A lovely scenic walk showing the key sections of Knole Park in Sevenoaks.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, acquired Knole in 1456 and turned an old hunting lodge into a grand palace alongside establishing the deer park. Parts of his palace are still visible today and the deer have remained at Knole ever since.
Tree-lined avenues cross the park and provide today’s grand walkways. Dendrochronology has shown that the oldest trees in the park date to the early 1700s, and some of these veterans can be found in Chestnut Walk, Broad Walk and Duchess Walk. The golf course was laid out in 1923.
We start at the station and head up through the town and enter Knole Park through a small side gate before heading up Echo Mount for a traverse of the park before leaving the park for the hamlet of Godden Green. We then reenter the park at Fawke Common before heading to the National Trust Cafe and picnic area for lunch. After lunch we head back out on the Greensand Way before walking down a dry valley back to the main entrance gates. Our route through the town takes us past many suitable hosteleies before we descend back to the train station.
Please note that we are hosting the London Blind Ramblers on this walk and we will need your assistance in helping to guide them around the route. Please email the walk leader on marklavenstein@gmail.com for more details. Thanks in advance.