Cowden Station and
Trugger's Gill
Distance: 5.4 Miles (2h 40m)
OS Map: Explorer
147 (Start at grid reference TQ476417)

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Park at Cowden Station. Alternatively travel by train
– there are services every day of the week.
From the end of station approach go up Blowers Hill.
Take the first turn on the right (Wickens Lane, not
named but there is a public footpath sign). Pass the
drives to Rickwoods House and Rickwoods Farm; take the
next turn on the left.
Go up the drive and, just before reaching the house
ahead, go over a stile on the right and bear left
diagonally across the field to a gate in the hedge. On
the other side bear right to pass a concrete water
trough. Continue in the same direction – there may be a
couple of stiles over electric fences but these things
come and go. Continue in the same direction over the
brow of the hill and make for a stile into a wood. Turn
left along path through the wood to emerge over a stile.
Follow a path along a very long field. Just as the path
starts to bear gently right, bear left to a stile and
enter wood (you need to watch carefully for this – at a
moderate walking speed you will be in the right place
about seven minutes after the last stile). Cross a
footbridge and bear left along a path that soon bears
right to climb steeply through the wood. On joining a
more level path, keep left and continue to a stile and
gate into a field. Follow the right hand edge of the
field to a gate. Don’t go through the gate but through a
kissing gate a few metres beyond it leading into a small
section of woodland. Beyond the woodland follow the
right hand edge of a field, passing a fine crop of
blackberries in late summer, to reach a lane.
Cross the lane to take path opposite, uphill through
some woodland. Cross a field to a copse. Turn left
following a line of electricity wires and making for a
gate immediately beneath the next pole. Keep left as you
follow the path beyond the gate down to a lane.
Turn right for about 100 metres and take a path on
the left descending to a footbridge. Follow the path
between fences then along the right hand edge of a
couple of fields until it enters Trugger’s Gill. Go over
a footbridge and up the bank at the other side into a
field. Follow the hedge on the right until it turns
right, then bear half right across the field, going
neither uphill nor downhill, to enter more woodland. At
a T-junction, turn left. Follow a clear track through
the wood then along a ridge, if in doubt taking the
higher of alternative paths to ensure that you remain on
the ridge until the path enters Newtye Hurst Wood.
Follow track through wood to road.
Turn left and left again at a junction. At a footpath
sign on the right, go down the driveway towards Malletts
Barn. Just before the gate, go right along a path
between a fence and a wall to a stile. Go straight
across field to gate. In the next field is a pond
surrounded by trees – pass to the right hand side of
this and continue across the field, descending to
gateway in the hedge. Immediately through the gateway,
go through metal pedestrian gate on right and up the
field for about 100 metres to pole, then bear left to a
stile in the hedge that leads into Blowers Hill opposite
a white house with hung tiles (The Old Bakehouse).
Turn left and soon right into Cow Lane. This climbs
at first but just as it levels out take a path on the
left that goes steeply down the right hand side of a
field then over another stile and across the end of the
garden of a large house. Another stile (with waymark)
takes you into more woodland and soon you see on your
left the brickwork at the entrance to a railway tunnel.
At a T-junction turn left and keep between the railway
on your left and the stream on your right until you
reach the road. Turn left under the railway bridge and
left back into the station approach.
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Points of Interest
The Markbeech Riots
During the construction of the Markbeech railway
tunnel between Hever and Cowden in 1866 riots broke out
when about 500 French workers were brought in to
undercut the wage rates paid to English Navvies.
In addition to the walking routes on our web site we
have published two popular walking guides:

Guide to the
Kent Coast Path: Part 1, Camber to Ramsgate

Guide to Three
River Valley Walks in West Kent: Darent Valley Path,
Eden Valley Walk and Medway Valley Walk
Ramblers' volunteers in Kent work tirelessly to
ensure that our paths are as well protected and
maintained as possible. Of course we also organise
led walks but most of our members are independent
walkers who simply want to support our footpath work.
Please
join us and become a supporter too. You need
us and we really need you.
Map contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright
and database rights 2019. Some paths on map are based
on data provided by Kent County Council but do not
constitute legal evidence of the line of a right of way |