Otford to Eynsford walk

2 climbs, the River Darent, two castles, and a Roman villa

Videos

Add your video to Youtube, and place the following tags at the start of the description.

swcwalks
book1
walk23
  • Lullingstone Park, Darent Valley Path and Eynsford Castle | Day Saturday | 🇬🇧 Hiking UK | England
    Hiking In London, Mar-22

    A contrast between hidden valleys in the North Downs and the Darent Valley Path through three interesting villages (Eynsford, Otford and Shoreham).

    Distance: 16 km

    Grading: Challenging

    Rating: 7 out of 10

    Ascents: 400 m

    hiking time: About 4 to 5 hours of actual hiking

    It starts along a country lane through the secluded Austin Lodge valley, climbing to the isolated settlement of Romney Street.

    It continues on an undulating section to a ridge with fine views of the Darent valley, from where you descend into Otford, passing its scale model of the Solar System. The village has many interesting old buildings and the route takes you past the ruins of Otford Palace.

    This route also goes past Eagle Heights, one of the UK's largest Bird of Prey centres.

    After passing extensive lavender fields at Castle Farm an attractive riverside stretch leads to Lullingstone Castle.

    #HikinginLondon #DayHikeSaturday #Lullingstone

    © Club Hiking in London. Ltd (CASC) in collaboration with Saturday Walkers Club.

    swcwalks book1 walk23

  • Otford to Eynsford. 13/1/13.
    amib, Jan-13

    This is another shortish walk of 8.8 miles in the county of Kent.

    Setting out on a bright day, with a bitter wind, the walker is soon leaving the station behind and passing 'Uranus', one of Otford's Solar System miniatures. Thereafter, it's across fields and along lanes for some fine views from Meenfield Wood. Then, there's a gentle descent into the pretty village of Shoreham where lunch can be had at any one of three hostelries, or, in this case, in the porch of the fine village church.

    Reinvigorated, the walker continues along the Darent Valley Path to then join The Millennium Footpath for a section of uphill walking. As usual from heights, the views offer great recompense.There's then some woodland walking before coming out onto a golf course, with some fine views, and then reaching Lullingstone Park, with its Visitor Centre and Castle.

    Thereafter, it's on past Lullingstone Roman Villa, and under an impressive Victorian rail viaduct before an optional detour to another castle ruin at Eynsford (not taken today). Eynsford rail station follows shortly after.

    Another impressive shorter walk that is just over half an hour from Central London.

    (First Snowdrops of the season seen today outside the church wall of St Bartholomew's, and what appeared to be ludicrously early Primroses in Mill Lane, Shoreham, though neither filmed, unfortunately).