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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.

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Midweek day walk Chilham Circular

Chilham Circular

A climb into the Kentish Downs and a descent to two historic houses

Book 3* Walk 138  *Online only

Length :  16 km or 10 miles

Toughness :  5 out of 10

Getting there :  Catch the 10:08 am train from London St. Pancras International (10:15 am from Stratford International) to Chilham change at Ashford (platforms 5 to 6)
If you live near Bromley South Station, you may catch the direct 9:38 am train there and rendezvous with the Pancrastians as they board at Ashford 

Meeting point :  Chilham Station at 11:15

Tickets :  Buy a cheap day return to Chilham

Brief Description

Back to Kent this week with this scenic walk on the Kentish Downs.
The only Lunch time Pub stop is the lovely family run Compasses Inn. I would suggest someone phones from before setting out from Chilham to check all is well for a lunchtime meal.

You may find full details of this walk here and a printable PDF here

Suggested Lunch stop

The Compasses Inn at Crundale t: 01227 700 300

Suggested Tea stops

Shelley's Tea Room t: 01227 730 303 (Open to 4:00 pm on weekdays)

The White Horse t: 01227 730 355 (Might be closed)

The Woolpack Inn t: 01227 730 351

I'd suggest you allow 15 minutes to get from the tea stop to the station.

Map

OS Explorer : 137

Return train times

Trains return from Chilham at 14 minutes past the hour. Change at Ashford for the High Speed train to Stratford and St. Pancras International ( Total journey time 1 hour 9 minutes ) or stay on the train to go to London Victoria ( Total journey time 1 hour 53 minutes)  

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

anyone planning to go on this walk? jfk

Anonymous said...

Me! Just booked my ticket- sc

Anonymous said...

Lovely. Hope to see you then.jfk

Marion said...

Sorry but journey time for me would be 3 hours each way so will walk with Kingston ramblers today

Marcus said...


n=5 w=sunshine-and-light-showers

Just five of us plus Dotti on the main walk, with a sixth doing a variation of the walk and meeting us, briefly, at the lunchtime pub.
It was a typical April day of sunshine interspersed with light showers, but never heavy. The walk took us through some delightful countryside with lovely views all day in this quiet, unspoilt part of Kent, with good displays of bluebells in the woods and lots of Spring flowers.
Arriving at the Compasses Inn we received a frosty, unfriendly reception initially - you should have booked - but the staff warmed to us as we sweet talked and smiled our way into the (empty) restaurant where three of us were served an excellent lunch.
Having said hello to jfk who had set off from Wye, the five of us plus dog then embarked on the afternoon leg of the walk, equally nice with more lovely views. After some gentle hills and some quiet country lanes the route took us through Godmersham Park and into the picturesque and historic village of Chilham, where tea at Shellys is de rigueur - and highly recommended (but at weekends and Bank Holidays methinks it must be very,very busy).
Our small group had a lovely day's walking and we enjoyed good banter, kind weather, excellent travel, glorious views, bluebells - and even water features, thanks to the River Stour.
Not too bad a day, then.

Marion said...

I cannot stress too much the need to check out pubs for lunch. This Compasses Inn is notorious and well known to Saturday Walkers for its inability to cope with any number of lunches as the kitchen is too small. Even when the pub is empty they make a huge fuss every time and woe betide you turn up early as we did on the Wye circular and they refused to even let us sit down at our booked table. The food IS excellent but you MUST BOOK and at the weekend many years ago when 25 of us turned up, the friendly publican took 4 of in his Rolls Royce to catch the group up on the Crundale Downs as it took so long to feed us and the early lunchers refused to wait. The current owners are not so accommodating. On my alternative walk my Michelin Star pub at Thursley near Witley (Edwin Lutyens village) had not ordered their calor gas in time and had no gas to cook with. Luckily 2 of us had soup and fresh bread which was delicious but we hadn't booked so didn't know of the problems.