Bucolic Beauty of Kent - Circular Walk from Pluckley

From the outset this route makes for a peaceful, relaxed day out in what can appear to be a secluded, and exceptionally rural part of Kent. 

After starting out from Pluckley station, with its original 1842 clapboard station building, we will make our way through wide open arable fields and quiet lanes towards the village of Little Chart Forstal. The village was home to H E Bates, author of The Darling Buds of May, and the TV adaptation was filmed in and around Pluckley.

After passing the cricket green we catch a glimpse of Forstal Farmhouse, an example of a Wealden Hall House, a style of building popular throughout Kent and Sussex. From here we pick up the Greensand Way as it winds its way through orchards, and slowly uphill towards Pluckley, where we will catch a distant view of the High Weald. We will continue to follow the Greensand Way towards the village of Egerton where we will stop for a picnic lunch and enjoy the view.

After lunch we will continue downhill along lanes and through wide open countryside towards and through Dering Wood. It is noted for being the home to several breeding pairs of Nightingales that we may hear singing – if we're very lucky. It is also reputed to be one of the most haunted woods in England, and known locally as 'Screaming Wood'.

Shortly after the wood we will make our way along lanes to pass the Rose & Crown pub at Mundy Bois. Here we will stop for a drink before making our way back across arable fields to Pluckley Station. The Dering Arms at Pluckley station would appear to have limited opening hours; on Saturday the pub opens at 6pm, hence this earlier pub stop.