Length: 15.4 km (9.6 miles). Toughness: 4/10
09:34 Canterbury West train from Charing Cross (Waterloo East 09:37, London Bridge 09:43), arriving Chilham at 11:08. Or for a slightly more expensive but much quicker journey, the 10:04 Canterbury West train from St Pancras, changing at Ashford (arr 10:42, dep 10:56).
Trains back are hourly at xx:15 to Charing Cross. You can change at Ashford for St Pancras if you've got a ‘Plus High Speed’ ticket.
It's been over 12 years since I last did this North Downs walk but my notes say there are good views throughout the day from the open downland, interspersed with woodland stretches for variety. There's also a pretty river (the Great Stour) and a couple of grand houses to admire, Godmersham Park and Chilham Castle.
This walk has had fewer postings than it deserves in recent years because of reports of an unsatisfactory lunch pub (the Compasses Inn, which eventually closed), followed by the closure of Shelly's Tea Room in Chilham. Happily the pub and tearoom have both been taken over and reopened, and I'm sure the walk author would be delighted to get some feedback on them.
The lunch pub has apparently become Timber Batts @ The Compasses (01227-531898) and the tea place is now the Church Mouse Tea Rooms (01227-730303). The tearoom closes at 4pm but Chilham also has a couple of pubs if you miss out and have time to kill before the hourly train. Allow at least 15 minutes to get from the village to the station.
You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.138 page.
2 comments:
From comments on the Chilham walk page:
Colleen: #2 people enjoyed a day of #brilliant-sunshine-blending-into-an-afternoon-of heavy-rain-showers. Most importantly the pub is up and running again and most welcoming to walkers. Some challenges in the park due to what appears to be some temporary alternate footpath arrangements. Stunning views throughout the day.
Claudia: In spite of the heavy rain in the afternoon, this was such a great walk for the day, feasible in rainy days. A point of interest being the quirky and welcoming pub at lunch, The Timber Batts Inn. The White Horse Inn in Chilham is also a great place to rest after the walk, spent there a couple of hours reading.
I was absolutely intending to go on this one, to give the walk directions a check and try out the new pub. But the forecast looked dreadful, with near constant heavy rain. This did not seem to mix well with doing walk checks (hard to write notes on paper in the wet!!), so I chickened.... I am glad the two of you enjoyed the walk and had a nice day despite the showers.
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