Castle Inn ~ Chiddingstone ~ TN8 7AH
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Chiddingstone to Hever Walk
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Walk to Penshurst ~ Walk to Bough Beech Reservoir

 

By little roads and paths, through fields and woods, to Hever Castle and back.
Total distance about 4.5 miles. 1½ hours.

From Chiddingstone village, with the Castle Inn behind you and St. Mary's Church on your right, take the road that skirts the lake, with Chiddingstone Castle away on your left, to Gilwyns crossroads; then straight ahead, first down then up, for half a mile. When the road turns sharply to the left and past a post box, continue past the main gates, the road is private, and continue on to the the footpath and turn right ~ not through an opening in the fence as stated in some of our leaflets ~ and continue through Hever Castle grounds. The footpath crosses the road by a pretty rustic bridge, and continues on between fences to a path through Hever churchyard leading to a lychgate.

Inside the charming little church of St. Peter's, with its slender spire, is the tomb of Sir Thomas Bullen, father to Anne Boleyn. To your right is Hever Castle.

To continue your walk, which we left at the lychgate; turn left past the King Henry VIII Inn and, where the road turns sharply to the right round the inn, carry straight on by a path, passing the village school on your left. The path leads to a quiet little road where you turn left, and after a third of a mile, you join another road. Here you go over a stile on the left and carry on by the hedge ahead. After turning to the right and skirting a wood, the path continues by a hedge and over a stile, past woodland on the right to the private road that runs through Hever Castle grounds. This is the road that we saw when first we entered the grounds.

Here you turn right, not along the private road, but by a path that runs alongside a fence to the right, and on to another road that dives down a hill to your right, which you cross to a gate opposite. From the gate, go straight ahead, between fences along the edge of the field, then turn right when you come to a wood. Turn sharp left, over a little footbridge and up a steep path. When the path joins a track, turn left. The track, which for part of the way passes through rock, is generally muddy and very ridged, so it is advisable to take a track to the left, that runs alongside, and above, the rocks and rejoins the track again just short of Hill Hoath. At Hill Hoath pass in front of a low-lying half-timbered house, to your left, called Withers and turn left down the road. Carry straight on down this road for about half a mile, to arrive once more at Gilwyns crossroads, where you turn right and retrace your steps to Chiddingstone Village.