2 Shoreham circular

You can easily extend the walk into the woods above Shoreham (Meenfield wood and Pilot wood) to the west, as far as Andrews wood on the other side of the boggy little valley for great bluebell vistas. Lots of paths bring you back to Shoreham via Meenfield wood.

3 Downe circular

At Point 3, instead of turning right towards Downe House, turn left on the path that heads down into woods (in to the valley between Downe and Cudham – an area called Downe Bank, which also contains some orchid varieties). The bluebells here are amazing. In fact every little copse around Downe, Biggin Hill and Cudham has spectacular seas of blue.

4 One Tree Hill walks

Both of the One Tree Hill walks passing Ightam Mote on this site will shortly have great bluebell displays, along with wild garlic.

5 Closer to London

Closer to London, the National Trust woodland at Petts Wood/Hawkwood has some great swathes of blue. Enter the wood from the entrance under the railway line at the intersection of Towncourt Crescent and Birchwood Road and take the second path on the left and you’ll soon be in the realm of the bluebells (in Edlmann Memorial wood) after passing through a grove of sweet chestnut trees. I’m sure there will be some bluebells in Sydenham woods and Beckenham Place Park too but a bit more patchy.

April 5, 2016 by ammcculloch49

Deeper into Kent – Wye circular walk

Devil’s Kneading Trough, North Downs Way, near Wye

Here’s another walk accessible by rail but this time a lot further out of town. We (one of my sons and I) really enjoyed this one although one section through farmland wasn’t the most exciting. Wye is a pretty enough village by the Stour river four miles north of Ashford, and 11 miles south of Canterbury. This walk – called Wye Downs – doesn’t require a car; you can join it from the railway station by crossing the river and heading a quarter of a mile or so up Bridge St until you hit picturesque Church St on your left. Then make for the 12th-century church and you’ll see the path as it passes through the graveyard diagonally, becoming part of the North Downs Way, and heading up on to the escarpment that we’re all so familiar with from the walks on this site – perhaps over-familiar!

The view from the ridge extends out to Dungeness and the South Downs beyond Hastings and there’s a great little mini-Devil’s Dyke up there called, slightly less succinctly, the Devil’s Kneading Trough. We watched a huge buzzard evading the attentions of a pair of rooks and with the breeze in our faces it felt like somewhere much further away and higher. After the four-mile walk we went up to Chilham, a beautiful medieval village nearer Canterbury.

The train down to Wye is a bit laborious, taking about 80 minutes from Bromley South or Orpington. Services run from Victoria and Charing Cross (some via Bromley South, others Orpington and Sevenoaks) on the Ramsgate, Canterbury West, Ashford line.

March 28, 2016 by ammcculloch49

Easter – a curate’s egg

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The weather forecasters were spot on: sunny Good Friday, dreary Saturday, all over the place Sunday and Monday (with a dose of tropical storm bringing down branches and fences on Sunday night). A lot of the paths returned to peak mud status and the magnolias at Emmetts, usually so beautiful at this time of year, were looking a bit windblown and fed up. Looking at the pictures I put up below, on my previous post, I realise they must have been taken in mid-April last year – certainly the tulips at Emmetts were some way off flowering this weekend. So apologies to anyone I mis-sold on that! In the meantime, above are some pictures from Sunday and Monday at Knole and Ide Hill.

March 23, 2016 by ammcculloch49

An early Easter as the meadows and woods wake up

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This weekend is bound to be a big one for walking; I’m just hoping the mud has subsided a bit now it’s been dry for a while. The early weather forecasts are suggesting that Good Friday will be best on the meteorological front; after that it’s downhill with a drizzly Saturday and showery Sunday in store. Check the Met Office here. Spring proper is just round the corner and the countryside is waking up. I’ve seen my first queen bumblebee of the year; ponds are full of frog and toad spawn; birdsong is taking off (though I’m yet to hear signs of chiffchaff arrivals from Africa – Ide Hill walk great for them); wood anenomes, hawthorn, and wild garlic are flowering; and the carpet of green in the woods will be turning blue by mid-April from the looks of it, although I spotted my first flowering bluebell in early February this year – see previous blog post.

It’s a good time to visit National Trust and other interesting places, which usually offer nature walks and children’s activities in the coming days. Here are some of my favourites, either on or close to the walks listed here:

• Penshurst Place (nr Tonbridge): crafts, storytelling and, for adults, a spring guided stroll including lunch (£28 including admission)
• High Elms nature reserve (nr Bromley): excellent nature centre with orchards, ponds, cafe, wildlife information plus gardens (free)
• Hever Castle (nr Edenbridge): an array of easter stuff including a Lindt Gold Bunny Hunt (free after paying admission)
• Emmett’s Gardens: (nr Ide Hill/Brasted): Cadbury’s (or should that be Kraft?) easter egg hunt (free after paying admission)
• Knole: (Sevenoaks) guided walks, easter egg hunt (free after admission)
• Lullingstone Country Park (Eynsford): activity trail and easter egg hunt
• Down House (Downe/Bromley): something interactive and historical for kids involving people in costumes (basically I’m not quite sure, but chocolate will happen). Very close to High Elms though, so could tie in.

And here are those walks again. They work for me at all times but in the spring I’ve always favoured the Otford circular via Romney St and the Ide Hill walks for some reason.

• Download Walk 1: Downe circular (near Bromley, 2.6 miles) View on your phone/PC
• Download Walk 2: Shoreham circular (3.5 miles) View
• Download Walk 3: Shoreham to Eynsford (4.2 miles) View
• Download Walk 4: Ide Hill circular (3 miles) View
• Download Walk 5: Otford circular via Romney St (5.5 miles) View
• Download Walk 6: One Tree Hill circular (near Sevenoaks, 5.5 miles) View
• Download Walk 7: One Tree Hill figure of eight (near Sevenoaks, 5 miles) View
• Download Walk 8: Shoreham/Otford circular (5 miles) View
• Download Walk 9: Hever circular (4.5 miles) View
• Download Walk 10: Chiddingstone/Penshurst circular (4 miles) View

February 21, 2016 by ammcculloch49

The first bluebell of 2016 is out!

If you look hard there are probably quite a few around but I wonder if February 20 is some kind of record for bluebells. Daffodils in December is one thing but bluebells in February is a new one for me. This i-Phone picture of a rather under-developed looking flower (looks as if it knows it’s early) was taken on Saturday Feb 20, 2016, in Meenfield woods above Shoreham, Kent.

February 13, 2016 by ammcculloch49

An Eynsford walk in the rain and cold

Dreadful Saturday weather-wise today, but, undaunted, we – my younger son and I – decided to venture out to familiar pastures. We went to Eynsford village and did a circular walk from the riverside diagonally uphill across fields to Eagle Heights, enjoying lovely, rain-swept views across the railway viaduct down the valley towards Sevenoaks. Passing the bird of prey centre (and being lucky enough to see a vast raptor wheeling in the murk above, pursued – at a distance – by two gulls) we strode on, entering Lullingstone park, turning around its central hill (the one topped by pines and cedar of Lebanon trees) and returning the way we came to Eynsford. It’s now 9.30pm – the pre-Match of the Day hour – and I’ve still not entirely warmed up; a really raw afternoon. I’ll write up the walk soon; it’ll make another good one for train users being easy to adapt to start from and return to Eynford station. Some of it covers the same ground as the Shoreham-Eynsford walk on this site.

November 21, 2015 by ammcculloch49

Autumn becomes winter

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That seemed to happen very quickly. A dreamy, misty, surprisingly warm autumn has suddenly snapped into winter with a blast of Arctic air. Truth to tell, the past 10 days have become increasingly turbulent, with high winds stripping the trees of much of their leaves… all those beautiful greens, oranges and reds were too good to last. I know; this happens every year, but somehow it all seems somewhat abrupt each time, in the same way as you feel plunged into darkness when the clocks go back.

So … up for a winter walk? Of the routes on this site, the least affected by mud are usually the Shoreham circular, Shoreham/Otford circular, Shoreham to Eynsford and Downe Circular. You’ll still need boots, but the woodland walks at One Tree Hill and Ide Hill are truly squelchathons come December, although they remain great to do if you have the right footwear (and attitude!). Also excellent are Knole Park and Lullingstone Country park (where you can do a variety of walks arriving at and leaving from Eynsford station, but can also explore on the Shoreham to Eynsford walk). The latter two are great for huge skies and spectacular late afternoon sunlight. Just take a look at winter sun shining on Knole House (pictured).

I’ll soon be adding some more winter pictures on the site and maybe my routes around Knole and Lullingstone (nearly mud-free). So stick around.

October 20, 2015 by ammcculloch49

Autumn colours around Shoreham and Sevenoaks, Kent

Fine days at this time of year are fantastic for colours and light. All fine days are great of course, but there’s a surprise element when it’s nice in October and November that somehow helps you enjoy country surroundings all the more. Yet some of the finest autumn colours are to be had in London: Dulwich Park, for example, with its variety of trees (the turkey oak by the western perimeter lane is amazing) and also Burbage Rd, nearby, which has some maples of the deepest red right now, yellow-green honey locusts (I think), and wine-coloured cherry plums amid others.

Trees are such a part of the landscape in the city or out in the sticks that most of us hardly bother to stop and wonder. I’d been doing the One Tree Hill walks for years before I noticed the most amazingly tall, straight oak (picture). Great beech trees abound on all of these walks; some of the most extraordinary, again, on the One Tree Hill escarpment (picture).

The images below are from One Tree Hill, Shoreham and, most recently, Ide Hill, which was right on the borderline between foggy and sunny on 1 November.

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