The extra hours of daylight means you can even get out into the countryside from south London after work if so inclined. Worth the effort I’d say. Pictured is Darwin’s house from the adjacent field, June 2015 at about 8.20pm; the others are of various fields on Walk 1.
It’s bad news for Romney Street’s Fox and Hounds (see below) which seems a long way from reopening, but good news for walkers finishing up in or passing through Ide Hill – the Cock Inn has been superbly revamped and is now open after a short period of uncertainty. Here’s the slightly convoluted story of its refurb which sounds like a bit of a planning mix up. Anyway, the end result is good; the place looks excellent and its original character is alive and well. Pictures above from the Ide Hill circular walk.
Thunderstorm approaching – seen after leaving point 7. April 2012. This storm ended a long warm spell from March to April and ushered in the rain that went on for all of May and much of June that year (spoiling the queen’s regatta among other things)
I’ve finally got around to adding the Otford circular walk. At six miles it’s the longest on this site so far and the most hilly, but it’s worth it. But it’s a crying shame that the halfway-point pub, The Fox and Hounds, has shut down. It had a really good, large beer garden and giant fairytale shoe for kids to play in with a slide on top. I guess it was a bit isolated to survive the rural pub blight – especially in the winter months – not being in a village. Also newly shut is the Austin Lodge golf course, which clearly was suffering from the downturn in golf. There are also quite a number of courses in the area and competition must be tough. Presumably the valley it was in will now go back to farmland, but for now it’s got a rather wistful, wild look to it. The walk, like the others on this site, is within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The walk is best in April-October – after that it gets too muddy at some points. The first time I did it, in 2005, I got home just in time to see Steve Harmison bowl Michael Clarke in the amazing 2nd Test of that momentous ashes series. A big moment (for some of us anyway), and a great ending to a great day.
So I took my own advice and walked with friends and family around Downe while the airshow was on. Here are a couple of the resulting pictures.
The bluebells are well and truly finished now we’re into June, but the meadows in this little pocket of near-idyll from Westerham to Eynsford are alive with wild flowers. The field adjacent to Down House is particularly spectacular as are the open grass sweeps of Lullingstone. I’m no expert on variety identification but there’s more to see than just daisies and buttercups – there’s pyramidal orchids, abundant cow parsley, cowslips, chalk milkwort, speedwell…
Pyramidal orchid. Photo: Durlston Country Park, Dorset, flickr Creative Commons
Cycling near Cudham recently I disturbed a large buzzard. Close up, the scale of this bird of prey is decidedly impressive, but what suddenly occurred to me is that, when growing up, it was unheard of to see buzzards so close to London. They were definitely considered birds of the upland wilds, not the suburban fringe. There’s clearly been a sharp rise in their population in recent years in these parts … I wonder if there’s a breeding programme nearby, or perhaps it’s that their persecution by landowners has stopped. Soon after this I saw two buzzards soaring over the valley between Downe and Cudham, closely followed by a red kite gliding at height from north to south. Again, sightings that would have been almost unthinkable up until 10 years ago.
At Downe Bank, on another cycle on a recent coldish evening, I saw my first ever badger in the wild, hurrying across Cudham Road ahead of me as I laboriously ascended that steep hill.
Red Arrows pictured near Biggin Hill by Adam McCulloch
On June 13 walkers in the area will be treated to the sights and sounds of Spitfires, Hurricanes and the Red Arrows, all flying at the Biggin Hill Festival of Flight. The air show marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and while a more modest affair than the airfield’s major International Air Fairs (until 2010), the event should prove a fitting tribute to those who fought against the Nazis from Biggin Hill. And walkers and cyclists in the area that day will get some unusual and exciting views of the planes as they manoeuvre for passes over the airfield.
(Read latest bluebell piece for 2020, here) The bluebells, as I write on April 26, are in full swing. They generally love moist, even swampy ground in sun-dappled woodland (so coppiced trees are very good) and south-facing slopes where the drainage isn’t great. The best places for walking amid bluebells – of the walks on this website – are:
1 Ide Hill-Toy’s Hill circular walk via Emmett’s Gardens. Here, bluebells are everywhere. Especially brilliant on the south-facing slope of Emmett’s Gardens.
2 Shoreham circular – extend the walk into the woods above Shoreham to the west, as far as Andrews Wood for great bluebell vistas.
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.
Other superb displays can be seen at One Tree Hill (1km south east of Knole Park), near Sevenoaks. Then, and closest to SE London, there is Petts Wood/Hawkwood. For the latter, 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 chestnuts.
Downe is a quiet village with a big history but it’s home to Nigel Farage’s two local pubs, both of which are pretty decent places for a drop. So, the Ukip leader was ousted from his Sunday lunch in the Queen’s Head last Sunday (22 March) by the Beyond Ukip Cabaret Group who had originally hired the George and Dragon‘s function room (without revealing the nature of their booking).
Having been tipped off that Farage was eating 200 metres down the road at the Queen’s Head, the group speedily headed there. No one likes deserting a family Sunday lunch so I guess what started off as a good humoured affair might have turned a bit ugly. Usually Downe is full of cyclists and walkers at that time, many no doubt enjoying the bonus entertainment provided by the cabaret group, whose desire to represent diversity led them to appear like extras from some under-resourced global disaster movie.
Anyway, let me just reassure you, dear readers, that EU flag-burning nights and torchlit processions behind smouldering Jean-Claude Juncker effigies remain unknown in Downe; it’s just a village dragged reluctantly into the limelight, for a few days only (hopefully).
Read accounts of the protest by a Guardian journalist who joined the cabaret group, and the riposte to his report from the Guardian-reading landlord of the Queen’s Head. Interestingly, many of the protestors have realised that the events were a bit of an own goal, given that Farage’s children and those of other diners in the pub were apparently terrified. To avoid deep depression about the future of the country, don’t read the comments.
The viaduct at Eynsford from the latter stages of walk 3, in awful weather
I went out this afternoon with my older son for a decent walk around Lullingstone/Eynsford. I hadn’t checked the weather, in fact I hadn’t glanced outside all day (football was on). I was dimly aware of it being windy but somehow had thought it would be mild. We considered going to see Whiplash at the cinema but decided some fresh air would do us good. Fresh?! Horizontal, freezing rain; a wind chill of -3C… well, it shows that even the North Downs have their wild side. The picture above just looks dull; doesn’t do justice to the sheer pain the elements inflicted on us today.
Mud near the Roman villa (walk 3)
In February the mud league table needs publishing, especially with some quite big rainfalls this past week.
So, from the driest to the wettest and muddiest walk (I haven’t loaded all these walks yet)
1 Knole (where does the water go?)
2 Downe (nothing too serious but popular stretches of paths quite squelchy)
3 Lullingstone river path (nasty, but the river distracts you – and the danger of sliding in)
4 Shoreham (some bad spots, particularly by the river on the way to Eynsford)
5 Toys Hill (soul-sapping seas of mud)
6 One Tree Hill (detours into the brambles will leave your clothes in tatters and your arms bleeding!)
7 Lullingstone path by Roman villa (pictured; after the steps the path is a morass of vile goop with no escape; mercifully short)
8 Andrews Wood slope (you’ll be on your arse in no time at all)
Knole, in Sevenoaks, is wonderful in all seasons and weathers, though hardly an undiscovered gem. And it’s the best option for a mud-free(ish) walk in winter. If you are driving there from south east London for a walk (rather than to visit the National Trust Tudor house), park the car in St Julian Road for free access and enter one of the many gates. The best gate, from the walk point of view and ease of plonking your motor somewhere, is at the junction of St Julian Rd and Fawke Wood Rd, by the little pond. Once in the park it’s about a mile and a bit to Knole House. I recommend going ‘off-piste’ on one of the smaller paths around the edge of the park (go in the gate and fork right, for example). You’ll always eventually come out somewhere where it’s open and you can get your bearings from a distant sight of Knole’s high chimneys. There’s a rarely visited conifer plantation close to this gate which is really rather atmospheric – if you like birds watch out for goldcrests at this point. If you are going by train, you can enter Knole from Sevenoaks High St, after a 15-minute walk from the station. Above is a picture taken just to the south of Knole House in the late afternoon of February 17.
Kent walks near London 