Walks you can reach from Sandling by train

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.

Highly recommended: Coastal cliffs, chalk downland, sea defences, wild landslip area, wartime installations, ridge between valley and sea and town crossing.

Hilly: a third on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Coastal: four fifths along the coast.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Western Heights (3h30 in)

Knights Templar Church Ruins (3h45 in)

Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)

1 lunch spot: Camping Café (1h15 in)

2 end-of-walk rewards: the Malvern, or the Priory Hotel

Warnings: Cracked sea defences.

Source: Trains2Green.

Similar walks: the Saturday Walkers Club and Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Reverse direction: Railwalks (inc. GPX).

Highly recommended: Clifftop chalk paths, two significant climbs, level pebble beach coastpath, open sea views and historic town.

Coastal: almost all along the coast.

Dover Castle: A vast medieval fortress overlooking the port and the Channel to France (30m in).

South Foreland Lighthouse (National Trust; 45m in)

The White Cliffs of Dover (National Trust; 1h in)

Time: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)

4 lunch spots: Saint Margarets Bay (2h15 in) — the Coastguard (excellent), the Pines Tea Room, or the bay kiosk; plus Walmer Castle and Gardens (4h30 in)

1 end-of-walk reward: the King's Head

Warnings: Relatively busy.

Adapted from: Time Out Country Walks Volume 2.

Similar walks: the Saturday Walkers Club, Walking Post (inc. GPX) and Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Reverse direction: Railwalks (inc. GPX).

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.

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.

Highly recommended: Verdant coastal cliffs, rolling hills and suburban streets.

Hilly: a third on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Coastal: three fifths along the coast.

Time: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)

2 lunch spots: Capel-le-Ferne (2h45 in) — Cliff Top Café, or the Royal Oak

7 end-of-walk rewards: the Royal George, the Harbour Inn, the Kipps' Alehouse, the Samuel Peto, the Pullman, the East Kent Arms, or the Lord Morris

Warnings: Begins, necessarily, with a lengthy suburban segment, but then becomes very beautiful and surprisingly quiet. Particularly lovely on the walk along the cliffs east of Folkestone, where there are also a number of lunch spot choices. The narrow overgrown paths are best. But note that there is a LOT of steep ascents and descents on this walk.

Source: Trains2Green.

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).

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.

Penshurst Place

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.

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).

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).

Linear Darent valley sides on the North Downs Way and Darent Valley Path: three nature reserves including Lullingstone Country Park and Polhill Bank, panoramic Kent Downs views.

Otford

Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Walk details: Kent Downs National Landscape (tips, photos and local insights).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Greensand ridge, chart hills, undulating woodland, commons, deer park, historic estates and suburban old town.

Toy's Hill (National Trust)

Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Steep climbs.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).