Length: Main Walk, via Four Elms: 19½ km (12.1 miles). Short Walk 1, via Bough
Beech village: 15½ km (9.6 miles). Short Walk 2, with alternative afternoon:
14¾ km (9.2 miles).
Difficulty: 4
out of 10
Trains: From London Bridge, you can take the 9.25 train to Redhill (East Croydon 9.42) arriving Redhill 10am with 9 minutes to spare before the 10.09 Penshurst train departs.
From London Victoria the 9.35 train to Redhill (Clapham Junction 9:42, East Croydon 9.53) arrives Redhill 10.04 with just five minutes to catch the 10.09 to Penshurst, which gets you there at 10.31.
Alternatively, from Charing Cross take the 9:29 train to Tonbridge, (Waterloo East 9.32,
London Bridge 9.38) arriving Tonbridge
10.10 where you take the 10.26 train to Penshurst arriving 10.34. The Redhill travellers can wait for the Tonbrige arrivals.
Return trains
from Penshurst are at xx:31 via Tonbridge changing to the xx.51 to
Charing Cross or xx.34 via Redhill
for the xx.11 to Victoria or the xx.15 to Londn Bridge.
This walk
starts through low-lying farmland interspersed with patches of woodland. At Bore Place it makes use of the farm's permissive trails to
reach one of the few viewpoints over Bough Beech Reservoir. The walk
continues across the causeway at the northern end of the reservoir where there
are good opportunities for bird-watching,
Lunch: The suggested pub on the Main Walk (after 8¾ km) is the Four Elms Inn (01732-700460), a traditional pub with a beer garden serving good-value pub food to 2.30pm.
For those
doing the shorter options, The Wheatsheaf (01732-700100)
pub/restaurant in Bough Beech is reached (after 9½ km).
Tea: In Chiddingstone the options are the Tulip Tree (01892-870326)
Chiddingstone
Castle Tea Room (01892-870347) is
in a
quiet courtyard with comfortable seating. It is hidden next to the shop at the
back of the castle and is open from 11am - 4.15pm.
At the end of the walk, the Little Brown Jug (01892-870318) in Chiddingstone Causeway is just across the road from Penshurst station; it is usually open all day and serves tea and coffee as well as normal pub fare.
L=swc.300
7 comments:
6 missed the connecting train at Redhill so we’re an hour later.
3 arrived at the appointed time. Another 6 from Clapham Jct missed the connection at Redhill thanks to their train arriving late. That makes 9. Redhill station’s a lovely place to wait for an hour. Such decor, such ambience. :( We did names.
After an eternity, the train came and we got to Penshurst. Two at the back were left behind. The other 4 were never seen again, although our spies tell us they visited the Tulip Tree in Chiddingstone. If you think of the walk as being bear shaped, the front 4 s plan was to circumnavigate its ear and then come back round its nose. The back 2 decided on an alternative route that took them under the bear’s chin, which they tickled. This allowed them to meet up with 2 of the early 3 at the Wheatsheaf. After drinkies, it was on to Chiddingstone Castle for tea and cakes. Here we were joined by another two, making a grand total of n=11
Then back to Penshurst, passing a field of little goats - or were they sheep?
We got to the station just in time for a train, so, sadly, no enforced pub stop “sigh”.
Much as we enjoyed our first stay in Redhill, we decided not to risk another, the service to London still being rubbish. We played safe and returned seamlessly via Tonbridge.
A very pleasant walk plenty of butterflies, dragonflies and some flowers. Weather w=cloudy-first-turning-sunny
On behalf of the later 6 delayed at Redhill 4 of us did the walk as listed enjoying the Bough Beech reservoir views stopping to talk to some bird twitchers. We then lunched at the Oast House visitor centre enjoying their benches and toilet facilities including a drinking tap to refill water bottles. Sadly it still seems closed but not locked and we had the place to ourselves. On then to the Wheatsheaf where we had drinks in the garden but what a shame to have missed the opportunity for a pub lunch in the atmospheric beamed interior. Must make an appointment for a future visit. Did anyone from the early arrivals including the cheating 2 who short cutted the morning route enjoy food here just for the record?
On then to Chiddingstone and an enormous delicious Courgette and orange cake with delicious cream cheese frosting ( not too sweet) at the Tulip café. I had to take part of the cake home as it was so large. We caught the train an hour later than the group who enjoyed the Castle cafe but met John and Joanna getting into their car at Chiddingstone.
I decided to take the home bound train via Tonbridge and had a swift journey to Waterloo east and then a fast train to Twickenham where I just missed my not so frequent 267 bus for the last leg. But low and behold a luxury white and gold liveried replacement bus service stopped and took me home via Brentford station where engineering work had already disrupted my morning journey even before Redhill.
I normally avoid this treacherously muddy part of the low Weald world and you could see the ground riddled with crevasses in the clay but thankfully my sturdy 40 year old leather summer boots kept me upright and relaxed apart from the overgrown brambles where we had to don our jackets to avoid being ripped to shreds. Thankfully the company made up for missing the train connection but a shame we missed the earlier group.
The little goats were sheep perhaps that rare breed Mouton?
@Marion: The Wheatsheaf is indeed an excellent pub. Although no-one wanted to stop for a pub lunch this time (as is becoming the norm on Sundays) the staff told me that they try to serve walk-ins if at all possible. Perhaps someone will post this walk midweek - but not in the muddy season - when there'd be no problem getting a pub lunch.
It's ridiculous that Southern didn't delay the Redhill-Tonbridge train by a few minutes to meet their connecting service from Victoria. Sadly one doesn't expect much from these non-customer-focused train companies any more. I hope you can be bothered to claim Delay Repay compensation, despite the hassle.
Tea'n'cake at Chiddingstone Castle was as nice as ever, with speedy and cheerful service. We enjoyed snatches of Kent Opera performing a gala concert in the grounds too (Papageno's song from The Magic Flute).
I reckon the sheep at Vexour might have been Soay, but that's just based on pictures on Wikipedia.
Yes Soay sheep Sean just recently broadcast on Country file. Margaret had recommended the cakes at the castle courtyard cafe and it’s a shame we missed the Kent opera extract but the texts received from Wanderer were received too late. Another time.
Also I accidentally swallowed several flies on my way round the bear’s neck. Didn’t really need anything else to eat
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