The recent heatwave was great for a short Kent walk – especially under a tree canopy. Last week I headed to Oldbury, near Sevenoaks for the Iron Age Fort walk. It is the shorter of the two Oldbury walks, at 4.2 miles; the longer one is more like 7 miles and takes in Ightham Mote and Stone Street. I didn’t have time for that, great though it is, having set off mid-afternoon.
Check out the interactive OS map of this walk here
Both Oldbury walks take in two wonderful, contrasting woods: Oldbury woods (and its adjoining Styants wood), on the iron age fort; and sandy Fishpond woods behind the steep cliff of Raspit Hill. The fort – one of the largest in Britain – is clearly defined. It has a deep ditch round it, a flat top and holloway paths through the sandstone. Its woodland is a site of special scientific interest and is mostly of oak, birch, rowan and beech. The ramparts of the 2,100-year-old fort – 2.5 miles long and enclosing an area of 124 acres – are really impressive and apparently built by the Celtic ‘Wealden’ people who spoke the common Brittonic language. The National Trust looks after the woodland and reckons it’s possible that the hill was the site of a battle against Roman invaders around 50BC. It may not have been Celts fighting against Romans but Belgae, the old foe of Julius Cesar in Gaul, who had displaced Celts in the region a few years earlier. Anyway, it’s easy to appreciate the strategic value of the fort as you look out across the Vale of Holmesdale and Heaverham/Kemsing on the chalk escarpment to the north and towards the Weald to the south. Saxons took over the area after the Romans left and began coppicing the trees – a practice that has continued to this day.
It’s natural attractions, away from the arboreal wonder, include plenty of orchids in the grassy wild meadows just north of the fort, wheeling buzzards and red kites, song thrushes, chaffinches and amphibians.
My walk was made even more interesting by my encounter with Long Distance Walkers’ Association hikers on their annual 48-hour 100-Mile Challenge (a circular route via Meopham to Crowborough). One them told me they had to walk through the night and would just take a few minutes’ sleep by the path. They were complaining a bit about the heat, having walked 18 miles already. It didn’t look like fun or even particularly companionable with many walkers seeming to stagger slightly. I’m sure it will have felt good when they finished though – 82 miles later! Perhaps a good bath may be on the agenda … I’ll never know.
I left the brave LDWA walkers close to the picturesque school and church above Stone Street. I turned east, along the cliff top to Raspit Hill then down through Fishpond woods. There are more conifers here than at Oldbury, which make them popular with goldcrests and coal tits, I noticed. A small frog hopped out of my way on the sandy path, alerting me to the ponds themselves, shrouded in lily pads, reeds, irises and fallen logs. The first two, as you head north back to the Styants car park, are particularly beautiful, the final one more of a muddy pit. Overall, it’s a fantastic woody walk – up there with Chislehurst/Petts Wood, Ide Hill and the nearby One Tree Hill figure of eight route as my favourite tree strolls.
Kent walks near London 