Section 10
Frittenden to Sissinghurst
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
Robust Ramble – Kent Triangle - Faversham – Wadhurst – New Romney – Faversham
Section 10 Out
Frittenden to Sissinghurst
OS Map: Explorer 137 Ashford & 136 Royal Tunbridge Wells
Total Circular Distance: 7 miles (4 hours)
Start: The Bell & Jorrocks, Frittenden
Comment: A walk in splendid countryside with great variety and constant changes of vista. It is generally easy walking with many flowers, especially bluebells, and orchards in blossom at the right time of year. Bridlepaths may be muddy and there are several stiles. Paths may be confusing in the grounds of Sissinghurst Castle as they have trails of their own with individual colour codes.
With the Bell & Jorrocks pub behind, bear slightly right and forward across the road and up the road opposite (ignore the road going immediately up left. Pass the old Forge Garage, then the Old Bakehouse on your left, followed by Bakery Close also left, then the entrance to Frittenden House off right.
Keep on to pass a school and the church entranced on your right, then the village hall on your left. Immediately past this, turn left on a grassy footpath, down to a wooden fieldgate.
Through this, keep on down a pasture to a an old wooden kissing gate. Then bear slightly right, down and across a large field to a gap and footbridge in the hedge at the far side (aim towards distant farm buildings).
Keep on up the next field, to soon reach a Y-fork at a telegraph pole. Bear right, uphill. Pass a stand of trees on your right to a cross track at the top of the field.
Ignore the footpath straight ahead. Instead, turn right, along the top edge of the wood and the field edge. Stay on the field edge as it bears left at the corner.
Keep on down the field edge to the bottom corner. Here bear slightly right to a stile in the fence ahead. The route now follows a permissive path around Whitsunden House.
Cross the stile and bear left to a crossing of paths by a wooden fieldgate. Bear right along the garden fence on your right signed Dig Dog Lane. Pass the house on your right.
At the top of the garden go through a metal fieldgate. Turn immediately right, still with the fence on your right, to pass a green house. Stay along by the fence to a corner, bear left down to another corner, then right, to keep on a few paces to reach a stile (on the original public footpath).
Here turn left, away from the fence and go down and across the field to a stile in the bottom hedge. Cross and turn right to a corner, then left, down the field edge, with a hedge on your right.
Near the bottom of the field, turn right through a metal gate, then immediately left, down the field edge. Pass a pond, then cross two stiles in to a thicket. Exit on to a road.
Turn left along the road. Ignore a path soon off right, and keep on, downhill on the road. Pass a works and reach a junction. Here turn right on a bridleway along the drive to Castlefield and Old Brickyard Cottage. Stay on this bridleway for over a mile. The drive soon becomes an earthen track.
In ½ mile reach a junction. Bear right uphill on a leafy path. At the top of the rise reach Mount House. Keep straight on up the bridleway ignoring all side tracks. Pass Horse Race House and finally reach a road.
Do not join the road, but turn sharp left over a stile by a metal fieldgate. Head downhill past a water tank, along the edge of an orchard, aiming for Sissinghurst church tower.
On reaching the bottom corner of the orchard on your left, and a corner of trees, turn right, through the orchard on your right. At the far side turn left down the edge, soon into woods.
Exit over a footbridge into the corner of an orchard. Go straight ahead, uphill, along the edge. Pass a water treatment works on the left, then exit the orchard through a gap in the hedge onto a concrete drive. Follow this up to a main road. Turn right into Sissinghurst village, pass the Parish Church (well worth a visit) and soon reach The Milk House pub and end of the section.
Robust Ramble – Kent Triangle - Faversham – Wadhurst – New Romney – Faversham
Section 10 Return
Sissinghurst to Frittenden
OS Map: Explorer 137 Ashford & 136 Royal Tunbridge Wells
Total Circular Distance: 7 miles (4 hours)
Start: The Milk House, Sissinghurst
Comment: A walk in splendid countryside with great variety and constant changes of vista. It is generally easy walking with many flowers, especially bluebells, and woods. The first section is a bit hard on the feet as it is initially along the road then up the vehicle drive to Sissinghurst Castle. The last section from Brissenden Farm zig-zags a lot and is quite tricky to find.
With The Milk House behind, turn left along the main road – called The Street – back out of the village on the outward route. Reach and cross the drive from the water treatment works and continue on the main road for 250 metres. There is a pavement which becomes very narrow so take extra care as passing traffic is very close.
Turn left down the first turning left, which is the entrance drive to Sissinghurst Castle. Stay on this for ½ mile.
At a junction, go straight ahead towards the castle. Pass a pond on the right. Do not enter castle buildings, but follow the drive as it swings left, then right downhill, and on, out of the site and back into the country between hedges.
Keep forward a good way on this straight track. Eventually cross a concrete bridge at the Frogmead conservation project and continue, uphill, on a grassy track.
Finally exit onto a road. Turn right for ¼ mile passing Bettenham Manor. Keep on looking for the first road off left at a right bend in woods.
Turn left along this narrow road for 150 metres to where a footpath comes across. Opposite a footbridge on the right, turn left over a stile in the hedge.
Go straight down and across the field to a wood at the bottom. Pass through this wood and over a footbridge, then forward, up the side of a large field with a treeline on your right.
At the end of the field go forward, over a long footbridge, across to a stile by a tall tree. Cross and continue, straight across the next field to a metal swing gate and footbridge. Again, continue across another field, aiming just right of farm buildings.
Reach a farm track at the far side and turn left along past a barn to a stile by a metal fieldgate and out to a road.
Turn right on the road for a short distance. Soon pass an oast. Ignore a footpath off left, but just after, turn right, off the road, over a stile into woods.
Emerge over a footbridge into a field. Turn left along the edge. Follow the hedge on your left as it zig-zags a little until it finally reaches a corner with an open field ahead.
Here turn right, across the field to a footbridge at the far side. Do not cross but turn sharp left to follow the field edge with a hedge and ditch on your right.
Where these end, continue a few metres across the open end of the field on your right, to soon reach a corner of trees. Turn right here along the field edge with trees on your left (there is a way mark post here which for some reason does not indicate our path).
In 30 metres find a stile on your left and cross in to the adjacent field. Turn right along the edge, round to a stile and footbridge on your right.
Enter a further field and go up the edge then across to the hedge at the far side. Turn left down to a road. Go right along for 50 metres, then left onto a footpath.
This is easy to follow as is climbs gently upwards through several fields, always with a hedge on your right. At a final corner, turn right over a stile into an old orchard, then immediately left along the bottom edge.
At the corner ahead, cross a stile into a field and turn immediately right, uphill, along the edge.
In the top corner, reach and cross a stile into an enclosed path. Shortly meet a stile. Cross a lane to a further stile onto a footpath. Turn left down to a road. Turn right, back downhill, to the Bell & Jorrocks and the start of the section.
