Description
Through the steep sided hills of the High Weald, this is a very beautiful and fairly remote route. About 60% is off road but, apart from through Wadhurst and T. Wells, these roads are particularly quiet lanes, mostly only for access. The landscape of small sharp hills and deepcut winding streams is a mix of small grazing pastures and many small woods, all typical of the High Weald area. A large part uses the Sussex Border Path, which is fairly up and down, with footbridges over the many streams (although SB Path signage was hit and miss in 2023). From Frant to the Tunbridge Wells border follows the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk and the High Weald Landscape Trail.
There is one section along a permissive path not shown on OS maps. This is between Frant village and Pococksgate Farm, going through woods on the side of Eridge Old Park avoiding the busy A267. It can be wet and very muddy in places and is apparently tricky to find when fallen leaves cover the path or bracken obscures the signs. Without government funding for permissive paths maintenance has apparently declined and access may not persist. Edit RoyWad 3 uses a small lane and pavements to bypass this path.
Frant is the only resting place: 2 pubs, a cafe, sporadic buses, and a station about a mile away (busy road with no pavement, approaching on paths from south probably better).
A replacement for RoyWad 1 which used a non existent railway crossing. The majority overlaps with Saturday Walking Club route 196. Their website may have more news about the permissive path and has detailled route instructions. https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/wadhurst-to-tunbridge-wells/index.html
Edit Nov 2025. I noticed another promising Eridge Park path to Frant which is parallel to the wet one but mostly goes across the open land. It is more heavily used on Strava Heatmap (see screenshot). Haven't tested it but he Heatmap is usually a good proxy for (informal?) permissive use and good-enough condition but not a guarantee
Through the steep sided hills of the High Weald, this is a very beautiful and fairly remote route. About 60% is off road but, apart from through Wadhurst and T. Wells, these roads are particularly quiet lanes, mostly only for access. The landscape of small sharp hills and deepcut winding streams is a mix of small grazing pastures and many small woods, all typical of the High Weald area. A large part uses the Sussex Border Path, which is fairly up and down, with footbridges over the many streams (although SB Path signage was hit and miss in 2023). From Frant to the Tunbridge Wells border follows the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk and the High Weald Landscape Trail.
There is one section along a permissive path not shown on OS maps. This is between Frant village and Pococksgate Farm, going through woods on the side of Eridge Old Park avoiding the busy A267. It can be wet and very muddy in places and is apparently tricky to find when fallen leaves cover the path or bracken obscures the signs. Without government funding for permissive paths maintenance has apparently declined and access may not persist. Edit RoyWad 3 uses a small lane and pavements to bypass this path.
Frant is the only resting place: 2 pubs, a cafe, sporadic buses, and a station about a mile away (busy road with no pavement, approaching on paths from south probably better).
A replacement for RoyWad 1 which used a non existent railway crossing. The majority overlaps with Saturday Walking Club route 196. Their website may have more news about the permissive path and has detailled route instructions. https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/wadhurst-to-tunbridge-wells/index.html
Edit Nov 2025. I noticed another promising Eridge Park path to Frant which is parallel to the wet one but mostly goes across the open land. It is more heavily used on Strava Heatmap (see screenshot). Haven't tested it but he Heatmap is usually a good proxy for (informal?) permissive use and good-enough condition but not a guarantee
Status
This route has been reviewed by 3 people.
There are no issues flagged.
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Information
Route status - Live
Reviews - 3
Average rating -
Is this route good enough? - Yes (3)
There are currently no problems reported with this route.
Downloads - 16
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Geography information system (GIS) data
Total length
Maximum elevation
Minimum elevation
Start and end points
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Grid Ref
TQ5845739197
Lat / Lon
51.13013° / 0.26325°
Easting / Northing
558,457E / 139,197N
What3Words
issued.much.joins
Wadhurst
Grid Ref
TQ6396531855
Lat / Lon
51.06262° / 0.33856°
Easting / Northing
563,965E / 131,855N
What3Words
playroom.direct.quitter
| Royal Tunbridge Wells | |
|---|---|
| Grid Ref | TQ5845739197 |
| Lat / Lon | 51.13013° / 0.26325° |
| Easting / Northing | 558,457E / 139,197N |
| What3Words | issued.much.joins |
| Wadhurst | |
|---|---|
| Grid Ref | TQ6396531855 |
| Lat / Lon | 51.06262° / 0.33856° |
| Easting / Northing | 563,965E / 131,855N |
| What3Words | playroom.direct.quitter |
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reviews
NP Sammons
26 Oct 2024A surprisingly warm walk for late October on this very up-and-down route through wet High Weald woodland. Scenic and peaceful with a soundtrack provided by streams babbling over sandstone, rooks, the odd panicked deer, and a pair of crows chasing off a buzzard. Ferns, moss and fungi aplenty.
Starting in Tunbridge Wells I missed the first part of the route from TW station, joining it instead near the cemetery. (Missed the end in Wadhurst too as I made an early detour to the station). The route is mostly well marked and access is varied. A narrow gate early on, a stile or two, plenty of deep gullied tracks and LOTS of mud and water underfoot around Eridge (as mentioned in other reviews). The huge beech trees were impressive in their autumn colours.
A lovely walk.
Victoria
24 Mar 2024This route was very enjoyable. There's a variety of landscapes and geological features. Once you reach the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells and cross the gold course, the route becomes residential along quiet roads. I had no access issues; however the route was extremely muddy, which made it difficult at times.
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Daisy C
23 Mar 2023 (edited 24 Mar 2023)A picturesque quiet walk with beautiful views and dotted with attractive old buildings. Met less than a handful of people along the way, perhaps that was due to the weather though. Weather forecast said cloudy with 10% chance of light rain and some sunny spells. Hahahahaha. Nope. If it's wet or has been raining recently expect mud. Still worth it even though longer views were hidden by the often dramatically low clouds. I started at Wadhurst Station, some distance from the meeting point, but walked down to the beginning of Tapsell Lane (squirrels 7: traffic nil) so only missed reviewing the first km or so on a busy through the village. A shortcut to the route from the station is to join the SB Path from opposite "The Keys" a short way uphill from the station.
There are plenty of steep slopes up and down into the wooded valleys, green glowing moss, footbridges over rushing streams, oak trees so loaded with lichen they looked like freshly opened leaf buds from a distance, buzzards and rooks and ravens overhead, tiny lambs gambolling damply. Soon will be bluebells, wild garlic and wood anenomes. Please leave a comment if you find my glasses ;-).
The Eridge Park permissive path was easy to find, some non SW reviews say otherwise but bracken or fallen leaves might explain that. If you are coming from Wadhurst the entrance is just opposite the wheely bin hut, northern half was *very* wet but there were herds of deer to make up for it. The George, one of the pubs in Frant, is right on the route and looked promising but I didn't have time as going had been so slow. The Tunbridge Wells section was much greener and quieter than expected.
Not for wheelchairs. For others expect gates, stiles, many roots, steps of earth, plank, root and stone, wooden footbridges with muddy approaches, streams of water deciding the path looks like a good route for them too, 2 small non-bridged streams (strategic laid branches helped), mud and plenty of flowing water generally, muddy and somewhat slippery slopes plus a narrow, but scenic, small muddy ravine with stream and path unnervingly close together. Quite challenging but fun. Friendly local runner said going was very slow that day, a good sign for drier weather walking.
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