Lady’s Sevenoaks Walk in Kent, England

It’s time for another country walk. After spending six months in London, I’m excited to bring you a guide to a Sevenoaks walk in Kent, England. It’s as close to the UK capital as rambles get, making it an easy day trip from London and the perfect way to get outdoors and into the British countryside.

Sevenoaks Walk

There are a lot of country walks in Sevenoaks. From Sevenoaks circular walks to point-to-point paths, this area to the west of London is rife with ways to get into nature.

I’m here for the same reason I do most of my country walks near London: a friend has planned it for the walking group he runs. After being in the city for half a year, I can’t wait to get out and into the fresh air.

This walk goes from Sevenoaks to Westerham. It’s going to lead us through town centers, past famous stately homes, alongside pastures, and through National Trust gardens.

The whole thing will take us just over six hours, including a stop for a picnic lunch in the English countryside.

How to Get to Sevenoaks

We meet at London Bridge station in the morning and hop on a train to Kent just after 8:30am. The journey is a quick one, and we arrive at Sevenoaks station just over 30 minutes later.

Sevenoaks Town

We start our 11.6-mile (18.7-kilometer) walk at the station exit, heading up a hill into the heart of Sevenoaks.

As we go, we pass cute cafes and a warren of narrow streets with heritage pubs, outdoor tables, and covered passages paved in cobblestones.

There are historic churches and pretty cottages galore, and I take so many photos I have to run to catch up with the group as we leave town.

Knole

I’m glad I catch up, though, because what comes next is nothing short of breathtaking. Our Sevenoaks walk takes us into the grounds of Knole, one of the most impressive stately homes near London.

As we enter Knole Park, we come across a herd of deer that are so tame they make me feel like a Disney princess. I would never try to touch them, but I feel like they’d let me if I did.

From the deer we make our way up a gentle slope to the house itself. Over 600 years old, Knole started life as an archbishop’s palace before it passed into the hands of the Sackville family in 1603.

Now a National Trust property, Knole is known for both its important collection of Jacobean furniture and its role in the Virginia Woolf novel Orlando.

We don’t have time to tour the house on our Sevenoaks walk, but my group is patient enough to let me run into the courtyards to take some pictures before we continue. They’re stunning.

As we leave the house, the sprawling form of Knole comes with us. It’s one of the largest country houses in the UK, and we can see the chimneys and rooftops for ages after we depart.

Sevenoaks Countryside

Once the house recedes into the distance, we walk down a long path through Knole Park to get into the countryside near Sevenoaks.

Exiting the park, we walk down St Julian Road and Riverhill, then turn off onto a walking path opposite the entrance to the Riverhill Himalayan Gardens.

There we find ourselves surrounded by thistles, blackberries, and butterflies as we look out over views of the English countryside.

Our Sevenoaks walk continues alongside pastures full of horses and through wooded areas, eventually bringing us to a road called Hubbards Hill and across an overpass above the Sevenoaks Bypass.

The busy multi-lane road is a far cry from the bucolic landscapes we’ve been walking in, but as soon as we cross over it we’re back in the countryside.

Sevenoaks Weald and Kent Downs AONB

That’s not least because we’ve entered Sevenoaks Weald and the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

This area is full of pastoral land and classic Kent oasts, and it’s beautiful for a ramble. We pick up a long-distance walking route called the Greensand Way here. It goes from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet in Kent.

We follow the Greensand Way along pastures full of cows and sheep, through farms smelling rich with hay, and past country houses sporting gardens fragrant with roses.

There are even fences adorned with wellies with flowers growing out of them. It’s all quintessentially English.

We walk through more fields, stopping for a picnic lunch under a big oak tree. It’s a great place to eat an al fresco meal.

Afterwards we continue our Sevenoaks walk through areas like Hanging Bank, which contains 90 acres (36 hectares) of wooded escarpment replete with beech, oak, rowan, pine, and birch trees.

Ide Hill

We walk under them and along paths through brambles and bracken to get to Ide Hill.

There’s a small shop with public restrooms here, and we take a break before continuing along the National Trust Octavia Hill Centenary Trail through a woodland area rife with oak trees.

It brings us to the heart of Ide Hill, a pretty village with pubs and green spaces. From the village we walk along narrow country roads and past a cricket match at Ide Hill’s Emmetts Park. It’s fun to see cricket in action, and feels fitting for a day in the English countryside.

National Trust Emmetts Garden

As soon as we pass the cricket, we find ourselves in Emmetts Garden, a National Trust property in Kent. We walk along a fence-lined path that cuts through the garden, peering into the grounds on both sides as we go.

This hillside spot is part of an Edwardian estate, and it features exotic trees and shrubs from around the world. Emmetts Garden also has rose and rock gardens, as well as panoramic views over the surrounding area.

We soon reach a spot with picnic tables and public restrooms, and we stop for a snack break before our Sevenoaks walk takes us out of Emmetts Garden and back into a woodland area.

Hosey Hill

We walk through the woods and out into fields, following the path for the National Trust Weardale Walk as we go.

We climb a set of steps in a hill, walk past a historic graveyard and a row of pretty houses on French Street, and ramble through more woodland before reaching Hosey Hill.

Hosey Hill is near Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s country house. It’s now a National Trust property in Kent (lots of these today!). I wish we had time to visit, but our Sevenoaks walk takes us in the opposite direction.

Westerham

Into a field and down a hill we go, walking through a skinny passageway that opens up into the town of Westerham.

The town center has a green lined with shops, pubs, and tearooms. A statue of Winston Churchill takes pride of place, and a Norman church overlooks it all.

Our Sevenoaks walk ends in Westerham, where we sit out on the grass enjoying snacks and drinks from the local pub. As we do, we look up a taxi company and soak up the sun as we wait for our ride back to Sevenoaks station.

As we board the train home to London, I feel grateful to have gotten out of the city for a country walk and happy to have breathed some much-needed fresh air.

Sevenoaks Walk in Kent

I hope this post has inspired you to get outdoors and into the English countryside. If you want to do this or another of the many Sevenoaks walks in Kent, there are plenty of maps online to help you replicate my friend’s route.

I’ve also put all my country walks in Britain into a single blog post if you’d like additional ideas. You can read about more walks and find further details in Time Out Country Walks: 52 Walks Near London, too. You can get it here. Happy hiking!

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