Section 8 Return
Iden Green to Rolvenden
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 125 Romney Marsh |
|---|---|
| Distance/Time | 4 miles/2 hours |
| Start | The Woodcock Inn on the south east side of Iden Green; there is a car park in the wood opposite |
| Comment | This is a section with very varied walking experiences, adding parkland, lakes and windmills to fields and orchards. There is a short section of roadwalking that needs care, with suggestions to avoid some of it. The route is not always easy to find so keep checking map, landmarks and direction. Allow plenty of time. |
Walk Instructions
Walk back up the concrete track by the car park entrance and take the enclosed path back up to the orchard. Keep up through the orchard rows to the very top. Here turn left for a short distance to reach the top corner of the orchard. Turn right through a gap into an enclosed path and soon emerge onto a road.
Turn right on this main road in Iden Green village and walk north out of the village. Where the road reaches a lefthand bend, turn right over a stile into a pasture. Go diagonally left across the centre of the field to a stile in a corner of trees at the far side. Cross onto a drive and go on up the drive towards a cottage. At an entrance gate bear left off the drive onto an enclosed path. In a short distance turn left onto another enclosed path.
Eventually reach an asphalt cross path just short of a road. Turn right and go steeply uphill on the asphalt path. At the top keep forward with an expanse of grassland on the left. Go through a wooden kissing gate then on through a gateway and bear right up into Benenden churchyard. Go forward with the church on the right.
Do not leave the churchyard but pass the main door of the church and keep on to the far end of the church ( if refreshment is required leave the churchyard and go down the righthand side of the village green to the main road at the bottom. The Bull Inn is on the corner. Return to the churchyard to continue).
Go through a wooden gate into the main graveyard then on down to another gate into a playing field. Go on up the side of the playing field with trees on your right. At the top corner, go through a gate and cut across a triangle of land to a double stile into a field beyond.
Turn right to follow the hedge on the right to a wooden kissing gate in the top corner. Through this turn right along past a pond to a wooden kissing gate into the next field. Go across this to a stile by double fieldgates out to a farm track.
Turn left uphill on this. At the top the track swings right but the public footpath goes straight ahead through two fieldgates out to a road and turns right on a very busy road without a pavement. (If possible stay on the farm track where it swings right and drop down to a junction with a public footpath. Turn left on this out to the main road and turn right.)
Turn right along the main road for some way aiming for a windmill on the hill ahead. (To avoid some roadwalking, if possible, turn left, through a farm entrance on the left and immediately turn right, along the hedge on the right, up to a stile in the corner. Exit onto the road with care and turn left uphill.)
Pass a road on the right to Dingleden. Just before the windmill, turn left off the road over a stile into a field. Walk away from the road by a drive on the right. Where this goes through a gateway, stay in the field and go on with a fence on the right to stiles and a footbridge in the corner. Cross into an orchard.
Turn right along the edge of the orchard with a hedge on the right. On reaching a gap in the hedge bear right, through it, then immediately turn left, to continue to follow the hedge now on the left. Keep on the grassy track for some passing a nursery of Christmas trees. Ignore a path going off right.
Where the grassy track swings slightly right, drop down the bank on the left, to a stile into a rough area. Do not go across to the field ahead but bear right on a feint path through bracken to emerge onto a grassy track. Turn right on this and follow it to a stile by double wooden fieldgates. Cross and go forward to another gate and stile out onto a road.
Turn left along the road a short distance, then turn right over a (broken) stile by a gate into a field. Walk away from the road with a fence on the left towards distant farm buildings. At the bottom corner, go through a wooden fieldgate into a pasture. Keep on down past greenhouses to a stile by an old fieldgate at the bottom.
Cross and turn right on a pleasant enclosed path by rhododendrons. This emerges into a farm storage and parking area. Go forward a few paces then turn left between trees towards an ornate gatehouse. Turn right on a drive and walk down to a T-junction. Cross the track ahead to two metal gates.
Go through into parkland. Bear diagonally left across this large expanse of grass towards distant conifer trees. On reaching the far side find a wooden barrier and a broken stile. Cross into the trees and go down to lakes. Cross on top of a dam with a small footbridge in the middle. At the far side go up to a stile.
Go up the field ahead, passing a pond on the right, to a stile at the top. Do not cross but keep on along the fence on your left. At a corner, bear left, across another expanse of parkland, aiming left of a windmill and houses on the skyline. Cross a drive midway and keep on in the same direction.
At the top of the hill aim for Rolvenden church tower then bear right to gates out onto a road. Turn left onto the road all the way back into Rolvenden and a T-junction with the main road. Turn right to reach the Star inn and the start of the section.
