Hollingbourne - Eyethorne

It is a pity that the two villages are so close to the roar of the M20 and the rush of trains from the Euro-star. If it wasn't for those two problems a walk around Hollingbourne and its precincts is most pleasant.

Cottages in Hollingbourne High Street - probably Eyehorne in fact but we call it Hollingbourne.

This ancient village set close to the river Len has a charm that unless you stop and look is easily missed. With three pubs serving food and a church that is open to the public Hollingbourne is a little gem. We parked outside the church knowing that we would probably be too late for lunch at any of the pubs and bought sandwiches to go from the Motorway services to eat somewhere in the hills.

Our route took us from the church through the village with a short excursion around the Millennium Park past the services and then on to Broad Street. Now this was a pleasant walk though green woods where we spied native orchids and a sign that informed us that wild boars could get quite upset if disturbed - panic! Fortunately despite the warnings we saw no boars and arrived at Broad Street unmolested by tusks and angry teeth. I thought fondly of roast boar.

The picture on the right is of a native orchid - a most lovely plant.

We climbed from Broad Street to Hucking House and walked through the beautiful woodlands back to Hollingbourne via the Pilgrim's Way. We ate our sandwiches on the Woodland Trust lands and watched a herd of well fed cattle wander on their own from one paddock to another ready to eat grass that was not only rich but plentiful. The Woodland Trust has some 135 Hectares of land most in woodlands and coppice and the rest in natural grasslands - hence the healthy looking cattle. You can get on to the estate from a pathway close to Hucking House and follow the tracks. We passed through.

But, for those wild boars and dreams of spit roast pig this was the notice we saw after we had passed through the woods where the wild boars were living. Note that the tree has no low branches and my sister and I being somewhat middle aged appreciated the difficulty of climbing said tree if attacked by one of the animals.

Hence the panic.