November 2, 2025 by ammcculloch49

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.

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.

July 19, 2025 by ammcculloch49

A welcome rainy interlude

A torrentially rainy day is great for a reset. In my case this means playing music and doing indoor things that I’ve managed to avoid usually by going on Kent walks. It’s been a run of busy weekends: I’ve played gigs in the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire in addition to the usual local big bands; been to the north Norfolk coast for a reacquaintance with one of my favourite bits of coast (oh the bliss of the marshes of Holkham, Cley and Blakeney); spent time in East Sussex with family and at the Love Supreme festival (Jacob Collier, Chucho Valdes, Branford Marsalis and Stanley Clarke the main attractions for me). I also saw John Scofield’s great new quartet in London (this is all jazzy by the way, apols if it means zilch to you, dear reader). The sum result of all this, in addition to the 9 to 5, has been a dearth of Kent walks, Kent cycles, Kent photography. I’ve only managed three long cycles out to Knockholt and the Pilgrim’s Way since May – imagine!

Best rainy day walks at KWNL

The rain this weekend is of course a real blessing for the fauna and flora on the walks (the butterflies may feel a bit put out by me writing this of course), and will green things up for the next few weeks. NW Kent was looking a bit scratchy, dusty and arid after all. I usually associate that look with later in August when that ‘done with summer’ mood is afoot, not early July when people haven’t even gone on holiday (or booked holiday!). As it happens, I’m partial to a rainy walk as long as not too extreme, but I draw the line at lots of lightning close by! My rainy walk tip? I’d say woods are lovely in the rain and obviously provide cover – so Petts Wood and Oldbury iron age fort would be my choices today. Knole, while not particularly woody, has a damp appeal too – it’s an atmosphere thing possibly.

Rainy July day. Point 5, Chevening walk
Kettleshill Farm oast houses in the rain, Underriver
Rainy July day. Looking up at the scarp, Chevening walk
Top path in Meenfield wood in drizzle, Shoreham, Kent, August
Nr Romney Street, Round Hill, Austin Spring
September, rainy day looking out from Polhill Bank near Shoreham.
A squall approaches Kemsing from the Brasted direction

Still, so far this year I’ve covered all the routes with the exception of Heaverham to Otford and the Heaverham circular (no particular reason why). I’ve walked the ‘go-tos’ several times each: Polhill, Downe, Fackenden, Bough Beech and Hosey Hill; and done all of the ‘occasionals’ such as Oldbury, Hever, Chiddingstone. I do feel the need to add extra walks… I know I need to add Meopham, Cliffe, Bexley, and perhaps Goathurst Common. There’s also a lovely walk from Tunbridge Wells that I should add involving the High Rocks. I reckon train access is particularly important; I’m uncomfortable with the assumption that everyone has a car (I can barely afford my own!). I think I’ve done well to get to 30 walks on the site; after all they are really springboards for your own adventures and can be modified, extended, shortened as you see fit. Let’s see if I can add a couple more by early 2026.

February 12, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Muddy and miserable

A cursory glance at this website may suggest that the north-west Kent walks are permanently sunny. Or snowy. Or bright and breezy. My choice of photographs suggest the routes exist in a world rich in colour, and one must only stride out purposefully with map in hand and trainers on foot to have a great time. Alas, it is not so. Walkers are squelching through giant puddles, inching their way around horrific mud patches and sliding back down liquid hillsides. They are arriving back at home dishevelled, slightly disorientated and in need of a good soak. As I write in mid-February, during one of the cloudiest and wettest winters I can recall, the truth is that unless your need is great, it might be better to abandon the notion of walking in the countryside for the time being. One friend terminated his walk at Westerham after a few hundred yards last week, while another KWNL reader informs me that Polhill and Meenfield woods (west of Shoreham) are impassable. Polhill is simply too steep to bear most humans’ weight in these slippery conditions, while Meenfield woods’ tracks are seas of horrific mud made worse by bulldozers and diggers being used for forestry work there (thinning some of the trees).

Mud, frost and snow — *Path turned to mud, amid snow and frost at One Tree Hill, February 2021*. *I’ve never seen anything like this scene before or after*

Has anywhere survived the mud?

If you must walk, I suggest: Knole Park in Sevenoaks, where there are solid, firm stone and tarmac paths; Lullingstone, where the chalk downs spirit away a lot of the surface water into aquifers (but avoid the busy, ridiculously muddy path alongside the Darent river); and perhaps High Elms, but don’t blame me if that proves a morass too. Avoid the Greensand Way walks, such as One Tree Hill, Hosey Common, Ide Hill and Underriver. Even the trusty old Downe walk, which once was dependable in all conditions, is in an appalling state now, partly because the ‘new’, hemmed-in paths around the children’s farm compress the footfall.

January 12, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Wintry weekend in west Kent

At last, sharp sunny days with frost. Walkers in the North Downs were rewarded at the weekend by a cobalt sky, heavy frost, colourful sunsets and perhaps the remnants of snow from the previous Wednesday night – it was hard to tell where the frost stopped and the snow started. I walked at Beckenham Place Park on Saturday morning before taking the Fackenden Down walk in the afternoon. As soon as we got a bit higher in the hills, the conditions became increasingly picturesque. Magpie Bottom, a hollow that faces north, was a picture, but unfortunately my camera battery had died and we resorted to phone camera images. The last time I saw similar conditions was in January 2022 but on that occasion the temperature must have been even lower because the frost remained glued to the trees even in mid afternoon whereas on Saturday there was some kind of thaw happening where the sun was felt. A sublime, memorable walk.

Please contact me at ammcculloch49@gmail.com with comments about the walks.

Pictured below: sunset from the top of Fackenden Down; moonshine at Fackendon Down; Adam (the author) and Bonny (Photo by S. Hart); looking east into Magpie Bottom; looking along the little valley north from Dunstall Farm; Dunstall Farm; ice on Beckenham Place Park’s lake; swimmers in the lake; looking east along the lake; the lake amid frosty reedbeds

December 7, 2024 by ammcculloch49

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.

September 28, 2024 by ammcculloch49

Summer ended at Camber; look forward to October

October, along with June, July and January (all the J’s) is a ‘classic’ walking month. We all know about the turning leaves so I won’t bother describing the colour changes that occur! What I like best are the migrating, busy birds, the every changing cloudscapes, the sudden showers, the unpredictable temperature changes (‘wow it’s warm’, ‘wow it’s like Iceland!’) and, best of all, the light. It’s a real shame when the clocks go back at the end of the month because it denies us hikers of another hour of daylight. Why we continue with this bizarre clock policy defeats me; I guess it’s as British as the mythical replacement rail bus or surprise roadworks. It is what it is … sigh. Rant over.

Polhill view October
Knole, early October.
Rainbow, October
Emmett’s view over Weald in early October 2015
Downe near point 3, autumn
Downe
Darent valley autumn

Now, Camber Sands – that’s where we went last week to fully mark the end of summer. A fish flatbread with chilli jam, salad and sour cream at Dungeness’s brilliant Snack Shack* set us up for a late afternoon swim in the luckily non-sewagey waters at Camber. We followed this with a drink at the delightful Ypres Castle Arms in Rye, a tucked-away pub with a great beer garden and view of the salt marsh and Channel. As dusk began a little thunderstorm was flickering away somewhere near France but gradually crept closer. On the way home the ‘little’ storm suddenly became very large and caught up with us: spectacular fork lightning and bursts of torrential rain and hail propelled us past Northiam, Bodiam, Hawkhurst and even Tunbridge Wells – where of course the A21 was shut, necessitating an abysmally long diversion. But then the closure of major roads mid-evening, like mythical rail replacement buses and the clocks going back is something us Brits seem to just have to tolerate.
* I recommend the Snack Shack but go before 2pm if poss, it gets very busy and perhaps has become a bit too popular. An alternative is the superb Britannia Pub just up the road.

March 16, 2024 by ammcculloch49

Thoughts of spring

Spirits have fallen almost as steadily as the rain as we slipped mildly and humidly from winter to spring . The Met Office have gloomily talked of precipitation records being broken, and a sense of oppressive drudgery has undeniably taken root as indoor life seems the only option. Still, I’ve been impressed by the amount of runners and cyclists still out in the lengthy downpours, clocking up the miles. Me, I’m a fair weather fitness fan. A lot of the rain has been too heavy for walks; I’m happy in drizzle but the stuff that stings your face definitely takes the pleasure away at this time of year, though can be fun in summer. But hey, spring is around the corner somewhere, the temperatures are mild, the crocuses are out in the park and the daffodils gaily wave in the breeze. I love to walk on the Greensand Ridge at this time of year, to see signs of spring seeping into the colours of the miles of countryside stretching before you as far as the Ashdown Forest. It’s muddy, sure, but there’s also optimism in the snowdrops, primroses and sudden uptick in birdlife among the skeletal trees. Toy’s Hill south of Westerham has been fertile ground for walking.

I haven’t got a Toy’s Hill walk on KWNL but there are several routes from the NT car park (the map above shows the car park, lower centre, and Toy’s Hill’s proximity to Hosey, Chartwell and Ide Hill) that are well signposted, such as the shortish Red Route, which will take you to Emmetts Garden and back. You can do my Ide Hill walk from Toy’s Hill easily enough, or even the Hosey Common route, but obviously you’ll be adding on a few miles. I really like the spot near the NT car park where the old mansion used to stand. From here you can see four counties including Leith Hill and even the South Downs on a fine day. The photos below were taken in early March; appearances change quickly at this time of year so expect less bleakness in the days ahead!

Four counties view from site of the demolished Weardale Manor, Toy’s Hill
Ram Pump pond below Emmetts Garden in Scords Wood, on the Toy’s Hill red route and the Ide Hill walk
Scords Wood, awaiting signs of spring
This is the view south, to Bough Beech and Hever, from the point at which the Ide Hill walk joins the NT Toy’s Hill red route in Scords Wood

As for colour, look out for yellow lesser celandines, very spectacular at this time of year on the Fackenden Down walk in the woodland between the Down itself and Magpie Bottom. One of my favourite places for wildflowers in late March is on the Hever walk in the woods between Points 1 and 2, close to Hever Castle gardens (headline photograph). A yellow and white sheen seems to rise from the mossy forest carpet ushering in better days. But look if you want to keep your powder dry on the walking front, and not go out until mid-April and the blooming of the bluebells, that’s perfectly understandable.

February 19, 2024 by ammcculloch49

Encounter with a kite

Two weekends of truly muddy conditions have passed; both have been very mild and reasonably bright (well, the Sundays anyway) but with heavy rain overnight only the most hardy, dedicated walkers have taken to the squidgy, squelchy paths. Last week we splashed around the 3.5-mile version of the Knockholt Pound/Chevening route; today, with a bit less time available we took to that old staple the Downe walk, with a couple of variations. The final field once heading back to the village was a glutinous saturated sea of clay, as it usually is after heavy rain. Oh for the days when this was a wildflower and hawthorn meadow left to its own devices, alive with the calls of yellowhammer and skylark. The Downe walk has lost two delightful wildflower meadows in recent years – one to a scraggy looking crop rotation, the other to grazing by a non-existent sheep flock.

Red kite, Downe, February
Approaching final woods, Downe, February
Hedgerow and approaching shower, Chevening
Approaching shower, from below the North Downs scarp, Chevening
Beech trees, Downe, February
Bare field on the North Downs ridge, Knockholt Pound

Anyhow, never mind, there we go. Let’s focus on the positives: bright skies, great colours, a sudden crescendo of bird song including skylarks after a silent winter, a Spitfire taking off from Biggin Hill – what a brill din! – and a few snowdrops to admire. Best of all there was some wonderful bird of prey sightings. On the Knockholt route we were checked out by a low flying red kite and were given a private buzzard show. At Downe this Sunday I’ve rarely seen so many buzzards gliding and soaring. A hovering kestrel joined the party at one point, while on the return leg of the walk, on the hillside above the golf course, a red kite seemed to follow me along, drifting, sideslipping and wheeling on the breeze. These incredible birds have only been regularly seen on these walks in the past 10 years or so. They are a most welcome addition – along with the buzzards, themselves a relatively new bird to this part of Kent in these numbers. On entering the final beech woods I heard a tawny owl call, despite it being only 2.30pm.

January 3, 2024 by ammcculloch49

Watery winter walks

I should apologise. For the past couple of months I have been enticing people out into the local countryside with flattering photos of the atmospheric woods and hills of north-west Kent in winter. I have depicted frosty and snowy scenes, blue skies and wonderful sunsets. I have described hearty, bracing walks finished off at a village pub with a warming fire. Worse, I even encouraged people to go on strolls over the festive period. In mitigation I have mentioned the risk of mud patches and even suggested that rainy walks in murky conditions aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but there’s no getting round it: anyone following my advice of late has probably been soaked to the bone, slid over in puddles, muddied their entire wardrobe, and not received anything in the way of “bracing winter walk” vibes. On a drizzly stroll with friends in Richmond Park last week under prematurely darkening skies I actually fell headfirst into a ditch that houses a tributary of the Beverley Brook. Usually, hilarity would have ensured, but my comrades were too immersed in the perils of having to cross the stream themselves to laugh at my misfortune. Unlike me they took the flying leap option, whereas I had attempted to span the abyss with a long stride.

A lovely path on the Cudham walk nearing point 3 is not so lovely after weeks of rain

Anyway, conditions are terrible out there. Mild temperatures and high rainfall totals have created a dreadfully slippery environment. Playing golf at High Elms on New Year’s Day (the morning and early afternoon offered respite from the rain) we found it hard to hit the ball properly on the muddy fairways. We saw walkers, inevitably brandishing sticks with which they tried to scrape vast clods of clay mud weighing down their boots.

More heavy rain is forecast for Thursday and Friday of this week. The weekend should be drier but cloudy with lower temperatures of about 4C. Time to get going on those Christmas books I reckon …

May 21, 2023 by ammcculloch49

Bluebells finis

Yep, folks, they are over. The usual two and a half weeks of spectacle; now appearing dry and spindly. Wild garlic (ransoms) looks – and smells – great next to the blue remnants though, and speedwell and campion (pictured) are showing nicely on most of the walks along with all the lovely yellow and white stuff. It’s a very pleasant time of year and the next week or so is set fair: not blazing sun or anything but decent.