March 29, 2026 by ammcculloch49

Early bluebells and owl on a British Summer Time stroll at Ide Hill

The clocks have gone forward, the hurly-burly months are upon us. Hibernation is over. I marked this momentous day with a stroll on the Ide Hill route on the Greensand Ridge. The promise of early sun had vanished as altocumulus set in with scudding lower clouds driven by a decidedly sharp, brisk westerly. I was later than I hoped because I had overslept and then, after chores, decided to put on some music – mostly jazz, predictably enough. I drove out past Hayes and Keston listening to an interview with Miranda Hart on Radio 3. All very interesting; the programme was called Private Passions and Miranda discussed her various TV shows, where she was at and so forth. Her musical choices were interesting; there was some Grieg – as featured in a famous Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn – a haunting choral piece called O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen and Stephane Grapelli’s take on Sweet Georgia Brown featuring Yehudi Menuhin. What a good set-up for a walk I thought, better than the usual football commentary.

I decided to park by the Ide Hill Community Store, just round the corner from the village (Kent’s highest allegedly) – it’s a fantastic spot with a great view of the weald and Bough Beech reservoir. I walked up through the woods to the Octavia Hill seat amazed at the number of bluebells in bloom considering we were still in March. A nuthatch called stridently and seemed to dart at me, while tits tittered and greater spotted woodpeckers thrummed away in the background. What with the slightly odd weather and the clocks going forward it all seemed strangely out of synch; an impression reinforced by the sudden woo-wooing of a tawny owl – at 2pm for heaven’s sake.

Early bluebells in March at Emmetts Garden/Scord’s Wood
Weald view on a dull day, near Ide Hill
Wet woodland, Scord’s
Celandine, anemone, bluebells in March
Emmetts early azaleas
Early bluebells at Scord’s wood, late March 2026

Later, in Scord’s, a wonderful wet woodland with lots of mossy old alder trees, my Merlin app picked up the sound of a marsh tit, quite unusual and another first for me. More nuthatches zoomed around purposefully and a pheasant joined in the tumult of bird song with its ridiculous rasping call that must alert every fox for miles around. I was hoping for a redpoll, a siskin or a treecreeper – all of which I’d seen here previously, but didn’t see any. The bluebells should be out in full within 10 days or so… they seem earlier this year than ever before. Is that just me? The National Trust’s Emmetts Garden was superb as ever with its cafe serving great coffee and cake.

All in all a memorable walk despite dull weather and not particularly muddy at all. No sheep or cattle encountered unlike last week at Fackenden Down when the highlanders surrounded the stile at the top of the Down itself. It just lacked a pint at the end; I was on my own so felt like heading off sharpish when back to the car.

March 24, 2026 by ammcculloch49

Early spring flowers on Kent walks near London

I write this on a dark Tuesday night with rain, driven by an angry, unpredictable wind, lashing down on to the roof of my conservatory. My little electric radiator is working overtime as I listen to the elements filling the sky above me. But I’m here to write about the onset of spring, about how the Kent walks near London have largely dried out rather well and how early bluebells, wood anemones, primroses and celandine are spangling woods and meadows with vivid colours. I also want to mention how great the blackthorn bushes and trees look this year. The snow-white flowers of blackthorn, the stalwart of early spring blossom, are a vital source of nectar and pollen for bees in spring. The Woodland Trust website says its foliage is a food plant for the caterpillars of many moths, including the lackey, magpie, swallow-tailed and yellow-tailed and that it’s also used by the black and brown hairstreak butterflies. Its thorny, dense thickets are great for birds to nest in too and of course its gorgeous sloe berries in autumn are a rich source of sustenance for a variety of creatures.

Blackthorn is seen on all the walks; take a close look, it’s definitely one of those sights we take for granted but the more you look, the more you are rewarded.

Yes, all this happens every year but it seems so miraculous each time, as long as you don’t forget to look. And right now we need to look, given the gloom visited on us by the horror of unwanted wars and fears over our livelihoods.

Early spring at Romney Street, Eastern Valleys walk
Primrose in Scord wood on the Ide Hill walk
Blackthorn on One Tree Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent
Wood anenomes on Fackenden Down
Cuckoo flowers and bluebells near Bore Place, Bough Beech
Celandine on the Fackenden Down walk
Magpie Bottom view, late March
Primroses on the chalk downs of Kent at Austin Spring, near Shoreham
Blackthorn on Fackenden Down
Wood anemones and bluebells
Colours of late March
Blackthorn clump between Austin Spring and Romney Street, Fackenden walk

March 5, 2026 by ammcculloch49

Chalk in an early spring walk

After such a rainy winter it’s likely this weekend will see a mass exodus to our Kent footpaths, some of which have taken on a rather liquid quality in recent weeks. Sunday looks as if it’ll be the better of the two days but Saturday will be dry and mild – maybe the better bet if you want a bit of peace and quiet.

I recommend to bide your time… wait until things have dried out a bit, especially if you are thinking of a Greensand Ridge walk around Sevenoaks or Westerham. I’m no expert but the soil and geology of the walks on the sandstone and on the clay of the Weald tend to get very boggy at this time of year; the soils are thicker and water sits a lot more. Add into that the popularity of One Tree Hill, for example, and you find churned up paths and impassable stretches without detours into the brambles.

However, up on the chalk hills the surface water drains away pretty well through the thin soil into the porous chalk – generally speaking that is. Downe has got very squelchy despite having a chalk foundation. This is partly because of the silly fenced in path around the initial fields and the farming-induced quagmire at the end of the final field by the bus stop as you come back into the village. I’ve gone off it a bit out of season I’ve got to say.

Flooded woods, Bough Beech, March
Bough Beech nature reserve, March
View from Fackenden Down, March 2023
Gills Lap, Ashdown Forest, early March.
Petts Wood walk in March
Lullingstone in March
Chevening walk Point 3-4. March
Cherry tree blossom

If you’re in doubt which kind of walk is which, the chalk walks are numbers 2, 3, 5, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 (see top of the page to click on the links – I can’t be bothered to link these here!)

There are also tracks when you can get out of the mud – on the Chiddingstone, the Underriver, Knole and Bough Beech routes there are hardened paths to give relief. I’ve written about the tiny, quiet lanes here.

But there’s another factor to encourage you to walk on the chalk walks – the train. Eynsford, Shoreham (Kent), Otford are all on the Thameslink line down from Blackfriars. Kemsing is served by Victoria trains (but not Sundays sadly) and you can just about use Knockholt on the London Bridge line for walks starting in Andrews Wood (like Polhill and Pluto) if you don’t mind a walk to the start of the walk. There’s also the Hayes (not Middlesex!!) line from London Bridge via Lewisham for walks to Keston Ponds and Downe via Hayes Common.

February 16, 2026 by ammcculloch49

A break in the rain – quick, catch the train to Shoreham!

The unrelenting rain so far this year has put a bit of a dampener on Kent walks. There has been the odd decent day; the Saturday just gone for example so all has not been lost. The increased rain is pretty much in line with what weather scientists have been predicting given the pace of climate warming – and who would be surprised if by June we are in a drought? It seems to be the way of it these days. Personally, I’d love a bit of snow before February is out, but it seems an unlikely prospect.

Shoreham winter february — The path by the white cross with a view of the Darent Valley

Taking advantage of the sun on Saturday and in need of Vitamin D I hastily organised a train walk with a friend. The Thameslink from Catford whisked us to Shoreham within about 30 minutes – so much better than driving. We put together a route that’s a kind of hybrid of Shoreham Circular mk1 and mk2… so let’s call it Shoreham mk3. Starting from the station we: headed up White Hill to Warren Farm; turned south to Fackenden Down; west down the hillside to the A225; crossed the railway line and headed north up the valley floor; turned left and headed west up Water Lane to Filston Lane – then straight up to hill; turned right and headed north along the path above the white cross, back down to Mill Lane and the riverside path to the Samuel Palmer and back up to the station along the field-edge path. 5.5 miles of bliss in the sunshine. Birds of prey were plentiful: kestrel, buzzard and the now commonly seen spiral of red kites close to the village.

Of course, the paths were quite busy once down in the valley – people knew it was the only day to get out before the rain returned. The mud wasn’t too bad apart from one area of the Filston Lane field where cattle and trodden it into a mire. Otherwise you could have done it in trainers… that chalk geology does drain so well and there are several stretches of hardened paths/tracks on the route in any case.

CLICK HERE FOR GPX INTERACTIVE VERSION OF THE MAP BELOW

OS map of walk — Map of Shoreham mk3 route

November 10, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Autumnal tones on the Kent walks

Autumn in these parts is spectacular. I know people talk in hushed tones about the colours of New England, Canada and Italy’s Apennines in the fall, but really the effect is pretty similar wherever there are trees! Once again, don’t overlook what’s on one’s doorstep in favour of an expensive and laborious trip. The November views of the Weald from Wilmot’s or Mariner’s Hill, or across the Darent Valley and the beech woods of Lullingstone are undeniably amazing. The ever-changing wide skies of Kent are a big factor in teasing out colours and optimising certain tones with the lower sun offering saturated reds, yellows and pinks. And greys, let’s not gloss over.

What’s surprising to me looking at the photos below is how green the countryside is in the Penshurst photo compared with those from elsewhere, yet it was taken on 1 November one week before this weekend’s Hosey walk, and a week after the trip to Shoreham represented here. Strange… could be sunshine and time of day I suppose.

I have lots of great autumn photos from over the past nine years of operating this website. But a selection from the past two weeks (mostly – the Downe and Ide Hill photos are from previous years) is enough to make the point – autumn is a terrific time for a hike on any of the routes at KWNL.

Mariners Hill view across the Weald on the Hosey walk
Sunbeams and silhouettes looking west from Mariner’s Hill on the Hosey/Westerham walks
Tower Hill, near Westerham, on the Hosey/Westerham walks
A view across the Darent Valley looking east from between Eynsford and Shoreham.
Infant Darent River from the Hosey path
Near Penshurst on the Chiddingstone walk
Mariners Hill
Country lane near Romney Street
View from Shoreham station bridge
Mariners Hill view again
Wilmot’s Hill, One Tree Hill figure of 8 walk, at dusk
Downe walk
A deer in Downe, autumn
Fackenden Down view
Start of Ide Hill walk. Autumn
Classic autumnal Kent view from Emmett’s Garden looking across Bough Beach to Chiddingstone and the Weald
Ide Hill field, dusk, autumn
Wilmot’s Hill, late October 2025. One Tree Hill – Ightham walks

August 4, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Secret valleys on these NW Kent walks

Kent Walks Near London can offer several lovely, lonely little valleys with their own microclimates, special flora, shelter and that precious sense of seclusion. Here are four of the best on the walks here.

1 The Darent… but not as you know it

*Tower Hill, Westerham viewed from the ‘secret‘ valley of the infant Darent stream*

On the Hosey and Westerham walks I love the little south-north valley that winds its way from the sandstone ridge at Mariner’s Hill down to Westerham. It’s actually the valley of the River Darent just after it rises from a spring just behind the Greensand Ridge. I was delighted to realise this was where the Darent started, the stream is more associated with the chalk of the proper Darent Valley of Samuel Palmer fame – Shoreham, Otford and so on – not this obscure place near Chartwell.

*Harebells in the shadow of Tower Hill, Hosey walk*

The river is bounded by beech and conifer (with Tower Hill a dark bump just to the east) and initially runs through a delightful meadow of wild grasses, unseen from the path. It suddenly broadens into large shallow pools as it heads to Westerham before turning east and making its way to its ‘proper’ valley. Autumn colours here are wonderful.

2 Magpie Bottom – great name, great valley

*Magpie Bottom viewed from Austin Spring on the Fackenden walk*

This stunning little rift in the landscape features on the Fackenden Down, Otford/Romney Street/Shoreham and the Eastern Valleys walk in different guises. It is so secluded that only walkers know of it. And the few residents of the curious hamlet I think called Upper Austin Lodge on the OS map.

Magpie Bottom is a classic steep-sided chalk dry valley (similar to but more dramatic than the ones on the Downe, Polhill and Cudham walks) running north to south from behind the escarpment. These are caused by glacial meltwater long departed. The valley’s head at Great Wood and Eastdown just behind the chalk escarpment of the North Downs to Rose Cottage farm is a series of wonderful spots unreachable by car, but really it’s gorgeous all the way down past Romney Street, Round Hill, Upper Austin Lodge and Eynsford where it meets the Darent Valley. Possibly my favourite place on all the walks, and all the better for no longer having a golf course in it!

3 A verdant vale on the way to Ightham Mote

Hidden valley behind Wilmots Hill, Ightam Mote — *Broadhoath woods in the hidden valley behind Wilmots Hill, near Ightham Mote*

My final Kent canyon (it’s not a canyon) features on the longer version of the Oldbury/Ightham Moat route and is mentioned as a route alternative on the One Tree Hill figure of eight walk (see the blue line on the Google map at the KWNL page). So on the One Tree Hill routes it’s a diversion, a short cut that you’ll have to check your maps to include. But on the longer Oldbury walk it’s part of the deal. What shall we call it? It’s round the back of Ightham Mote and passes through a wood called Broadhoath behind Wilmot Hill (which has some of the greatest views in Kent). It has a lively little stream that rises just behind the Greensand Ridge, a terrific pond with viewing platform and interesting flora as it descends west to east to Ightham Mote itself, passing a shed built to house early 20th century hop pickers (you’d think hop pickers were in fact horses judging by the design of the housing – the landowners obviously weren’t too bothered by other people’s comfort levels). Like the other little valleys it’s good for birds: marsh tit and bullfinch have been seen here. It’s another totally secret dip, accessible only to walkers, that’s like an entry to another realm; a world away, but its paths are only 55 minutes from Sydenham.

June 1, 2025 by ammcculloch49

How to use Kent Walks Near London

It’s a great time of year for walking, as the visitor figures at Kent Walks Near London are showing. Wildflowers, birdsong, the sound of the breeze in the foliage, dry conditions and warmth are all balm for the soul – and how needed in these perplexing times.

It’s been great to bump into walkers using the website lately; generally all have been on the correct route and enjoying themselves! Only one couple were off piste, and this was because they had been following Bromley council’s signs for the Cudham circular rather than read the pdf they were holding of the Cudham Chalk Paths walk.

Ide Hill, Kent — Looking south-west across the Weald from Ide Hill

A smartphone can help

It’s been mentioned to me lately that it is still quite easy to take the wrong path at times. I really recommend using the GPX on the smartphone with takes you to my routes at Ordnance Survey or AllTrails. Here’s my Fackenden Down route at Ordnance Survey maps (actually done in reverse, but it doesn’t matter as the dot will show you where you are against the route whichever way round you’re doing the walk). If it all sounds a bit technical and you don’t want to be marching around peering at your phone, don’t worry – just take your time and read the instructions ahead so you’re not stopping every time there’s a side path and wondering if you should go down it. And if it does go wrong, enjoy that too… the countryside will still be lovely and all will come right in the end. It’s Kent, not the Amazon.

flax — Flax (linum) in a field in May, on the Fackenden Down route (walk 19), May 2025

A lot of KWNL users print off the PDF and go from there, but be warned: the PDFs are space-limited so I have to abbreviate at times. I think it’s best to use a combination of GPX map, the website on your phone and the pdf or just use a paper OS map just to check out the route in advance. Perhaps one day I’ll invent a special talking SatNav for KWNL so I can say ‘turn right, climb over the stile’ in real time. Actually, no; who wants that?

Contact me with route complications/updates

I really would appreciate people telling me when I need to update information, however. I can’t cover all the walks all the time so when things change – as they did on the Downe and Cudham walks in the past couple of years – it’d be great to get a heads up! Also, please send in bird/wildlife or plant observations… all welcome.

My best email is ammcculloch49@gmail.com for comms. I don’t bother with Facebook or Instagram much anymore (maybe I should try harder with the latter) – there’s just too much of all that and I consider social media to be run by awful people determined to do bad things generally. I deleted Twitter and I’m now on Bluesky if that’s any good to anyone (amackentwalks.bsky.social) but please excuse any tangential rantings you come across – I have other interests apart from walking (saxophone, Tottenham Hotspur etc) so it all ends up in one place.

May 10, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Bluebells 2025 – the winner!

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:

New Year’s Wood, Cudham chalk paths walk
Hedgerow bluebells, Bough Beech walk
Top of Wilmot’s Hill, One Tree Hill figure of eight walk

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.

April 15, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Cuckoo birds and flowers on the Bore Place/ Bough Beech route

The little Bough Beech walk is one of those quiet ones: it doesn’t seem much but it creeps up on you and you realise you miss it if you haven’t done it for a while. The vast lake (described here) is a major spectacle at the beginning and end of the walk but doesn’t define the route; Bore Place, a delightfully hidden organic teaching farm and event venue, does. The walk is only two and a half miles (handy if you have a bad foot, as I do) to which you can add an hour‘s pop-in at the lovely nature reserve at the end, where there’s usually news of an interesting oiseaux or two keeping the friendly birders in the hide on their toes. Cuckoos (the star of this particular day), barn owls, kingfishers, migrating osprey are regularly seen here. On my recent walk here, as the fine pre-Easter weather started to break, interesting cloudscapes and shafts of sun reflected from the lake surface, while to the north the Greensand Ridge at Ide Hill and Goathurst Common were swept by very localised squalls. I was struck by how beautiful bluebells are when among cuckoo flowers; that was about as profound a thought I could muster while walking – which is how it should be. Back at home it was amazing to watch the simply incredible US Masters finale, though the football results did not bring me any comparable joy.

Trees in water, Bough Beech
North lake, Bough Beech
Cuckoo flowers and bluebells near Bore Place
North lake Bough Beech on a showery day
Bough Beech view of the Greensand Ridge

April 5, 2025 by ammcculloch49

Greening time and an early grass snake

To the accompanying sounds of chiffchaffs, blackcaps, wrens, tits, dunnocks and robins, I trekked the Polhill/Pluto route from Andrews Wood car park on Shackland Road. Suddenly there’s a sheen of green in the tree canopies; in fact there are canopies – not just stark branches – the colour scheme has seamlessly moved on from the gentle grey/browns of winter. Below the greening trees wood anemones and early bluebells are mixing with celandine, early cowslips, primroses and the odd cuckoo flower to add pixels of vibrant hues. I was delighted to spot a long, thin and beautifully patterned grass snake after hearing leaves rustling under a bush, but I couldn’t bring the camera to bear in time: damn autofocus! Slow worms were plentiful though, but you have to know where to look and avoid disturbing them. Buzzards took delight in the clear sky and subtle breezes. A fantastic walk.