Ightham Mote - Kent

Tuesday 30th December 2008.
We decided on a post christmas walk to shift some of the extra calories, so drove to Ightam mote and parked in the NT carpark. It was -2 degrees when we set off but was a lovely bright day with lots of hoar frost. We walked round the mote and dad stopped to take some photos.



We turned left along a bridleway and quickly discovered we had gone wrong. We had made the same mistake last time we did this walk so returned to the lane and walked further along before turning left at the next bridleway and passing some Hoppers cottages. The path was beautiful as it was so cold, frosty but sunny, the path was frozen solid so was good to walk on. We were followed by a guided tour from Ightham mote but we turned off the path and climbed a steep path onto Birchet green where we walked through an orchard where the trees had lots of dropped apples on the ground. The blackbirds and jays taking advantage of them. We continued on the bridleway, through apple trees until we reached Stone Street.

We walked along the road for a short distance and then took the footpath between the vicarage and Stone house and climbed a steep hill into a Beech woods. We emerged at Seal Chart and took some time looking around the pretty church and churchyard. We then followed a narrow bridleway down to the A25 where we stopped for lunch at the Crownpoint Inn.

After lunch we bravely crossed the A25 and followed a permissive path through woods and behind the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Oldbury Hill. We crossed the lane and climbed the path around the hill fort at Oldbury Hill. We went round the top and then down to the lane recrossing the A25 and into Fishpond woods. Here we passed a man who was sweeping leaves up. It seemed a thankless task in the woods but it seemed he was collecting the leaves to put on his borders. We had a chat with him and then climbed the steep sandy track up the valley onto the ridge and then down a steep path back to the road and back to Ightham mote. We had walked about 12km.

This was our last walk of 2008 andwe had managed 1208 km, slightly better than last year and not bad considering the disrupted year we have had.