Exploring the Sandstone Outcrops of Sussex and Kent

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Lowland and Hill Walks
Apr 07
2018

25 people attending

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12.5 miles 6-7 hours

If you are on the waiting list you can come as several people have dropped out. I look forward to seeing you at 11am at the start point. Don't forget it is the West side of the station.

To the South and West of Tunbridge Wells, straddling the border of East Sussex and Kent, there are several large and notable outcrops of sandstone. Most are a little way from roads but our walk today will allow us to get right up close to most of them.

I planned this walk last year and took most of the photos while exploring the locations then, in different seasons. The main photo is the extraordinary Toad Rock, situated in Rusthall Commons. The outcrops which we shall visit, in order, are:

Wellington Rocks on Tunbridge Wells Common very close to the town centre.

Rusthall Rocks on the edge of Rusthall which is a village next to Tunbridge Wells and Toad Rock which is within the same area of rocky outcrops.

The caves and outcrops of Happy Valley which is a restored area on the edge of Rusthall Common and Nevill Park, a very affluent part of this fairly affluent town. Happy Valley is above the original Tunbridge Wells cold baths and former tea garden, now inaccessible in the grounds of the Beacon Hotel. A flight of stone steps are still usable from the Common down through the valley.

Harrison's Rocks which is a series of high sandstone cliff outcrops owned by the British Mountaineering Council, at Birchden Woods near Groombridge. There is a small camp site in the woods and the rocks are very popular with climbers and walkers alike. The spa valley railway and indeed the mainline railway both run very close to these rocks as they converge at Eridge Railway station.

Eridge Rocks are on land run by the Sussex Wildlife Trust and again, coming across them unexpectedly provides a very dramatic change to any walk. They back onto the RSPB owned Broadstone Forest, beyond which lie:

High Rocks. These are privately owned by the adjacent High Rocks Hotel which also has the added benefit of its own station on the steam railway. We will not be able to get right up to these rocks, but we shall walk close beneath them.

The photos for this event apart from the first are in the order in which we shall visit the rocks.

 

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