Walks you can reach from Yalding by train

North Downs ridge, southern escarpment, fields, woods, open views south, forest, country park, open countryside and urban streets.

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

River Medway valley, riverside paths, low hills, orchard country, country lanes, water meadows and woodland.

Time: 3h

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

River Medway, a medieval Carmelite priory, old chalk quarries, North Downs views and the Neolithic tomb of Kit's Coty House.

Aylesford Priory (The Friars): A medieval Carmelite priory beside the River Medway, founded in 1242 and restored as a working friary and retreat centre.

Kit's Coty House: A Neolithic chambered long-barrow burial monument on the North Downs, built roughly 6,000 years ago.

Cobtree Manor Park: A country park on the slopes above the Medway occupying the former site of Maidstone Zoo.

Walk details: Explore Kent (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Chalk grassland, orchid-rich fields and woodland in Ranscombe Farm reserve, the neoclassical Darnley Mausoleum and the North Downs Way.

Ranscombe Farm Reserve: A 560-acre combined nature reserve and working farm in the Kent Downs AONB, nationally renowned for its rare arable wildflowers and orchid-rich chalk grassland.

Darnley Mausoleum: A Grade I listed neoclassical mausoleum designed by James Wyatt in 1783 for the Earls of Darnley, set in woodland on the Downs.

Walk details: Explore Kent (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

River meadows, chalk downland, wooded North Downs escarpment, open hilltop, farmland, riverside towpath and country park.

Time: 4h30

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Reverse direction: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

North Downs, wooded areas, open fields, hilly sections, pastoral valleys and organic farmland.

Time: 4h

Warnings: Nettles in summer.

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

Reverse direction: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Riverside Medway marsh, scarp-top beech and yew woodland on the North Downs Way, and lower-valley farmland, with the Bishop's Palace wall.

All Saints' Church, Wouldham: A riverside church on the far bank of the Medway whose origins date back to 1058.

The Bishop's Palace, Halling: The surviving wall of a palace built in 1086 by Bishop Gundulph that housed the Bishops of Rochester until 1535.

Ranscombe Farm Reserve: A 560-acre combined nature reserve and working farm in the Kent Downs AONB, nationally renowned for its rare arable wildflowers and orchid-rich chalk grassland.

Time: 3h30

Warnings: Muddy and steep in places; three stiles, two flights of steps, and a short stretch of road with no pavement.

Walk details: Explore Kent (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Open downland views, wooded ridge, bluebell woods, organic vineyard, scenic ridges and village churchyards.

Warnings: Some strenuous climbs.

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

Recommended: A varied countryside route with woodland paths (some with boardwalks), tracks past orchards and oast houses, quiet lanes and field-side paths, with some steeper up-and-down slopes through woods around Matfield. Includes a scramble through high bracken and chopped-back brambles and a winding lane cut into a hillside; valleys can carry streams in winter. Can be broken at Pembury, which has buses through the village.

Time: 4h–8h

Lunch: Two pubs and a restaurant at Matfield, roughly mid-route. Pub, hotel and chippy at Pembury green.

Warnings: A short scramble through very high bracken and brambles south of Pembury - long sleeves advised. A farmyard section where cows may be ambling to and from milking.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: It's also a glorious route which cuts through Kent farmland. An easy, well-signposted and flat route, much of the made path being concrete, gravel or tarmac, cutting through Kent farmland and crossing a tidal and near-estuarine stretch of the Medway. Crosses a tidal, near-estuarine stretch of the River Medway near Allington Lock.

Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.

Time: 3h30–7h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: More than two-thirds off-road, along footpaths through fields and a quiet lane, passing orchards, cornfields, hedgerows and a walk beside the River Medway into Tonbridge. Flat and sometimes muddy and but fine in boots; a short orchard section can get churned up by tractors. Passes the Grade I listed church of Thomas a Becket at Capel; the route can be left at Moat Farm for the shop and pub in Five Oak Green; good for orchard blossom in spring.

Time: 3h–6h30

2 lunch spots: the Poacher and Partridge, or the George and Dragon

Warnings: A short orchard section north of Five Oak Green can be deeply churned by tractors; the alternative road through Five Oak Green is fairly busy with a bend on an unpaved stretch.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A varied walk along the railway and river before a very steep climb onto the North Downs, which it then follows with views over the Medway valley before descending. Includes pavement and riverside path and uphill roads without pavement.

Time: 3h–6h

Warnings: An awkward section runs alongside the busy A228, which must also be crossed with care. School Lane and Hill Road are narrow, uphill and without pavement, with a very steep climb onto the Downs.

Walk details: Slow Ways.