Chalk downs, orchards and old pilgrim ground running from Farnham out to the white cliffs at Dover
Indicative — sampled from open terrain data along the simplified route.
A hundred and fifty-three miles from a station forecourt in Farnham to the esplanade at Dover, and for a good stretch of it you are walking in someone else’s footsteps: medieval pilgrims heading for Becket’s shrine at Canterbury are supposed to have worn this route in, long before it had waymarks. Two protected landscapes cover most of the walk, the Surrey Hills first, then the Kent Downs for the long run east, both chalk country and both apt to vanish under beech woodland just when the view is getting good.
Orchards and vineyards start showing up properly once the route crosses into Kent, which has grown both for a very long time. Knole Park is a good early stop, an ancient deer park around a house too large to take in properly from the path. Ightham Mote, a moated manor house tucked into its own small valley, is just off the route and worth the short detour.
Further along, Oldbury Hill and Styant’s Wood has a large hillfort ringed by several banks and ditches, with Palaeolithic rock shelters cut into the sandstone below it, evidence of people using this ground on and off since long before the fort was ever built. Old Soar Manor, a modest survival of a thirteenth-century knight’s house, sits nearby for anyone with time to wander off-route.
The trail splits into two strands for a stretch through Kent before rejoining for the final approach to Dover, check a map in advance rather than discovering the fork on the day. Chalk paths turn slick and the mud gets sticky after rain, and the route’s popularity with day walkers means the busiest sections get crowded on a fine weekend, so an early start pays off more here than the mileage alone would suggest.
