Walks And Walking – Bekesbourne Walk in Kent

Walks And Walking – Bekesbourne Walk in Kent

This is a stunning 4 mile circular walking route in the heart of Kent with a great big surprise in the middle of it!

We parked our car at the Bekesbourne train station to explore the countryside around Bekesbourne – the Valley of Mills and Manors.

The cost was £3.50 for all day parking and there is plenty to do while you are there with Essentially Hops at Chalkpit Farm half a mile away with a farm shop, market, retail shopping and cafe.

We started our our route by walking back down the lane from the car park where we crossed the road onto School Lane.

We then continued our walk until we reached a path between the stream and pumping station where we then went through the gate.

We then walked along the field edge to a Victorian kissing gate.

We continued our walk through the Long Arch under the railway line, where I paused to make a quick video of the amazing echo.

At the end of the arch we then walked left through another Victorian kissing gate across the meadow to a very old stile.

We continued our walk into the apple orchard, walking right along the field edge all the way to the ruins of Well Chapel and the spring pond where Little Stour rises.

We continued our walk along the field edge, walking left onto a lane where we passed Turner’s Game shop. We didn’t have a day pack with us but if we had we would have definitely made a purchase! Next time.

We continued our walk up the lane to a main road next to the animal park.

We crossed the road to the right hand side of the white gates to the footpath sign.

PLEASE NOTE this footpath takes you through the animal park and is not suitable for social distancing and is quite overgrown in places.

We then walked through the path, keeping nice and quiet, where we saw our first animal!

We then continued along the narrow track until we reached a bridge.

We then continued our walk crossing over the bridge and along the narrow path until we caught our first sight of the amazing group of Elephants.

After all the excitement of seeing the Elephants we continued our walk along the track until we reached it’s end at an open field, with bee hives on the left hand next to a small group of trees.

We then walked right, keeping the the animal park fences until we reach a small woodland area by the lane.

We then found a gap in the woodland to cross over onto the lane where we walked left to the village of Littlebourne.

We continued our walk through Littlebourne taking care of the narrow lane which bends sharp right and then sharp left.

We theN walked right over the cattle grid and gate and followed the farm road.

We continued our walk along the farm road over Little Stour and the Silver Dyke, walking towards the next cattle grid and gate.

We continued our walk to the picturesque hamlet of Garrington.

When the road turned sharp left we continued straight ahead to a track through the field.

We then continued our walk passing Chalkpit Cottage going through the gate and across another farm road, passing cows along the way.

We walked along the Canterbury Rings footpath until we reach a stile on a steep decline.

After crossing the stile we continued our walk across the meadow following the signpost for The Canterbury Rings.

We continued our walk until we reached a set of double farm gates to keep straight ahead on the same track in the next meadow.

We then walked ahead until we reached a modern kissing gate towards the train tracks.

We then retraced our steps back through the Victorian kissing gate and through the Long Arch.

We then walked through Bekesbourne as before all the way back to the station car park.

If you love wildlife this walk has it all! Great to see the elephants, rhino and more PLUS the surrounding countryside is just amazing.

This walk was exactly 4.5 miles and took us just under 2 hours to complete as we didn’t stop for lunch or dwell too long watching the wildlife at the animal park.

Total ascent was 124ft and total descent was 121ft.