This rewarding 10-mile walk explores the heritage-rich Eden Valley. Starting in the peaceful hilltop village of Markbeech, the route meanders through medieval parkland, skirts the grounds of Hever Castle, and enters the ancient market town of Edenbridge before returning via wooded High Weald footpaths.

Markbeech is a small but historically layered village. The Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1852 in the Gothic Revival style, reflects Victorian investment in rural parishes. Nearby, The Kentish Horse pub stands on a coaching route once used by drovers and traders crossing the High Weald. The area’s field boundaries and wooded paths follow ancient droving routes and estate lines.

Hever Castle is nestled in the Eden Valley and dates back to the 13th century. Its most famous resident was Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. The Boleyn family transformed Hever into a comfortable Tudor manor, with a distinctive gatehouse and Tudor panelling still visible today. Though entry is optional, the public footpaths skirting the estate offer stunning views of its moat, gardens, and parkland.

Look out for ancient oak trees and remnants of medieval deer parks—a legacy of centuries of noble ownership, including by Anne of Cleves, who received Hever from Henry VIII after their annulment.

From Hever we follow the Eden Valley Walk eastwards. This riverside route traces the River Eden, whose waters once powered mills and supported ironworking during the Roman and Tudor periods. Arriving in Edenbridge, we will find a town steeped in history. The High Street features timber-framed houses, a 14th-century bridge, and St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, with Saxon origins and a 13th-century tower. Edenbridge flourished as a coaching stop between London and the coast. Ironworking, brewing, and farming sustained the town for centuries—and its Medieval Centre on Church Street still shows traces of that legacy.

Leaving Edenbridge we then ascend gently west through ancient woodland and open fields. These paths climb back into the High Weald AONB, a landscape shaped by centuries of farming, forestry, and estate land. Many of the hedgerows and wooded copses follow patterns first laid out in the medieval enclosure period. Wildlife is abundant—keep an eye out for buzzards overhead and fallow deer in the woods.