Walking in Kent
01 January 2012 Kits Coty to Kits Coty
| Total Distance | Total Time | Average Speed mph | Max Elevation ft | Minimum Elevation ft |
| 4.79 | 1:32 | 3.00 | 632 | 164 |
Via the Lower Bell Pub
Today we drove to the North Downs picnic site at the top of Bluebell Hill (GPS Waypoint TQ74300 62100)
We didn't see the famous Ghost Click this Link to read about it
The first part of the walk is on road past the (Now derelict) Upper Bell Pub.
Soon we entered a muddy track through a lovely wood.
Eventually we arrived at some radio masts and made a right turn which brings you out in an open field and onto a lane
We followed the lane to a "T" Junction and made a right turn and after about 1/2 a mile turned left into some woods.
It looks like the dumping ground for stolen cars and is quite steep down hill and slippery
Eventually we arrived at a main road (A229) and spotted The Lower Bell Pub over to the left
We decided (as you would) to stop (Not for a beer) for a coffee. They have a nice covered area outside which was ideal
as we had Molly with us. They were very friendly and allowed us to eat our sandwiches with the provided coffee.
When we left we turned left instead of going straight ahead, the GPS soon alerted us to our mistake and were soon back on track.
After about 1/2 a mile on road we turned off onto a very steep uphill footpath.
About 100 mtrs we came across the Kits Coty House.
A well-known site in the south-east of England, Kit's Coty House is a Neolithic chambered tomb. Kit's Coty House stands in a field to the west
(you can't see it from the road) of the A 229 from Maidstone to Rochester. A footpath, app. 0.25 miles (0.5 km) long, leads towards it.
The tallest stone of which is 8 feet (2.4 metres) high and the capstone 4 by 2.7 metres, which was once covered by an earthen mound of 180 feet
(55 metres) long, as aerial photographs have shown. Side ditches were once up to 3.8 metres deep. This site was already famous in the seventeenth century.
The diarist Samuel Pepys described it as:
"Three great stones standing upright and a great round one lying on them, of great bigness, although not so big as those on Salisbury Plain.
But certainly it is a thing of great antiquity, and I am mightily glad to see it."
Unfortunately not all people felt this way. A large stone shown on a sketch by Stukely in 1722 and known as 'the General's Tomb', was blown up in 1867.
The large mound, also visible on that sketch, has also all but vanished.
Continuing up the footpath to a set of 32 steps which brings you back out onto the A229
View from the
bridge
Continuing up the road and over the foot bridge and onto another very very steep footpath and through a very wet woodland (Raining Hard Now) to rejoin the first part of the walk and back to the car
Not a walk we would do again as there is too much busy roadwork