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![\"map](\"https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/map_003.jpg\")
This walk passes through the delightfully quiet and beautiful Austin Lodge Valley. However, there are a couple of stiff climbs.
\nDistance: 4.7 Miles (2 hours)
\nOS Map: Explorer 147 (Start at grid reference TQ526615)
\nPark in the vicinity of Shoreham station. There is a lay-by immediately opposite the station or you can park in Station Road.
\nProceed down Station Road away from station and take path (Darent Valley Path) on right opposite entrance to Shoreham Place. Cross bottom of field with wall then hedge on left. When hedge ends, turn right along far side of hedge to railway, cross with care and continue to road.
\nCross road and turn left, keeping as far onto narrow verge as you can. Very shortly take path through gap in hedge on right leading into field. Bear left across field making for gap in hedge on far side. Follow track through wood and out at bottom of a garden. Cross garden diagonally uphill between fences, cross drive and take path into wood.
\nClimb steeply through wood. At T-junction at top turn left. At far end of wood bear right for a few metres then left into field near middle of one side. Bear diagonally right across field towards lowest corner and take downhill path just before corner passing curious concrete structure. Go down steep steps through wood and then between hedges. At bottom turn left across former golf course and along right hand edge of field. Cross access drive to former golf course (now Fairways) and continue to Upper Austin Lodge Road.
\nTurn right then keep left past several houses and farms. Pass gate advising that there is no through access. Carry straight on through former golf course. [You can make a detour to the Pilcher Monument where signed. The trip there and back adds an extra third of a mile to the walk.] At post take path on left enclosed between hedges going uphill. Follow this to Lower Wood. Bear right along lower edge of Lower Wood, then along tops of several fields. Just past house on left at stile on left, turn sharp right, noting excellent view including, on a clear day, the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie building and the Cheesegrater building in the City and Canary Wharf in Docklands.
\nHead downhill to dip then slightly uphill to cross stile onto green lane. Go straight across and down field to valley bottom. Take path between hedges, climbing steeply up other side of valley, across downland and into wood. On far side of wood, bear left across two fields and join green lane, where you bear half right. Follow the lane into Dunstall Farm. At far side of farmyard, turn right then sharp left to skirt barn. Past barn, go straight across field into wood passing another curious concrete structure. Descend steep steps and follow track bringing you out almost opposite Shoreham station.
\nThe English home of the playwright Lord Dunsany \n\t\t\t\t\t\t(1878-1957) who at one time had five plays running \n\t\t\t\t\t\tsimultaneously on Broadway. The family also \n\t\t\t\t\t\thad an estate at Dunsany in Ireland.
\n![\"\"](\"https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P003a.jpg\")
Opened in 2006, the monument marks the site of \n\t\t\t\t\t\tpioneering experiments in manned flight undertaken by \n\t\t\t\t\t\tPercy Pilcher in 1896 and 1897, initially using gliders.
\t\t\t\t\t\tHe later designed and built a powered triplane but was \n\t\t\t\t\t\tkilled in a gliding accident in 1899 before he had the \n\t\t\t\t\t\topportunity to test it. Had he lived he might have \n\t\t\t\t\t\tbeaten the Wright Brothers to the first successful \n\t\t\t\t\t\tpowered flight.
![\"\"](\"https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P003c.jpg\")
You will pass two or three of these on the walk.
\t\t\t\t\t\tThey are the remains of unusual stiles dating back \n\t\t\t\t\t\tbefore, possibly well before, 1964 when they were \n\t\t\t\t\t\tmentioned in a London Transport book of "Country Walks".
The walk is ideal for travelling by train to Shoreham \n\t\t\t\t\t\tStation on the route from Victoria to Maidstone or St \n\t\t\t\t\t\tPancras and City Thameslink to Sevenoaks.
\nThis pub at Romney Street which you may find marked \n\t\t\t\t\t\ton your Ordnance Survey map is no longer open.
\n![\"\"](\"https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P003b.jpg\")
This charming valley, now dry, was probably formed in \n\t\t\t\t\t\tthe white chalk of the North Downs during the most \n\t\t\t\t\t\trecent glacial period. There were no glaciers here \n\t\t\t\t\t\tbut the climate was cold enough to freeze any moisture \n\t\t\t\t\t\tin the chalk, making it impermeable to water so that \n\t\t\t\t\t\tduring periods of surface thaw the water would form a \n\t\t\t\t\t\tstream that cut the valley into the chalk. In \n\t\t\t\t\t\tmodern times the chalk is permeable to water so that \n\t\t\t\t\t\tstreams cannot form. As the chalk gradually \n\t\t\t\t\t\tdissolved and washed away there were left behind flints \n\t\t\t\t\t\twhich had been suspended within the chalk and clay \n\t\t\t\t\t\tformed from silt deposited with along with the shells of \n\t\t\t\t\t\ttiny sea creatures when the chalk was laid down in clear \n\t\t\t\t\t\twater. This 'clay with flints' forms the \n\t\t\t\t\t\trelatively thin soil of the valley.
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