Length: Length: 14.2 km (8.8 miles). Toughness: 2/10
10:21 Thameslink Three Bridges train from London Bridge (East Croydon 10:36). Change at Redhill (arrive 10:52, and hop over to Platform 2 for the 11.10 Southern service to Tonbridge) arriving at Leigh at 11:36
If you miss the above train, you could take the 10.30 Thameslink Horsham train from London Bridge (East Croydon 10:47, Redhill 11:05). You'll have a tight 5 minute change at Redhill for the above connection.
Return trains from Hever are on the hour every hour
Buy a return to Leigh (kent). On the way back it is only valid as far as Edenbridge. In practice a Leigh ticket is usually accepted from Hever, the next stop, but you might be asked to pay a small supplement.
Today's walk follows a completely different walk to yesterday's Leigh to Tunbridge Wells walk (the routes just cross at Penshurst). The proposal today is to reverse route of Hever to Leigh for a change so you may find it easiest to use a map or GPS. The route passes two castles, a stately home, rivers, ponds, woods, undulating hills and three lovely villages: the National Trust village of Chiddingstone; Penshurst, with its half-timbered houses; and the historic village of Leigh
You'll reach Penshurst around 12.45-13.00 so you could have an early lunch there, and stop for tea later on at one of the two nice tea rooms in Chiddingstone. Or you could opt for a later lunch in Chiddingstone. In Hever, the garden of the King Henry VIII is a nice spot for a drink, if you have time to spare before the train. Note: It's 1½ km from this last pub to Hever station, so allow at least 20 minutes to reach it.
Penshurst: Leicester Arms Hotel (01892 871617). Porcupine Pantry (outside Penshurst Place and Gardens 01892 870 307, 01892 871277)
Chiddingstone: Castle Inn Pub. (tel 01892 870 371). The Tulip Tree Tearoom. Chiddingstone Castle tearoom (01892 871504)
Hever: King Henry Ⅷ inn (01732-862457)
These walks are self led: for full details and to download your copy of the directions see the L=1.19 page.
8 comments:
Table for 6 has been reserved at Leicester Arms as it's Easter weekend. Can adjust on the day if needed.
See above my walk report on Leigh to Tunbridge Wells which follows similarly muddy terrain with fields waterlogged with cattle hooves. Please take note and take high cuff leather boots and poles.
This is an entirely different route to Friday's (other than that we go through Penshurst at lunchtime).
Most of the morning to Penshurst is along hard surfaces (apart from the initial stretch to and alongside the river. A quick look at the map shows it's possible to divert from the river section along hard surfaces, if needed, and there are similar diversions on the map for parts of the afternoon.
The next few days look dry (there's even some sun forecast) so hopefully it will be a bit drier underfoot by Saturday.
But, inevitably all walks will have mud after the recent heavy rain so come prepared. It's only mud!
Good to see that you have a map for possible alternative options. This is not just mud its major flooding possibilities.
I did a walk in the Weald this week from Battle to Robertsbridge. A bit of mud, but nothing excessive. I was actually surprised how dry the ground was.
It's the OS map for this walk on this website.
Pleased to report that mud on Good Friday walk was perfectly manageable.
I think we were #15. A #Lovely_calm_mild_day_with_sunshine. I always enjoy this walk, even though I've done it countless times. Lots of birdsong, plenty of ransoms, a few bluebells starting to flower. The llamas are still there but there seem to be more of them and they've been joined by an alpaca. The paths were almost all dry, just the odd patch of mud but hardly enough to mention.
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