Section 2 (Out)
West Hougham to Hawkinge
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 138 (Dover, Folkestone & Hythe) |
|---|---|
| Distance/Time | 4.5 miles (2.5 hours) |
| Start | From the village hall by a telephone box at a road junction at the south end of the village |
| Comment | A pleasant walk through secluded countryside with farms, hills and views. There are stiles. |
Walk Instructions
Starting by the village hall and telephone box, go up the narrow road opposite called Broadsole Lane. This bends away north out of the village away from the main straight road going back in the Dover direction.
Just past the wooden fencing, before the first house on the left, turn left down a narrow enclosed path. This soon reaches a stile into field. Cross the field to an obvious gap with a church in sight ahead. Bear slightly left across a second field to a stile into a hedge by a telegraph pole. Keep ahead across the next field by poles.
At the corner of the field, by a churchyard, turn right and walk up to a large fieldgate. Go through onto the rough access road to the church. Immediately turn left and cross a stile into a field. Two paths diverge from this point. Take the righthand one and bear off right towards the end of a row of tall trees. Cross a stile in the hedge and go down steps to a road.
Turn left on the road and almost immediately right over another stile into a field. Cross the field, heading just left of the buildings of Tumble Tye Farm, to a stile in a barbed wire fence. From this stile, head forward, down the field, past a lone pylon, to a stile in the bottom corner. Over this, cross a road to another stile and walk up the field with the hedge on your left.
Keep going in the same direction, over several stiles, and eventually cross open ground to enter a wood (there are fine views of the Alkham Valley ahead). In the wood turn left over a stile and gently descend along the line of the fence. Where the fence turns away, go on, more steeply downhill, towards a house and road junction in the valley below.
On reaching the road, turn left. In a short distance, cross with great care to a path going leftwards, uphill, across a field. Pass through a hedge and keep on diagonally left uphill to where a hedge meets the lefthand edge of a wood. Go ahead along a clear woodland path. This becomes a track by Messina House. Go on up to a road and turn left.
On reaching a T-junction, go left downhill. In a short distance take an asphalt path by a line of poles. This cuts away from the road to a church converted into a house. Walk along the side of the church, but then keep right, off the main path, on a feint path which keeps to the high ground and enters woodland. The path is narrow and rises above a steep bank. Soon reach a stile into a field.
Turn right along the line of the hedge (good distant views to Folkestone and Dungeness) and keep on to the top corner by a road. Here turn left along the field edge.
At the end of the field the path runs on between fences. Keep forward ignoring a cross path marked by stiles in the fences. Continue across horse paddocks and on up a gravel road to reach a junction with the main road. Cross to the White Horse Inn in Hawkinge and the end of the section.
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