Benenden Short
Circular
Distance:
2.7 miles (1h 15m)
OS Map:
Explorer 125 (Start at TQ807329)
Click map to enlarge and click
again to enlarge further
Park in the street or around village green.
If parked around village green, walk back to Benenden
Post Office and Community Shop. From there walk
westwards to cross-roads. Turn right in direction of
Benenden Golf Course. Go downhill, passing pond on left,
then uphill to gate on left. Through gate bear
diagonally right across field aiming just to right of
highest tree-top on horizon passing waymarker post en
route. On reaching kissing gate into wood, don’t
go through but turn left uphill to corner of fence.
Turn right alongside fence and continue to asphalt
drive. Turn right for just a few metres then take
path on left across parkland with views of original
school building on right. Keep going until
approaching fence ahead then turn left, now joining High
Weald Landscape Trail, downhill with fence on right to
school drive. Turn right down to road.
Cross road and turn right. Shortly take path on
left, initially wide, later narrow between fences and
then entering open field. Follow right hand field
almost to bottom. Just before reaching large white
field gate into farm, turn left to kissing gate, down
steps to stream, over bridge, up more steps and through
another kissing gate.
Go straight across farm drive along sunken track
initially on right of field then becoming enclosed.
Climb steadily then emerge over stile to road.
Cross very carefully, go over stile opposite and
uphill to emerge through gate in corner of large field.
Cross diagonally to corner, go through kissing gate and
along tarmac path. At end bear right then right again to
emerge in front of church on large village green.
Head down to road and turn left back to Post Office.
In addition to the walking routes on our web site we
have published four popular walking guides:
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Points of Interest
Benenden
This secluded, very pretty,
village, set among Kent's hop fields, has a fine green
and some exquisite timbered houses.
Benenden School
Known as Hemsted Manor, an
earlier house on the site was visited by Queen Elizabeth
I in 1573. The house was rebuilt in 1860 by
Gaythorne Hardy (later Lord Cranbrooke). It
belonged to Lord Rothermere from 1912 until 1924 when
three teachers from Wycombe Abbey School established a
new boarding school for girls here. The Princess
Royal, amongst other members of the current royal
family, was educated here.
The Grange
... now a home for people with
learning disabilities, has an informal shrubbery and
woodland garden with a notable Japanese cherry tree
collection laid out from 1919 by the horticulturalist,
plant collector and hybridist Collingwood Ingram
(1880-1981) around a late-19th-century house.
Prior to Covid the gardens were open once a year,
usually in April, but it is not clear whether opening
has yet resumed.
Public Transport
Benenden is served by the 297
bus from Tunbridge Wells to Tenterden which runs every
couple of hours except on Sundays when there is no
service.
Please report any problems with this walk to
info@kentramblers.org.uk.
Ramblers' volunteers in Kent work tirelessly to
ensure that our paths are as well protected and
maintained as possible. Of course we also organise
led walks but most of our members are independent
walkers who simply want to support our footpath work.
Please
join us and become a supporter too. You need
us and we really need you.
Map contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright
and database rights 2024. Some paths on map are based
on data provided by Kent County Council but do not
constitute legal evidence of the line of a right of way.
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