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Hildenborough to Hadlow or Tonbridge Walk

Gentle walk through the Kentish Weald to one of the tallest follies in Britain.

Easy Kent

History

Club walks since April 2015, and a summary which goes back to Jan 2010.

Date Option Post # Weather
Sat, 07-Jun-25 Hildenborough to Hadlow or Tonbridge 7 it did not rain
Sun, 22-Oct-23 Hildenborough to Hadlow (or Tonbridge) 16 sunny
Sat, 09-Nov-19 Hildenborough to Hadlow 7 grey and damp
Sun, 25-Nov-18 Easy walking in the Kentish Weald 1 overcast
Sat, 08-Jul-17 Hildenborough to Tonbridge - gentle Kentish countryside with two nice pubs 22 hot and humid morning becoming sunnier and hotter
Sat, 24-Sep-16 Saturday Second Walk - Gentle Kentish countryside and a tall tower 30 sunny with a light breeze
Sat, 18-Oct-14 Hildenborough to Hadlow or Tonbridge Walk 39
Sat, 18-Oct-14 a Hildenborough to Hadlow or Tonbridge Walk
Thu, 12-Jun-14 Hildenborough to Hadlow or Tonbridge Walk
Walker
Length: 13.3km (8.2 miles) to Hadlow, 20.3km (12.6 km) to Tonbridge

9.45 train from Charing Cross (9.48 Waterloo East, 9.54 London Bridge) to Hildenborough, arriving 10.25.
Buy a day return to Tonbridge
For walk directions click here, for GPX click here, for a map of the route click here.
It is two and half years since this walk has had an SWC outing, though its mid section covers familiar territory, taking in the two potential lunch pubs of the Chaser Inn in Shipbourne and the Kentish Rifleman in Dunks Green.
Until 2023 there was also a lovely garden tea room on the outskirts of Hadlow, but this sadly - tragically! - has closed. That leaves a small tea room called Weathered and Worn (open to 4.30pm only) as the only refreshment option in the village, its last remaining pub having closed too.
You can end the walk in Hadlow (after 8.2 miles), taking the number 7 bus at 16 and 46 past (until 18.14, then 18.44, 19.11...etc) into Tonbridge (7 mins journeys time). There are lots of tea and pub options there.
Or you can walk to Tonbridge, adding 4.4 miles to the walk (so 12.6 miles in all). This is an entirely flat route, at first across agricultural fields, then along the River Medway, whose banks may (or may not: I have no certain knowledge) have nice displays of buttercups.
Trains back from Tonbridge are very frequent - every ten minutes or so
  • Brian
    Jun-25

    Does this mean the Rose & Crown in Carpenters Lane is closed? Always was a bit on the rough side.

  • Sean
    Jun-25

    The "temporarily closed" pub in Hadlow is the Two Brewers. The Rose & Crown and the Rose Revived are both shown as open, but they're some way off route and not mentioned in the directions. One of these days I might look at tweaking the route to take in one of these, but in some ways it's easier to hop on the bus and take your pick of Tonbridge's watering holes.

  • Walker
    Jun-25

    7 on this walk, others possibly put off by the dire weather forecast - thunder! potential flooding! But - and you know what I am going to say, right? - it did not rain , not for most of us anyway…

    After the rather tiresome road section at the start of the walk we were out into pleasant scenery - lots of green meadows, damp from the overnight rain. There were a number of large fields planted with an interesting set-aside mix of buckwheat and phacelia. Also several fields of oats.

    The initially cloudy weather cleared to some sunny intervals, so much so that the two of us who wanted a pub lunch took the risk of occupying an outside table in the otherwise deserted garden of the Chaser Inn. This lovely pub never disappoints. I had a fabulous homemade pie, while my companion had fish and chips. Three sandwichers joined us for drinks; two went on ahead.

    In the afternoon we saw house martins and swallows (twice!). We had an interesting diversion at one point while engrossed in talking about Queen Victoria. But we found a very nice unmarked path in the woods to get us back on course.

    Two of our party pulled ahead on this section and were not seen again. On the outskirts of Hadlow we met the two sandwichers who had gone ahead at lunch, but they got the bus. That left three of us to go to Weathered and Worn for tea.

    This we also had on the otherwise empty patio, enjoying the floor show (a robin and dunnock disputing the territory and so missing most of the cake crumbs we dropped). We scrutinised the rainfall radar. There was no doubt that there was an enormous splodge of rain to the west that was heading our way, but it was too early (4pm) to call it quits, so we decided to go for it and walk to Tonbridge.

    This section offered contrasting scenery: big flat arable fields but interesting wildflowers on their margins. Later by the river more swallows and more meadows. Some drops of rain, but nothing persistent.

    Then at 5.30pm our luck finally ran out and it bucketed down, giving our rain gear a thorough workout. We got to Tonbridge at 6pm. A planned “quick drink” in the ‘Spoons turned into a bit of a session, and it was not till 8pm that we caught our train home.

Sean
Extra Walk 219 – Hildenborough to Hadlow (or Tonbridge†)

Length: 13¼ km (8.2 miles) to Hadlow, or 20¼ km (12.6 miles) to Tonbridge. Toughness: 2 or 3/10

10:16 Tunbridge Wells train from Charing Cross (Waterloo East 10:19, London Bridge 10:25, Orpington 10:41, Sevenoaks 10:51), arriving Hildenborough at 10:57. Buy a return to Tonbridge.

If you finish the walk in Hadlow you'll need to catch an Arriva 7 bus for the 20-minute journey to Tonbridge. This runs half-hourly at xx:25 & xx:55 until 17:25. There are four trains an hour from Tonbridge to London Bridge and Charing Cross, at xx:07, xx:23, xx:37 & xx:51.

As there's no direct bus route between Hadlow and Hildenborough, car drivers might find it more convenient to park in Tonbridge; the 10:51 train gets to Hildenborough just before the one from London.

Hadlow Tower This is an undemanding walk in the Low Weald, with two places en route if you want a pub lunch: the Chaser Inn in Shipbourne (familiar from other walks) and the smaller and quieter Kentish Rifleman in the hamlet of Dunk's Green, half an hour further on. As usual, call ahead if you want to be sure of a table inside.

On the way into Hadlow the route goes past Broadview Gardens (free entry), but sadly the adjoining garden centre has closed so there's no convenient tea option here. If you need something to revive you before the train journey home, get off the bus in Tonbridge High Street and take your pick from the coffee shops and pubs there.

† If you want a longer walk there's a 7 km optional extension from Hadlow to Tonbridge, half of it alongside the River Medway.

You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.219 page.

  • author image
    Mr M Tiger
    Oct-23

    16 assembled on a sunny day - T shirt weather, surprising for late October. Not entirely perfect, though. Water had fallen from the sky and, in some fields, it had interacted with the ground to form what is called ‘mud’. Not too bad, but Mr Tiger’s boots are pristine no more.

    Some ate in Shipbourne churchyard. The Chaser had said they were ‘fully booked’ to those who rang but the spacious garden had empty tables and orders were taken. The food looked sumptuous and, by all accounts, it was. Mr Tiger got himself a pint of ‘Bonkers Conkers’ and sat next to someone with chips. It wasn’t long before they turned into a kindly benefactor.

    Service was a bit erratic.One person’s meal arrived just as we were fixing to go.We left him there cos that’s the kind of people we are.

    One or two, maybe three, were heading for Tonbridge and were never seen again. About six paid a second pub visit to the Kentish Rifleman. Mr Tiger realised to his horror that the group he’d joined were taking a shortcut that avoided that establishment.

    Eventually, Hadlow was reached. Some went straight for the bus. Others took a stroll round Broadview Gardens. Interesting despite having an air of neglect.

    A glimpse at the tower, now sealed off from the public, then home. All agreed, a grand day out.

PeteG
Hildenborough to Hadlow

Length: 13.3km (8.2 miles) option of 21.5km (13.4 miles) walking on to Tonbridge
2/3 out of 10

Typical Wealden countryside of fields, meadows and the occasional wood. At Shipbourne (pronounced Shibbun) you join the Greensand Way for a short section to the hamlet of Dunk's Green, then head south-east along the valley of the River Bourne to Hadlow. On this last stretch you find yourself heading towards one of the more peculiar sights you are likely to encounter on a Home Counties walk: a multi-tiered Gothic folly, taller than Nelson's Column.

Note: If walking on to Tonbridge. Apparently the route has been updated quite recently, but the new PDF is not yet loaded but the GPX for that section is the new route.

Trains:
Get the 1000 Tunbridge Wells train from Charing Cross arriving 1042, London Bridge 1007. Buy a return to Tonbridge
Return is by a bus from Hadlow to Tonbridge High Street, Arriva route 7 every 30 mins approx xx17 xx47 from Hadlow College, journey time 18 minutes

Lunch: Halfway through the Main Walk the Chaser Inn in Shipbourne serves food all afternoon. Half an hour further on you come to the Kentish Rifleman, Dunk's Green. It serves homemade food up to 2pm

Tea: Broadview Gardens Tearoom open to 5pm & convenient for the bus


  • Anonymous
    Nov-19

    A lovely misty start redolent of old poems like Horses by Ted Hughes.

    .... And I saw the horses:

    Huge in the dense grey — ten together —

    Megalith-still. They breathed, making no move.........

    The mist cleared by the sun never happened as the sun never made it out and the day was grey and damp for the most part.

    Lunch was at Shipbourne during which we dried off shoes and socks by the fire and discussed bailing out with a bus from there but in the end decided to continue to Hadlow.

    For all the the greyness the day was lovely and a thoroughly enjoyable walk and we wouldn't have had any rain at all if it hadn't been for a newbie out of the blue announcing 'Well we seem to have dodged the rain'. Four of us dashed to touch wood which to a great extent nipped the damage in the bud and we only had a few spots of rain. Three of us had tea and the other four took the bus before us 7

    Grey but great day.

Chris L
Hildenborough to Hadlow or Tonbridge

Length: 13.3km (8.2 miles) or 21.5km (13.4 miles) Toughness: 2/3 out of 10

09:59 Hastings train from Cannon Street (London Bridge 10:04; Orpington 10:21) arriving Hildenborough at 10:36.
There are no trains from Charing Cross or Waterloo East today, due to engineering works.

Return trains from Tonbridge to Cannon Street are at xx:07, xx:21, xx:37 and xx:49 (journey time 41 – 47 mins) or to Victoria at xx:16 (journey time 54 mins).

This walk mainly covers typical Wealden countryside of fields, meadows and the occasional wood. At Hadlow you will find a multi-tiered Gothic folly, Hadlow Tower, taller than Nelson’s Column, and now used as a luxury holiday rental property. Nearby is another attraction, Broadview Gardens. The walk extension to Tonbridge is mainly alongside the River Medway.

Two possible lunch pubs en route to Hadlow are the Chaser Inn (01732 810360) in Shipbourme, and the Kentish Rifleman (01732 810727) in Dunks Green.

For those finishing the walk at Hadlow there is a half-hourly bus service to Tonbtidge at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour until 17:26, taking 22 minutes.

You will need to download the Walk Directions.

  • Anonymous
    Nov-18

    Anyone planning to go?

  • Anonymous
    Nov-18

    Yes

  • MoonBrain
    Nov-18

    I missed the scheduled train and did catch up with, if any, other walkers. So number of walkers i can report 1

    As I was running late, I didn't stop at either of the recommended pubs, so the rest of the group may have been in one of them. Walking across fields was tough going with mud clinging to the boots.

    At Hadlow I caught the bus to Tonbridge as the light was fading.

    overcast

Walker
SWC walk 219 - Hildenborough to Tonbridge
Length: 13.3km (8.2 miles) or 21.5km (13.4 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10

10.00 train from Charing Cross (10.03 Waterloo East, 10.08 London Bridge, 10.26 Orpington) to Hildenborough, arriving 10.42.

Buy a day return to Tonbridge.

For walk directions click here.

This is an easy saunter across a gentle corner of Kent which takes you to a choice of two lunch pubs, both familiar from other walks. One is the lovely Chaser Inn in Shipbourne with its lovely garden by the church; the other is the more homely Kentish Rifleman in Dunk's Green.

In the afternoon you come to Hadlow, whose strange tower (a 19th century folly) dominates the landscape but is frustratingly hard to get close to. Hadlow's other attraction is Broadview Gardens, free to enter, created by students of the adjacent horticultural college. It has a tea room, with nice outside tables. There are also two tea places in the village open to 5pm, though I have never tried either.

If all those cream cakes have robbed you of your will to carry on, buses run from Hadlow to Tonbridge railway station at 16, 36 and 56 past till 18.16, then 18.43, 19.11, 19.41, 20.11, 20.41... This is the 13.3km (8.2 mile) version of the walk

Or fortified by tea you can continue the walk to Tonbridge (the 21.5km/13.4 mile version of the walk), across flat fields and along the banks of the River Medway.

Trains back from Tonbridge are very frequent: just turn up at the station and one will be imminent.
  • Bill S
    Jul-17

    22 departed from Hildenborough station. A hot and humid morning becoming sunnier and hotter as the day wore on. Most of us opted for lunch at the Kentish Trooper where we sat in the garden. Despite initially being somewhat overwhelmed by a sudden influx of walkers and locals, the pub coped admirably, delivering our food with commendable speed and good grace. After a longish break (it was that sort of day) 15 or so of us set out together on the afternoon leg. Five(?) decided to finish at Hadlow and were last seen heading for the Broadview Gardens tea room. The rest of us decided to press on to Tonbridge where one of our number, acting on a hunch found an excellent little tea room (Beyond the Grounds - http://beyondthegrounds.com/ ) overlooking the river and castle on the other side of Big Bridge. The two staff here dealt with our incessant demands for tea (in copious quantities), cake (very nice) and hot and cold water with good humour. Thus refreshed we departed for the train back to the London.

Walker
SWC walk 219 - Hildenborough to Tonbridge
Length: 13.3km (8.2 miles) or 21.5km (13.4 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10

10.00 train from Charing Cross (10.08 London Bridge) to Hildenborough, arriving 10.42

Buy a day return to Tonbridge.

For walk directions click here.

We have so many walks these days that some are created, debuted and then forgotten in our mad rush to try ever-newer walks. (The fact that some walk creators go on to research further walks in the same area does not help....)

 According to the database this one has not had an outing since October 2014. After a bit of road walking to start it rises into gentle Wealden countryside and offers a choice of two pubs - the Chaser in Shipbourne and the Kentish Rifleman in Dunk's Green - for lunch.

You might recognise these from SWC walk 41 Yalding to Sevenoaks and relentless seekers after novelty could switch to the afternoon of that walk after lunch if they wanted. But the official route is to carry on to Hadlow, with its tall tower (a folly, which is easily visible but frustratingly inaccessible at ground level) and - perhaps more to the point - Broadview Gardens which has a nice tea room, open till 5pm.

This is the 8.2 mile version of the walk and from here you can catch the 7 or 77 bus to Tonbridge at 02, 24 and 42 past until 17.42, then 18.35, 18.47, 18.55, 19.43, 20.46, 21.46.

Alternatively it is a flat five miles, initially across fields with good views of the Hadlow Tower, latterly along the River Medway, into Tonbridge - the 13.4 mile version of the walk.

Trains back from Tonbridge are very numerous - every ten minutes or so.

  • Anonymous
    Sep-16

    After Hadow Tower, you could also detour to the PM of the Tonbridge Circular walk, passing Tudeley Church and it's fabulous Chagall windows: http://www.tudeley.org

    It's open until 6pm over summer (until the clocks go back).

  • Sean
    Sep-16

    Tudeley church is on the morning of the Tonbridge Circular walk, not the afternoon. You could do this section in reverse to return to Tonbridge, but even if you took the short cut at Five Oak Green this would more than double the length of the walk, from 13¼ km to about 27 km.

    The Tonbridge Circular was posted on two Saturdays in 2015 and I'm rather pleased to see that Walker has chosen to give an outing to its relatively neglected cousin.

  • Bridie
    Sep-16

    A curiously slow and gentle day out.

    Out of 30 people on the walk there was 1 who got an earlier train and 2 arrived on a later train Train dropped us into a sunny with a light breeze day so excellent walking weather and dry under foot which made for ankle breaking journeys across several fields of ploughed hardened mud though as far as I know the day was without incident.

    Incident free ( even for the sock and sandal crew ) the walk is nice and gentle with no real slopes and very green views throughout.

    Throughout there are excellent foragong options for the last knockings of blackberries and a patch of plentiful hedgerow damsons which delayed a few walkers who seemed to be trying to make this their lunch

    Lunch at The Kent Rifleman was good though service slow but ameliorated by a friendly barman and server and nice food at reasonable prices.

    Prices for tea at the Hadlow Garden Centre were standard but don't bother with the chocolate cake ( toooo dry ) and a poor selection of teas and extremely slow service, served I would guess by students from Hadlow Agricultural College but otherwise it was fine ?

    Fine for most of us to get the bus at Hadlow but 6 people or so did the extra 5 miles to Tonbridge with one miraculously being on the station at Tonbridge when we got there.

    There were loads of orchard and windfalls on the last part of the walk acording to the walker who beat us to Tonbridge where it turns out though it is a fair size twon there is no cinema

    Cinema beckoned to a couple of the walkers who spent some time sussing out the cheapest Bridget Jones Baby and ended choosing Shepherds Bush which seemed to fit the bill

    Bill wasn't on the walk this time

    Time – too much on my hands