Ightham Mote's circular walk to Knole
What could be better than a day out in the Kentish countryside incorporating two National Trust properties? Follow this circular walk from Ightham Mote, along the Greensand Way, passing through areas of outstanding natural beauty to Knole Park, before returning to Ightham Mote via the Duchess Walk, Godden Green and Broadhoath Wood.
Includes a 30 minute stop over at Knole.
Map
Start:
Ightham Mote visitor reception, grid ref: TQ584535
1
From the car park at Ightham Mote, walk through the staff car park, turning right onto the Bridleway. Walk past the House and turn right onto Mote Road. After about 20 metres, turn left into the entrance of Mote Farm (look for the yellow Greensand Way arrow). Walk past the farmyard and bear right. Follow this path, ignoring tracks to the left and right, stopping occasionally to take in the views across the Weald. Proceed past Wilmot Cottage and an old brick built filter house to steps on the right. At the top of the steps, turn left and continue past another footpath on your right and through a kissing gate. Follow this path to another kissing gate at Rooks Hill.
Ightham Mote
Ightham Mote is an outstanding 14th-century moated manor house, surrounded by peaceful gardens and water features. Highlights include the Grade I listed dog kennel, Great Hall, Tudor painted ceiling, and the private apartments of the donor, Charles Henry Robinson.
2
Turn left down the lane for a few metres, then turn right, back onto footpath SR148 (not now the Greensand Way). Follow through the woods, passing stables and kennels at White Rock Farm where you will join a vehicle track, then onto a road (the Seal to Underriver road).
3
Cross the road, keeping a look out for traffic, and enter Shepherds Mead Drive. After 20 metres, turn right onto a footpath (this is now the Greensand Way) and follow the path until it narrows, where you meet a bridleway junction. Turn right here, then in a few metres, turn left up an incline and cross a stile into a horse training field. Follow straight ahead, then turn right to follow the tree line. Shortly, you’ll see an opening and a stile on your left, by a hump in the field. Cross the stile and follow the path through the wood to a road. Cross the road and enter Knole Park through the gate in front of you. Follow the path over a crossway and continue straight ahead on a surfaced track until you reach another broad crossway. Turn right here, then after 10 metres turn left to follow a grass path (marked as the Greensand Way). You will see the walled garden and house in front of you.
4
Continue ahead walking parallel to the garden wall (on your right), turn right at its end and pass the main entrance to Knole House onto the Duchess Walk. Turn right downhill and then almost immediately left. Keeping a stone wall on your right for a few metres, continue along this track, ignoring a crossing road. The path will eventually bend to the right as you reach the golf course. Cross the golf course and follow the track uphill through the bracken. This takes you to the north gate and exit from the park. Pass through the kissing gate and follow the track ahead, ignoring a path to the right. Shortly, the track forks. Take the wider right hand fork, pass a house and cross a driveway. Go through a gate, then walk past the stables and through another gate until you reach the road at Godden Green.
Knole
Set within a deer park, Knole has links with kings, queens and nobility as well as literary connections with the novelists Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf.
5
Turn right here, where you’ll see the Bucks Head. Continue along the road for 100 metres and take the track uphill to the left (signed to Cygnet Hospital) past the White House. Bear left past the Cygnet Hospital, ignoring a track to the left and paths to the right. Go past a house at the crest of a rise, then down a steep incline. Follow the path, which will eventually take you uphill, past another house and on to a road. Cross this road and continue ahead on footpath SR128, keeping a fence on your right. The path leads into a field; go straight ahead across the field and through a gate onto a road with a forked junction. Cross the junction and walk southeast along a metalled track with orchards on both sides. Ignore paths to either side.
6
When the orchards end, continue down the bridleway into Broadhoath Wood and down, turning left to join another track by a pond and gate. Continue with the stream on your right, past the Hopper Huts to Mote Road. Cross the road and walk up the footpath at the north end of the Ightham Mote garden, up a few steps to the entrance driveway to Ightham Mote. Turn right to enter the car park and complete the walk.
Ightham Mote garden
The peaceful gardens at Ightham Mote include an orchard, water features, lakes and wooded walks
End:
Ightham Mote visitor reception, grid ref: TQ584535
