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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.

Sunday 28 October 2018

Sunday walk - A Kentish ramble near London

Knockholt to Hayes

Length: 16km (9.9 miles) Toughness: 4 out of 10

09:58 Sevenoaks train from Victoria, calling at several stops in south-east London including Bromley South (10:26), to arrive at Knockholt at 10:45.
If you just miss that train, or if you don’t mind taking a chance, you could catch the 10:13 Ramsgate train from Victoria, changing at Orpington (arr 10:36, dep 10:40) on to the slower service above.

Return trains from Hayes to Cannon Street are at xx:02 and xx:32 (journey time 41 minutes). Change at Lewisham for Waterloo East and Charing Cross.

Both stations are within London Travelcard Zone 6

This is a fine rural walk through fields, woods and valleys in London’s ‘Green Belt’, with an opportunity to visit Charles Darwin’s home, Down House (English Heritage) in the afternoon. If you choose to do this, you will probably run out of daylight to complete the walk but could catch a 146 bus from Downe Church to Bromley South station, leaving at 20 minutes past each hour (journey time 18 minutes).

Today’s walk reverses the familiar Hayes to Knockholt walk for several reasons:
a) Instead of finishing with the same 4km as the Knockholt Circular ending, this walk reverses that stretch to give a new feel to it.
b) There are no tea places near Knockholt station, whereas Hayes offers several options.
c) The recommended lunchtime pub in Cudham comes slightly earlier in the walk.
d) Those wishing to visit Down House can do the bulk of the walk before breaking off and then have an easy onward bus journey available.

The recommended lunchtime stop is the Blacksmith’s Arms in Cudham (01959 572678), though you could carry on for another 30 minutes to the Queen’s Head or the George and Dragon in Downe.

For the moment, the link to the Walk Directions takes you to the original Hayes to Knockholt version of the walk. It is hoped to get the reversed directions up here by Sunday, but even if that isn’t possible, the walk’s author will be there to ensure that no-one goes wrong while following the existing directions backwards.
T=swc.82

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone doing this walk?

Chris L said...

Don't worry, you won't be alone. You'll meet others on the train or at Knockholt station. It's not customary for people to post here that they're planning to do the walk, since we don't find it necessary to do so.