Greensand Way 6 : Hurst Green to Sevenoaks Walk

This is one of the Greensand Way's (GW) best days - a traverse of the Chart hills, passing Chartwell, Toy's Hill and Ide Hill, to finish in Knole Park. It is also the start of the Kent half of the GW.

Leave Hurst Green via a shortcut to the GW. (This misses out a section of the GW over Limpsfield Common - Head due north from the station instead if you wish to do this, however, this is already a long walk, and there are better extensions at the end.)

After joining the GW, continue east to Limpsfield Chart, Croackhamhill Common, Chartwell (Churchill's Bouse, NT), and Toy's Hill.

Lunch can either be taken at the Chartwell cafe, or at the Fox and Hounds in Toys Hill (poor reviews of late)

Continue east to Ide Hill and Goathurst Common / York's Hill.

Here the GW leaves the ridge and heads down to Sevenoakes Weald. You have 3 choices.

• The suggested route, as the walk is quite long, is to leave the GW, stay on the ridge, and continue east. Then take a shortcut through the suburbs to Sevenoakes' old town - this misses out Knole Park but is much shorter, and avoids any more steep hills.
• Stay on the ridge as above, but head into Knole Park - about 2 miles longer than the suggested route, and saves a steep climb and has an extra km of road walking compared to the GW route.
• Follow the official GW, lower down the side of the escarpement, and into Knole Park, 3 miles / 5km longer than the suggested route, but much nicer, and with 2 more steep hills

The 2 Knole Park routes meet up in the very pretty Knole Deer Park, and pass Knole Palace. There is a steep climb to the old town, then its downhill to the station

All 3 routes meet up in the old town, which has several pubs including a Wetherspoons. Its downhill to the station

NB: This walk is similar the start of SWC Walk 63 : Oxted Circular, or Hurst Green to Chiddingstone Causeway combined with SWC Walk 20 Sevenoakes to Westerham in reverse

• Take the train from London Charing Cross / London Bridge to Hurst Green. Buy a train ticket to Tonbridge which is valid for the out and return journeys.
• Take the train from Sevenoaks back to London (4 an hour)
• To cut the walk short: Chartwell has a weekend/public holiday bus service back to London via Westerham that takes Oyster Cards

An early possible lunch stop is the NT restaurant at Chartwell (tel 01732 863087), about 7.5km from the start of the walk, open on the same days as Chartwell House. However, to access the restaurant you either have to be a National Trust member, or pay the entrance fee to the grounds (currently £3.25). Staff at the gate do not always insist on payment from walkers if you say you are only visiting the restaurant, but you cannot rely on this.

The suggested lunchtime stop is The Fox & Hounds (tel 01732 750328, www.foxhoundstoyshill.co.uk), Toys Hill, about 11km from the start of the walk. Food to 2pm (Monday to Thursday) / 2.30pm (Friday to Sunday). Very poor reviews of late.

To do - many places in Sevenoaks

• Surrey Council have several leaflets of the Surrey (west) part of the route with OS mapping and directions (but not accomodation or public transport information) available from their website
• Kent Council also have leaflets of the Surrey section, but not, oddly, of the Kent section [Aug-23]
• The original guidebook to the walk is long out of print and hard to get. It did have OS mapping (with the contours removed!). In any case, the route has had many small changes in the meantime.

After the walk, please leave a comment, it really helps. Thanks!

You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Feb-17 Andrew