Visit Kent - Eynsford

Following on from the success of our daytrip to Shoreham a few weeks ago, I was inspired to explore more of the local area heading away from my normal haunt of London. Bickley, where I live is on the Southeastern Trains Sevenoaks line going in to London, so the plan is to visit the stops along this railway line (going away from London that is!). So last weekend we headed a stop closer to home, to Eynsford (a mere 13 minutes from our local station). It was beautiful.

In a very unplanning way we were relying on my i-phone google maps to point us in the right direction, which proved to be a mistake - a trip to the library for a map will be high on the priority list when we go to the next stop. We ended up crossing a railway line (at a proper footpath crossing - not trespassingly!), it was a first for me, and although in some respects it was exciting to be able to see the trains coming pass there, I was incredibly relieved that none came while we were walking across it!

The railway line cut across some fields with a public footpath which led up to Eagle Heights Wildlife Park, although we didn't go in (I'm sure we'll head there for a visit soon) we were lucky enough to see one of the eagles flying about. I'm surprised it didn't swoop down and try to pick up the small creature that kept running off the footpath and into the field!

As we carried on our walk we also stumbled upon Lullingstone Roman Villa, Lullingstone Castle, and then eventually Lullingstone Country Park where we popped in for lunch at the visitors centre. After having refuelled we continued our walk throught the lavender fields onto the The Hop Shop at Castle Farm.

It was a lovely day, and we found lots of places to come back and explore. Our walk back was a nightmare, but I'm hoping armed with a proper map next time it would be a bit more successful. We'll definitely be taking the grandparents up to the country park to follow one of their walks some day soon. Check back in a few weeks to see where we go to next!