Walks you can reach from Pluckley by train
MapA day hike is just a simple train journey away — plan your next day of green.
Alternatively, view walks directly from Pluckley.
Sevenoaks Circular via Ightham Mote (Kent)
45 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Highly recommended: Pleasantly rolling hills and dales, fields and vales, oast houses and hay bails. Beautiful expansive views to the South, which make you appreciate well preserved the wooded hills of the Kent Downs are. Wandering through Knole Park is idyllic, especially toward the evening when the humans are gone and the deer are in force. Mostly secluded.
Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.
Knole House: enormous aristocratic estate, associated with the Bloomsbury Group; well worth a visit but consumes a day in itself (45m in).
The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio (National Trust; 45m in)
Knole Park (National Trust; 45m in)
One Tree Hill (National Trust; 1h30 in)
Ightham Mote: Immaculately preserved medieval manor house with idyllic gardens. Touring the house thoroughly takes an hour, and the gardens another 30 minutes (2h15 in).
Deer in Kent Downs National Landscape (National Trust; 3h45 in)
Time: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)
2 lunch spots: Ightham Mote café (2h15 in; not bad), or the Bucks Head (3h30 in)
Warnings: Some mud inevitable.
Source: Trains2Green.
Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.
Chilham to Canterbury (Kent)
30 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Highly recommended
Chilham (15m in)
Canterbury Cathedral (2h45 in)
Canterbury (2h45 in)
Time: 4h30 (3h walking, 1h30 lunch)
2 lunch spots: Chilham (30m in) — the Chilham Square, or the Star Inn
5 end-of-walk rewards: the Monument, the Unicorn Inn, the West Gate Inn, the Carpenters Arms, or the Old Buttermarket
Warnings: A fifth urban.
Adapted from: The Rough Guide to Walks in London & the South East (3rd edition).
Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.
Charing to Chilham (Kent)
30 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Highly recommended
Woodland: a third under tree cover.
Canterbury (4h15 in)
Chilham (4h15 in)
Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
2 lunch spots: the Flying Horse (1h45 in), or Perry Court Tea Room (2h15 in)
3 end-of-walk rewards: the Chilham Square, the White Horse, Chilham, or the Woolpack Inn, Chilham
Warnings: Penultimate section of the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury.
Adapted from: The Rough Guide to Walks in London & the South East (3rd edition).
Borough Green & Wrotham to Sevenoaks (Kent)
45 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Highly recommended: Greensand hills, apple orchards, woodland paths, streams, deer park, open parkland and historic manor grounds. Mostly secluded.
Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.
Ightham Mote: Immaculately preserved medieval manor house with idyllic gardens. Touring the house thoroughly takes an hour, and the gardens another 30 minutes (2h in).
One Tree Hill (National Trust; 2h45 in)
The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio (National Trust; 3h30 in)
Knole House: enormous aristocratic estate, associated with the Bloomsbury Group; well worth a visit but consumes a day in itself.
Knole Park (National Trust)
Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
2 lunch spots: the Plough (45m in), or Ightham Mote café (2h in; not bad)
3 end-of-walk rewards: the Chequers, the Restoration, or the Sennockian
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Adapted from: The Rough Guide to Walks in London & the South East (3rd edition).
Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.
Yalding to Sevenoaks (Kent)
45 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Highly recommended: Undulating Kent farmland, orchards, bluebell woods, greensand escarpment and deer park.
Ightham Mote: Immaculately preserved medieval manor house with idyllic gardens. Touring the house thoroughly takes an hour, and the gardens another 30 minutes (3h30 in).
One Tree Hill (National Trust; 4h15 in)
The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio (National Trust; 5h in)
Knole House: enormous aristocratic estate, associated with the Bloomsbury Group; well worth a visit but consumes a day in itself.
Time: 7h30 (6h walking, 1h30 lunch)
3 lunch spots: the Swan on the Green (1h30 in), the Kentish Rifleman (2h30 in), or Ightham Mote café (3h30 in; not bad)
Source: Trains2Green.
Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.
Chilham Circular via Chilham (Kent)
30 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Downland escarpment, upland fields, woods, bluebell woods, country estate and a hilltop village.
Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).
Paddock Wood to Yalding (Kent)
30 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Flat flood plain, riverside meadows, tree-lined field edges, mixed woods, open countryside, village streets and gentle Greensand Ridge slopes.
Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).
Chartham to Canterbury (Kent)
30 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Apple orchards, a chalk stream and a cathedral, along the River Stour and the North Downs Way past No Man's Orchard into Canterbury.
Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.
No Man's Orchard: A community orchard of mature fruit trees alongside the North Downs Way.
Time: 4h30 (3h walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Orchard paths can be muddy; busy road section on the A28.
Walk details: Walking Post (tips, photos and local insights).
Tonbridge to Penshurst (Kent)
30 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Fairly flat walk along shaded paths through fields and riverside woodland alongside the River Medway.
Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.
The Tonbridge Castle: A Norman motte-and-bailey castle with a 13th-century gatehouse beside the Medway.
The Haysden Country Park: A lakeside country park on the River Medway floodplain near Tonbridge.
River Medway at Ensfield Bridge: Meadow-set river spot suitable for wild swimming and picnics.
St John the Baptist Church, Penshurst: Historic village church next to Penshurst Place.
Time: 5h (3h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
1 lunch spot: Porcupine Pantry Café
Warnings: Can be muddy in places when wet.
Walk details: Walking Post (tips, photos and local insights).
Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.
Sevenoaks to Kemsing (Kent)
45 minutes direct from Pluckley.
A National Trust extravaganza; Knole House and deer park, the Greensand Way, moated Ightham Mote, bluebell woods.
Woodland: two fifths under tree cover.
The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio (National Trust)
One Tree Hill (National Trust)
Oldbury Hill (National Trust)
Knole House: enormous aristocratic estate, associated with the Bloomsbury Group; well worth a visit but consumes a day in itself.
Ightham Mote (National Trust)
Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Steep drops and climbs through the woodland sections.
Walk details: Walking Post (tips, photos and local insights).
Sandling to Wye (Kent)
15 minutes direct from Pluckley.
North Downs escarpment ridge, open downland, woods, sloping fields and fine views over Kent coast.
Time: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).
Leigh to Sevenoaks (Kent)
45 minutes direct from Pluckley.
Rolling Kentish farmland, fields, oasthouses, bluebell woods, steep greensand hillside and deer park.
Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).