The bluebells are truly finished. They won’t be mentioned again until next year. So what’s replacing them? Well, don’t expect such fantastic sheets of colour in the woods themselves, now they’re becoming increasingly shady but around the fringes and in the glades foxgloves will begin to bloom. Some of the best are on the Oldbury, Ide Hill, Hosey Hill, One Tree Hill and Underriver walks. Red campion, stitchword, wild garlic (brilliant on the One Tree Hill walks on the path to Ightham Mote) and soon orchids are the other main contenders. If you missed the bluebells, don’t worry – there are plenty of vivid hues to come on the walks but they’ll be more dotted about a bit. The orchids are my favourites – but we’ll talk about that later. Having said all that, we will need some rain …
Common spotted orchids on the Oldbury walk
Common spotted orchid, High Elms/Cuckoo Wood, Kent
Fragrant orchid Polhill
Foxgloves, Hosey Common
Iris at Bore Place on the Bough Beech walk
Poppies near Romney Street
Sainfoin, a very insect-friendly plant
Meadow brown butterfly on scabious flower on side of Fackenden Down
It’s time for the big reveal. The bluebells are at their best as I write so if you want to see them, you’d better get on with it.
The judging is over. The woods of north-west Kent have been perused and dreamy drifts of deep or light blue flowers (it all depends on the light, you see) assessed. The criteria, as ever was distinctly arbitrary – much depending on how I felt at the time. The judging panel (me, again) did not use any clever techniques such as cross-tabulation, quantitative and qualitative analysis, but simply looked around and gauged my immediate emotional response. I did peer into the distance to see how far the bluebells went – I think that’s the key to this; each of the shortlisted entries have bluebell vistas that stretch as far as the eye can see in the woods. The rest is down to something indefinable – the angle of the sun, whether there’s a glade to offset the tangle of trees. But I will lay down the law down on one aspect of all this: there must not be more than the absolute bare minimum of brambles. Sadly I wasn’t able to check out the bluebells at Petts Wood this year, or Oldbury, Heaversham, Kemsing, High Elms, Downe Bank. Apols for that! And I ought to remind readers that photographing bluebells isn’t easy – they are usually in tangled ancient woodland with little in the way of a view. They are strangely unphotogenic you could say, however beautiful they are in person.
So here is the top 5 this year – all of which could easily be visited in a single day (less than five miles separate the shortlisted drifts):
OK so this gem isn’t actually on one of the walks though it is quite near to the Knockholt Pound-Chevening route and is on my cycle route 3 on Single’s Cross Lane. The wood – part of the same continuous woodland that starts at Newyears Wood to the west – runs along the tiny lane and is an untidy but excellent tangle of hazel, beech, oak and so on. No one can walk in this fenced-off tract, the best you can do is stand by the barbed wire fence and gaze open-mouthed at the unbroken swathe of blue. Round the corner on Blueberry Lane (what a great name for a country road) is the bluebell field of Elgin House, also spectacular (and the inaugural winner in 2024). Kirsty tells me: “Its garden was open to the public at peak bluebell time in 2022 and we visited it then. We were able to walk in the bluebell field. It is truly amazing, I think because of the lack of understorey and the spacing of the trees.” The whole area is full of little woods flooded with bluebells. Maybe bicycle is the best way to get around it.
4 Andrew’s Wood, between Halstead and Shoreham
Early bluebells in Andrews Wood, April 2026
This wood, close to Polhill Nursery and on the Polhill/Pluto walking route has a useful car park. The rushing traffic noise of the M25 detracts slightly. But once you’ve crossed over the motorway and heading east things start to align nicely. The best bluebells are on the east facing slopes bordering the nicely secluded dry valley. Some recent timbering work has probably enhanced the wildflowers, giving them more space. Maybe. It’s a lovely spot in any case though I’m pretty sure the bluebells used to extend further west where brambles seem to have spread.
3 Newyears Wood/Birches Croft, east of Cudham
Newyears Wood, April 2026
Last year’s winner. On the delightful but understated Cudham chalk paths walk this one. I think the Birches Croft segment are best… real long-distance swathes of cobalt beneath stately oaks. And quiet; unlike Andrew’s Wood and Meenfield Wood you don’t see many people here. So why only 3rd this year if they are so good? Great question you ask there, Adam. The answer may be because I visited them on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. The latter is a happier day.
2 Meenfield Wood, Shoreham
Early bluebells, Meenfield Wood, April, 2026
High on the ridge west of Shoreham, this wood is on four walks: Shoreham and Polhill Bank; the classic Shoreham circular (with extension); Shoreham circular via Otford; and Polhill/Pluto (sort of). The judge visited on a breezy, bright mid-April day; superb conditions for walking. I particularly like how the bluebells slope east and west on either side of the ridgetop path – so you could catch glimpses of the valleys, the sky and distant countryside beyond. Timber work has let in more light than in previous years so the bluebells have flourished and there are brilliant drifts that seem to go on forever. I had it down to win, until …
1 Home Wood, Lullingstone
Like Meenfield Wood, a Saturday visit in late afternoon light showed off this tract at its best. Home Wood is on the southern edge of Lullingstone country park, where it butts up to Redmans Lane. It is encountered on the Full Lullingstone 4-mile walk, not the Eynsford-Lullingstone one. The feeling of the “secret wood” is at its most powerful here – and the path goes obligingly around the perimeter of the bluebells before rejoining the main route through Beechen Wood and eventually down to the Lullingstone visitors’ centre. It wins because of its tranquillity and obscurity – it’s like an exquisite work of art left in a forgotten room in a vast crumbling stately home. Few make it there, but nobody who does is left unmoved.
What about the others?
Andrews Wood bluebells April 2026 on the Polhill walk
Wilmot Hill bluebells 2026
Home Wood, Lullingstone
Ide Hill, April 2026
Elgin House bluebell field, April 2026
Apologies to the bluebells that didn’t make it to the shortlist. Emmetts Garden and Scords Wood on the Ide Hill route will once again snort with derision at being left off, while Hever, Oldbury and Petts Wood will understandably feel cold-shouldered. I just can’t get around all of them in time. One Tree Hill and Wilmot Hill had some nice bluebell patches last weekend but here they adorn the walk rather than saturate it. The same can be said for Hosey/Westerham and Chartwell routes although their advocates will be fuming. They may note that I’ve favoured the chalky North Downs bluebells over the sandy Greensand Ridge ones. It does seem a bit unfair but that’s life in the woods I’m afraid.
Bluebell season is upon us and it’s only Easter! ‘We’re not ready’, you say, ‘they’re too early’. It’s true – as I discovered last week at Ide Hill, they are a bit too keen this year. No idea why; wet February, dryish March, not too cold? Who knows, but usually they peak around 20-25 April in these west Kent parts. This year the peak looks like being around 10-20 April. They are already fairly spectacular, though not yet at full bloom.
The new contender for Best Bluebells of Kent Walks Near London is Home Wood in the Lullingstone Country Park. This is an obscure corner of the park just south of Lower Beechen Wood. It’s a less frequented neck of the woods and little known to me but the bluebells are great. Check out the map here to locate Home Wood. It’s kind of on the Full Lullingstone route I describe on this page – but use the map to find Home Wood.
Swathes of bluebells can be found on most of the Kent Walks near London – but One Tree Hill, Ide Hill, Meenfield wood on the Polhill walks, Cudham, Lullingstone (not the Eynsford route but the above mentioned full circuit) stand out in particular.
Here is last year’s Bluebell guide… very much applicable to this year I’d imagine! More on this soon, when I’ve decided on the results this year…
Things have got a bit overgrown on some of the more neglected paths. Despite the lack of rain, brambles have been getting busy and are giving their full attention to any bare legs they come across. Nettles too. The brilliant Eastern Valleys of Shoreham walk is the worse offender here… along the field edge coming up to point 3 in particular. That path is little used and things have got a little wild (there could well be an alternative route on a path within the woods, not along the field but I’m a little hazy on the details, it’s hot and I’ve been watching Glasto). I say secateurs, but a sickle or shears wouldn’t go amiss – whatever your implement, it’ll help keep things civilised. Obvs, don’t go crazy, just a little snip here and there to clear your path, we don’t want anything apart from brambles, the odd nettle and dogwood being snipped. Even on my brief Bough Beech stroll today I was assailed by prickles while on the pavement walking back towards the nature reserve (the kingfisher was showing well if you must know). Still, I survived; I always seem to, whatever terrible hazards the Kent walks near London throw at me.
Orchids are in full flower across almost all the Kent Walks Near London. They particularly like the chalky North Downs routes, such as Heaverham, Chevening, Fackenden Down, Polhill, Lullingstone, Eastern Valleys etc (see list of walks above) but I’ve found great clusters at Hever and meadow fringes at Oldbury too, on the sandstone/clay of the weald and Holmesdale Vale. We unexpectedly came across the pictured common spotted orchids (the UK’s most often seen variety) on the Oldbury walk this week. This is one of the routes I’ve walked the least often; in fact I can count the times I’ve hiked the long and short versions on the fingers of one hand. I don’t know why, they are both brilliant strolls. The shorter version is mainly through woods and is one of the quietest walks on this website (apart from the bit near the A25). It takes in an enormous Iron Age fort, meadows facing the North Downs escarpment and a sandy trail past beautiful old fish ponds in rich woodland. I really recommend it – it’s got a special atmosphere, some might say even a bit spooky.
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:
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.
It’s fair to say the cobalt carpet has finally spread its magic in many of the woods covered in the KWNL area. Bluebells are now almost fully out on the North Downs chalk hills walks such as the Cudhamstroll (in New Year’s Wood particularly), and the various Shoreham circular and Polhill routes. Alas, the timber work going on in Meenfield Wood above Shoreham (west side of valley) may hinder your enjoyment of bluebells there. Further south the Greensand Ridge walks at Underriver, One Tree Hill, Ide Hill (perhaps the best bluebells – so you won’t be alone), Oldbury and Hosey Common are awash with blue. Closest to south-east London, Beckenham Place Park, High Elmsand Petts Wood-Hawkwood Estate(in the lower, damper parts) has several swathes too. The Downe walk mk1 doesn’t have a lot of bluebell action en route but a quick diversion down to Downe Bank (the west side of the Cudham valley) from point 3 or at the start of the walk should see you in the magical blue realm. Following the Downe Mk2 walk will be kind of blue too, particularly at Downe Bank and Blackbush and Twenty Acre Shaw woods. The Chiddingstone and Hever routes don’t have many bluebells I can confirm, not that this detracts from these superb strolls. (Pictured below: from 2022 and 2021 bluebells at New Year Wood on Cudham walk; Meenfield wood, Shoreham circular/Polhill routes; Ide Hill route)
New Year’s Wood, Knockholt/Cudham: early bluebells
They are uniquely adapted to suited the multispecies ancient woodlands of the UK
Low temperatures trigger their growth (but might delay their blooming if in April). Bluebell seeds germinate when the temperature drops below 10°C.
Bluebells predominantly convert sunlight into fructose allowing them to photosynthesise at low temperatures.
They are supreme competitors with other plants, allowing them to carpet woodland floors. But they get help in the form of mycorrhiza, a symbiotic fungi.
Almost half the world’s bluebells are found in the UK, they’re relatively rare in the rest of the world.
But please be careful never to tread on any; it takes bluebells years to recover from damage. Digging them up – surely no one visiting this site would consider such a thing – is illegal, and please don’t let dogs trample them either – keep them on the lead.
Us south-east Londoners are blessed with proximity to great places to see orchids at this time of year. The chalk hills from Downe to Heaverham, along the North Downs escarpment are full of them, splashing vivid purple, pink and cream among the whites and yellows of ox-eye daisies, trefoil and buttercups. They are beautiful flowers and vital in the lifecycles of loads of insects.
They can be found on all the walks from May to July, but here are the best routes that feature them:
There are so many other great wildflowers to enjoy at this time. Sainfroin, for example, poppy, bugle, ox-eye daisy, and the lovely milkwort. Some are pictured below.
My wellies came in useful on the Hever walk on Saturday. I’ve never worn them in early summer before. But my hunch was right… there are still a few quagmires out there. Watching a young couple ahead of me try to negotiate the mud in lightweight trainers made me wince. There’s not really the same problem on the North Downs chalk walks, where the drainage is much better thanks to the geology. Except where there’s clay (Andrew’s Wood hillside I’m looking at you).
Meadow, Penshurst
Common spotted orchids, Hever
Northern lake at Bough Beech
In June it’s generally a good idea to stick a pair of secateurs or tough old scissors in your rucksack if you’re doing a Kent walk. It seems odd I know. One or two of the less well used paths become entangled in brambles, nettles etc this month and next. This is particularly the case this year because rain has kept hikers away and some of the paths have been left unused. The Eastern Valleys walk east of Shoreham definitely requires a bit of snipping as you walk along the fields on the Darent Valley rim. The diversion to the Percy Pilcher memorial viewpoint is in need of a trim at the best of times. And at Chiddingstone, near the start, the path leading into the swampy woods is nearly impassable. If you prefer, you can divert to walk along the field edge – it joins the main path as you enter the woods. The same thing happens later as you near the River Eden on the return leg. There are parts of the Hever walk, in Stock Wood and Newtye Hurst Wood where you might need to divert off the main path and it‘s easier to do a little judicious snipping than try to battle your way through. Especially if you’re wearing shorts!
Overall the Weald of Kent is obviously wetter than normal for the time of year. Bough Beech reservoir is brimful for once and the mires and ponds in the woods of Hever and Chiddingstone are well topped up.
“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits.”
That’s a fun quote from Hemingway. I take it to mean prioritise walks above socialising, now it’s a bit warmer (I reserve the right to be wrong about that) and to get out in the woods and downs, witness the transformation from grey and brown to green, blue and yellow. I say “witness” but it happens suddenly, overnight perhaps, when you’re not looking. Suddenly the air is soft, the countryside hues have changed and spirits have lifted.
We chose the 3.5-mile Knockholt/Chevening North Downs route for late Saturday afternoon and a 4.5-mile stroll on the Greensand Ridge at Hosey for the following morning. On the Hosey route bluebells were two-thirds in bloom and were mixed beautifully with stitchwort and anemone. We heard coal tit, nuthatch, song thrush, chaffinch joining in the merry burble of song from great and blue tits, robins and wrens. A delightful pint of Westerham Brewery’s Light Ale ensued after the walk at Squerry’s Winery.
At Knockholt, along the escarpment, three red kites drifted overhead throughout the walk and a pair of buzzards hung in the air. These raptors love the updraft along the ridge and I think this walk is the most reliable route for seeing them on of all the walks here, though they can pop up on any. Please don’t think me callous but I rather hope the birds of prey feast on pheasants; there are too many of the latter human-introduced birds in these parts and they kill a large number of reptiles and amphibians.
Redwood tree above Chartwell, at Mariner’s Hill on the Hosey/Westerham route
Dandelions on Mariner’s Hill, mid-April.
Bluebells on Mariner’s Hill on the Hosey/Westerham walk
A view of Chevening House and the Vale of Holmesdale from the chalk escarpment near Knockholt Pound. The Hosey and Westerham walks are the Greensand Ridge in the distance
The cleft in the Downs on the Knockholt/Chevening shorter version
Marsh marigold by the infant Darent river, on the Hosey/Westerham routes
The chalk Knockholt/Chevening walk on the North Downs ridge is separated from the Hosey walk on the Greensand Ridge by the clay Vale of Holmesdale, an east to west valley that runs in parallel to the two lines of hills and which contains the M25 and M20 motorways. Holmesdale clay runs between the chalk and sandstone yet despite the starkly different geology in such a small distance the plants and tree species don’t superficially appear to differ that much – presumably the plants have adjusted to the contrasting soils over the millennia. But there are some differences – there are more likely to be orchids and expanses of grassland on the less densely wooded chalk hills; while on the greensand the woods seem a tad more extensive and are more likely to include stands of pine, which like the sandier soils. I’m no expert so I won’t go on. Bluebells like both; that’s the main thing and this week they are reaching their peak at sites like Meenfield Wood, Scords Wood, and Mariners Hill. Enjoy them, they’ll be gone within about four weeks.
Kent walks near London 