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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 31 August 2019

Saturday walk - Leigh to Tunbridge Wells - A Kent classic with tea in the Pantilles

Length: 18.9km (11.7 miles) T=1.15
Toughness: 5 out of 10

10.00 train from Charing Cross (10.03 Waterloo East, 10.09 London Bridge) to Tonbridge, arriving 10.49, changing there for the 11.01 (Redhill-bound) service to Leigh, arriving 11.05.

Buy a day return to Tunbridge Wells, which should be OK for the four minute journey to Leigh too, though technically this is off-route.

For walk directions click here. For GPX click here. For a map of the route click here.

It has been a while since this tranquil walk through the upper Medway valley had a summer outing, but it should be perfect for this time of year, offering plentiful opportunities to dawdle and meander. After a ridge walk you walk down across the parkland of magnificent Penshurst Place, and there is an early lunch stop here. Otherwise there are two possible pubs in Smarts Hill, the Spotted Dog having a fine view from its garden.

After more meanders in the Medway valley you eventually climb up through woodland to Tunbridge Wells, where you can either choose the scenic option of tea in the historic Pantilles, or try your luck getting into the deservedly popular Juliets in the high street.

Trains back from Tunbridge Wells seem to be a little less frequent than usual today -  at 09 and 39 past the hour


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm coming from East Croydon so I'll either be arriving at Leigh 10.26 or 11.26. Hope to catch the group at lunch time.

Anonymous said...

n=16 people in total. 12 on the advertised train. The 4 minutes to catch the connecting train at Tonbridge was too short for 1, who just missed the train and waited an hour for the next one, one came by car and 2 arrived on the 11.26 from East Croydon/Redhill.

It was good walking weather
w=not_too_hot_sunny_with_a_gentle_breeze and a nice time of year to do this walk. There were bales of hay in the fields, others were still in crop, plus lots of blackberries to nibble along the way.

Those lunching at the pub split 50/50 between the Spotted Dog and the Bottle House Inn. The Spotted Dog group were happy with their food and the coffee was excellent. It would be good to hear from the Bottle House Inn group as the group I was with didn't see them again.

Some of us went for a very good tea and excellent cranberry cake and pear tart at Fine Grind on the high street.