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Knole National Trust House, Sevenoaks, Kent has deer close at hand

Knole is a magnificent former bishop’s palace with its origins dating back 600 years. It became the property of very wealthy, leading aristocrats, the Sackville family. The family still has private apartments in the vast house.

Surrounding the house are a thousand acres of parkland with 350 wild deer. The herds are very familiar with the thousands of cars and visitors arriving at Knole every year and so show little fear of humans, although it is dangerous to go near these animals. My tiny pocket Sony camera has a good zoom facility so I was able to take this picture from about 60 yards away.

There in the rutting season

When we were there on 26 October we visited the house and then walked in the park. When we were about to leave at about 4 o’clock there were about half a dozen stags only about 100 yards from the car park.

 A warden told us that earlier in the day there had been quite a lot of activity but that the stags were all exhausted by the time we first noticed them, mostly lying down. Apparently they had been “at it” for nearly a month (the rutting season) and were now beginning to calm down. Late September the stags are very fat ready to start rutting, but then they don’t eat for a month and do a lot of fighting and mating so no wonder they are exhausted. Still, they’ll have eleven months rest before they can start the fun all over again.

Over the autumn winter season only a restricted part of the house is open to visitors.

Book ahead

You have to book in advance to take your car into the parkland. Visit the website: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/knole/lists/explore-knole-park 

Huge zoom on my tiny camera

My camera and similar are available from Amazon. Click the Amazon link for details.

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Angmering Park Woodland – walk – ride

Monarch's Way track

Easy three and four mile walks and rides through attractive woodlands, with plenty of opportunities to extend routes.

Angmering Park Estate is situated in the middle of Sussex between Worthing and Arundel. There are well surfaced roads or good tracks for most routes.

Start

Start at the Dover Road car park off the A27 road. No toilets or refreshments here or nearby.

Maps

See maps below and have fun with the different views, eg tracks or satellite view, zooming in or out.

Deer

We have heard that deer are often seen in this area. We saw just one fawn when we walked here mid April 2021.

Space for about 40 cars in the Dover Road free car park, open between dawn and dusk
We had never seen so many wood anemones in one place before. They carpeted the ground in their millions in several areas
Wood anemone close up
Great for cycling
Cycling on the Monarch's Way section, a private road and public bridleway
Celandines

Interactive map

TO MAKE THE MAP WORK click on “plotaroute” at the bottom right. Then you can

  • zoom in to see other paths, for example to extend or vary the routes
  • view full screen by clicking the four headed arrow,
  • view satellite or cyclable route etc views by clicking the down arrow next to the route type label (top right)
  • show down hill sections in green, uphill in orange and steeper uphill in red by clicking DISPLAY, then “Hilliness”
  • show current weather and for next days by clicking Menu, “Weather”
  • print the map by clicking Menu, “Print”
  • download the map by clicking Menu, “Download”

Please share your comments or experiences - the first comment box works for facebook users, otherwise please use the second comment box

Happy walking and riding,

David Roberts,

www.davidrobertsblog.com

Please share my posts.

14 April 2021