Sunday Walk – Paddock Wood to Yalding – An easy walk in the Medway valley

SWC Walk 338 – Paddock Wood to Yalding

Length: 18 km (11.2 miles). Toughness: 2/10

10:03 Dover train from Victoria^† (Orpington 10:31, Sevenoaks 10:40, etc), arriving Paddock Wood at 10:58. Buy a return to Yalding (or Wateringbury if you might want to extend the walk: see below).

† There are no trains from Charing X and Waterloo East because of engineering works.

Trains back from Yalding are hourly at xx:12, changing at Paddock Wood for Victoria.

This is an easy walk in the Medway valley, with a large chunk of it alongside the river. The refreshment places at Twyford Bridge have been problematic for a few years so it's good to discover that a new owner has recently bought Teapot Island and opened a new café & bar there. The walk goes past it twice so it functions as both a lunch and a tea stop, although you might be tempted to patronise the large Boathouse pub across the river on at least one of these breaks.

The afternoon leg is in the form of a Figure-of-8, so for a shorter walk you could omit the outer loop to Hunton (and with it the only hill), saving 5¾ km. To complete the walk there's a choice of routes from Twyford Bridge to Yalding station, with the slightly longer option taking you through a community orchard where there might be a few early windfalls to be had.

If you want to extend the walk you could carry on alongside the Medway and return from Wateringbury station, an extra 40 minutes or so. Trains back from there are at xx:09.

Please bring the directions from the L=swc.338 page. #2026-08-09T11:00