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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday, 4 June 2022

Borough Green to Sevenoaks

SWC Walk 36:  Borough Green to Sevenoaks t=1.36

Distance:  9.3 Miles or 15.0 km for those more metrically minded

Difficulty:  4 out of 10

Train:  Take the 9:55 AM Ramsgate train from London Victoria (stopping at Bromley South 10:12), arriving at Borough Green at 10:41.  Return trains from Sevenoaks are frequent. Buy a day return to Borough Green. 

This walk is posted as a special request, as a walk previously led and enjoyed by Bridie. It is a pretty and varied walk passing both Ightham Mote and Knole House. It passes through orchards and pretty woods and has some fine views from the Greensand escarpment. You can find more information about the walk and download the walk instructions here.

The recommended lunch venue is either at Ightham Mote or the Chaser Inn, a large pub with an interesting and varied menu, in Shipbourne via a short diversion (in the walk notes).

Tea can be had at the Brewhouse Tearoom at Knole House if you arrive early enough. If not, Sevenoaks has a number of options mentioned in the walk notes.

Enjoy the walk!

2 comments:

Mike A said...

Stephen quite liked to offer foraging opportunities on the walks he led for the Ramblers. When this walk was posted in late summer back in the day, it was possible to pick up an apple or two after entering the orchard off Winfield Lane (about a kilometre on from the sleepy picturesque village of Basted). Some had heavy rucksacks as they left the orchard and headed towards Plaxtol!

Walker said...

N=22 on this walk, with Stephen Backes also one of the party in spirit, referenced in conversation multiple times during the day. The weather was frankly w=a-bit-autumnal - windy and cloudy. The sun tried to come out in the afternoon, but only managed it to any degree once we were back at the station.

During the crossing of the Fairlawne Estate there was a parting of the ways, about half going directly to Ightham Mote and the others taking the extra loop to the Chaser Inn in Shipbourne. This was weirdly empty - I had expected it to be rammed. Appropriately for Derby Day, the five of us who ordered food were given a nice table in “the Jockey Room”. We were later joined by an equivalent number of picnickers for drinks.

I have in the past criticised the vegan/vegetarian offering in this pub, but the menu has now been revamped. I was very satisfied with my bean chilli and there were no complaints about the vegetarian nachos to my right. A walker who ordered salmon was unhappy with the portion size, however.

At Ightham Mote three peeled off briefly to have a look at the house: the rest of us carried on through the woods, up the hill, and across the lavender fields (not out yet, but alive with twittering larks). Perhaps it was the flashes of sun, but at this point all looked particularly lush and lovely, and I started to worry we would finish too early (which we did, really…).

Getting to Knole Park around ten of us braved the tea queue, the well meaning staff a bit of a case study in dither and disorganisation. We went onto the upper deck, whose existence I confess I had previously not noticed, and which we (and the occasional scavenging jackdaw) had to ourselves. Here we had a great view of the old rooftops of the house as we wolfed our scones and debated if it should be jam or cream on top. (Cream, obviously: end of discussion!)

Then by the park route rather than the town to Sevenoaks station, which we reached at 5pm. The fast train to London was busy. Back in Charing Cross by 5.30pm. How strange…