Greater London & Kent

Walk Details:
Date: 22/10/2004
Total ascent: 16m/53ft
Total distance walked: 0.64miles
Walk difficulty: 0.5/10 (only tricky due to busy road and no pavement)
Enjoyment rating: 0/10
Best bits: err… leaving?
Worst bits: Both tops on a very busy road with no pavement. Becoming road-kill was a distinct possibility.
Car Parking: Try the Spinning Wheel pub at Hawley's Corner (TQ 435 568)

Top details: Greater London
Name: Westerham Heights
County top number: 18 of 192
Grid reference: TQ 43634 56485 MAP
Height above sea level: 245m/804ft. In reality a sub-top of Betsom's Hill
How nice was it?: Not at all - 0/10
Description/Notes: Replaced Botley Hill as the highest point in Greater London following a boundary change. In dense woodland on the opposite side of the road from Westerham Heights House

Top details: Kent
Name: Betsom's Hill
County top number: 19 of 207
Grid reference: TQ 43555 56332 MAP
Height above sea level: 251m/823ft
How nice was it?: Marginally less nasty than Westerham Heights but still 0/10
Description/Notes: County top of Kent. On a farm track just off the A233.

The Walk:

I'd have liked to connect these tops up with Botley Hill via the North Downs Way, but time constraints meant that we had to park at the nearest possible point (the Spinning Wheel pub) and take a brief walk down the A233. So, not the nicest of plans, and they got off to an inauspicious start as a chap parked his 4x4 next to us and asked us to wash it.

At first we were insulted, but we were placated slightly when he apologised and told us that there were often car valets working in this bit of the car park. He must have been pretty daft though - our car was filthy from traversing the narrow lanes of the North Downs and would have been a terrible advert for a potential car cleaner!

The top was only quarter of a mile down the A-road, but it was slow work getting there. There were no pavements and every time a vehicle approached (which was frequently) we had to squeeze into the roadside vegetation.

Eventually we came to Westerham Heights House on the right hand side of the road. The boundary of Greater London ran just down the other side of the road and we had to cross and squeeze into some bushes to say we had reached the county top (God only knows what passing drivers thought we were up to). Needless to say, we thought that Westerham Heights House itself made for a better photo, although we had a difficult job getting back across the road to it.

The highest point in Kent was a short distance further along the road, and a little way up a farm track. It was similarly uninspiring.

I had been planning to go further down the road and find a footpath that could take us on a circular route back to the pub, but we were feeling too despondent after these two tops. We decided instead to head back to the car and move on to the next top.

These were definitely the worst tops we've done so far, worse even than Slough. What a shame.