Historic Houses Scenic Walking Tour

This wonderful walking holiday visits some of the great historic houses of England, set in gardens of stately trees that abound with colour from spring with the first bluebells, azaleas, tulips and rhodedendrons, to summer with their stunning herbaceous borders and rose gardens to finish with the warm colours of autumn. It takes you through the fields and woods of the Low Weald, and leads to some of the most picturesque and ancient villlages in Kent with their white weatherboard fronts or hung tile facades unique to the Weald and fine medieval churches. It traverses oak and beech woods on old pack horse trails along ridges with views as far as the South Downs, and includes the marvellous deer park of Knole in Sevenoaks. The starting and finishing points are reachable from London in less than an hour. A more leisurely option adds an extra day, giving you a full day to explore Hever Castle and its environs.

Places of interest on the walk:

The home of one of the oldest families in England at Penshurst Place with its thirteenth century baronial hall surrounded by lovely gardens

The famous castle of Hever, childhood home of Ann Boleyn and second wife of Henry VIII, with its moated house and historic collection, its lakes and romantic Italian gardens

Medieval Chiddingstone village, home to Chiddingstone Castle which houses a fine collection of Asian Art

The house of Winston Churchill at Chartwell where fascinating mementos to his life can be seen evoking the career and wide-ranging interests of this great statesman set amid the hillside gardens he created

The Tudor house at Ightham Mote nestled in a peaceful valley in the High Weald