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Faversham Circular Walk

Around the windswept marshes and waterways of north Kent, with traces of the time when the area was the centre of Britain's explosives industry.

Circular Easy Kent

History

This is a list of previous times this walk has been done by the club (since Jan 2010). For more recent events (since April 2015), full details are shown.

Date Option Post # Weather
Sun, 18-Aug-24 Faversham Circular 11 started cloudy got sunny
Sun, 21-Apr-24 Faversham Circular [New] 13 cloud and sun with a cold wind

Sunday 18-Aug-24

Mr M Tiger
Mr M Tiger

Main Walk: 19½ km (12.1 miles).
Short Walk, omitting Oare Marshes: 14½ km (9.0 miles). Difficulty 2 out of 10.
The walk starts with a loop around Ham Marshes, an isolated area between two creeks. After a lunch stop in either Hollowshore or Oare, the walk continues through Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park, where remains of that industry can be seen amongst woodland and wetland. Its Visitor Centre (open 10–4) tells its story and details the local wildlife.
Then, a quiet country lane leads you to the hamlet of Luddenham, and its impressive medieval church. Here, you have a choice of endings, short or long. The longer one takes you round Oare Marshes Nature Reserve. Both endings go back through Oare and Faversham.
There are plenty of opportunities for bird-watching so bring your bins.
Faversham is an attractive market town with many historic buildings. Print out this history trail to find a few.
Lunch
The first pub encountered is the remote Shipwright's Arms (01795-590088) in Hollowshore. This old-fashioned pub does not take bookings and caters mainly to birders and walkers on the coast path, with a limited menu: burgers, jacket potatoes, sandwiches, etc. From what I remember, it has an encouraging range of beer and cider.
Twenty minutes further, there are two pubs and a café in the village of Oare. The Castle (01795-533674) is a traditional pub where it would be advisable to book. Ditto for the more upmarket Three Mariners (01795-533633). Lighter fare is available at The Cafe by the Creek (01795-537985)
Tea
There are many possible refreshment places in Faversham. Three near the central Market Place are The Refinery at 122 West Street (a coffee shop and bar, open to 4) and, on Court Street, Café Guild at #48 (01795-590077; open to 5) and Havishams Caffè at #47 (01795-591571 open to 4). Nearby is Faversham's oldest surviving pub, the Bear with its quaint old corridor.
Other pubs include a Wetherspoon's, the Leading Light (01795-535075) and, near the station, the Railway Hotel (01795-501550).
Trains
I'm suggesting the cheaper, slower option from Victoria, the 10:05 arriving at 11:18
You could get the 10:20 from St Pancras (10:27 Stratford Int.) arrives Faversham 11:26. Faster but costs more. You’ll have to walk faster or take the shorter marsh route if they haven’t waited for you.

Trains return at xx:00 to St Pancras and xx:37 and 44 to Victoria. You need a Highspeed ticket or supplement for St Pancras.

Directions here
T=swc.420


  • Sat, 17-Aug-24

    If you're returning to Victoria the xx:37 & xx:44 arrive in Faversham together. The xx:44 (from Dover & Canterbury) is much slower but on this sunny August Sunday it might be less crowded than the xx:37 (from Ramsgate & Margate).

    Southeastern have also put on two extra fast services to Victoria, at 18:08 & 19:08.

  • Mon, 19-Aug-24

    At leats 11 today. 9 at the appointed time and 2 catching up. There were also rumours of a 12th doing the walk in reverse. The day started cloudy got sunny The group soon split. Some doing the long marsh loop and some the not-so-long marsh loop. The latter were soon ensconced in the Shipwrights Arms, where they enjoyed what they got and drank beer. Kindly benefactors plied Mr Tiger with cider and chips till he could take no more. The other group went on and were never seen again. Except, that is, for one spotted on the train back. Under interrogation, it was revealed that the other group didn’t stop at any of the pubs but stopped for a picnic in the gunpowder works.

    Anyway, that is where we were heading, only a bit later, winding our way through the leats (what they call the water channels - at leats I learnt something today) finding out about gunpowder. Then it was off to Luddenham church, narrowly avoiding being mowed down by a skittish horse and its buggy. 2 of our group went round Oare Marsh and the rest didn’t. I presume the picnickers went round too. Some of the back group reconvened in the 3 Mariners where we thrilled to the marsh group’s tales of seals, avocets and egrets. Then it was back to the station and home.

Sunday 21-Apr-24

Sean
Extra Walk 420 – Faversham Circular

Length: 19½ km (12.1 miles), or 14½ km (9 miles) for the Short Walk (see below). Toughness: 2/10

09:40 Ramsgate train from Victoria (Bromley South 09:58), arriving Faversham at 10:50.

Trains back from Faversham to Victoria are at xx:37 (fast) & xx:44 (slow). You could also buy a “Plus High Speed” supplement at Faversham and take the xx:00 to St Pancras, but it's only marginally quicker.

Uplees Marshes I hesitate to call this walk around the North Kent marshes ‘new’ because much of it duplicates the various endings of the Teynham to Faversham walk (#299), as well as the route in a Faversham publication which has regularly featured on this site. However, if you thrill to the sight of massive lumps of concrete scattered around woodland you'll enjoy the new section through Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park.

There are three or four possible lunch places, all quite different. It feels right to support the old-fashioned Shipwright's Arms in Hollowshore as it relies heavily on passing trade from walkers on the coast path, but its food offerings are pretty basic (no Sunday roast). In contrast The Three Mariners is really an up-market restaurant masquerading as a pub. The middle ground is occupied by The Castle inn and The Cafe by the Creek. The last three are all close to each other in the small village of Oare, twenty minutes beyond Hollowshore.

There are plenty of refreshment places at the end of the walk in Faversham, which you can reconnoitre on your outward route through the town.

Walk Options: When you reach Luddenham on the afternoon leg you can choose whether to complete the full walk via Uplees and Oare Marshes (another two hours) or head straight back to Faversham (less than an hour).

You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.420 page.

  • Sun, 21-Apr-24

    13 at the station. The weather was cloud and sun with a cold wind 2

    took the shorter marsh route, the rest, made of sterner stuff, set off round the coast into the teeth of a biting northeasterly. Now we know how Scott felt. He, of course, had no respite, we had the Shipwrights Arms, a quaint olde place at the end of Oare Creek. Like stepping back in time. Good beer and unpretentious fare.

    When we reached Oare we caught up with some who had sped on to sample the pubs there. 1 more joined at Oare, making us 14

    But then the Oare crowd went off in a different direction round the marsh leaving us to follow the interesting new loop to Luddenham church, which, as I’ve said before, needs a good dust.

    Then we headed back to Oare, eschewing the second marsh loop. No amount of whimpering would persuade the others to stop in any of the many pubs we passed on the way back to Faversham. Instead it was tea and cakes. Sigh..

  • Sun, 21-Apr-24

    Nearly forgot to mention the trip round the Gunpowder Works Nature Reserve, where we learnt how to make gunpowder, and, more importantly, polish it.