Walks Near Dartford: Circular Routes, Parks and Riversides

Most Dartford walkers head for Dartford Heath, 314 acres of lowland heath on the edge of town; the Darent Valley Path, which starts at the Thames and follows the river for 19 miles; and Joyden’s Wood, an ancient Woodland Trust wood with two waymarked circular trails. Darenth Country Park and Lullingstone are the pick for views. Every entry checked against its owner’s or Explore Kent’s own pages on 26 October 2026.

We have not walked these routes for this guide, and nothing here is a rating. Each entry sets out what the landowner, Dartford Borough Council, the Woodland Trust or Kent County Council’s Explore Kent service publishes: distance, surface, car park, gate times and dogs. Where a source said nothing about toilets or parking, we have not guessed.

Dark evenings. Council-run parks with car parks lock their gates. In the last week of October, Central Park locks from 6.35pm and Darenth Country Park from 5.50pm; from November to January it is 5.45pm and 5pm. A car left inside after locking can only be released for a charge, the council says.

In and around the town

Central Park and the Darent riverside

The easiest walk in Dartford starts in the town centre. The River Darent runs through the middle of Central Park, and the council says roach, bream, pike, perch and eels live in this stretch. There is a wildflower meadow and an orchard beside the perennial bed, behind the yew hedge, whose fruit visitors may pick in late summer and early autumn. The park cafe and visitor centre sits on the Darent Valley Path and has details of circular walks around the town and countryside; the council gives its number as 01322 229949. Gates open at 6am; see the locking times above. Entrances off Market Street, Lowfield Street, Cranford Road, Princes Road and Darenth Road, DA1 1EU (Dartford Borough Council).

Darent Valley Path

The waymarked long-distance path starts on the banks of the Thames at Dartford and follows the river for 19 miles (30.4km) through the Kent Downs National Landscape to the Greensand Hills above Sevenoaks. Explore Kent describes “gentle strolls between historic inns” and “bracing climbs to the top of the Downs”, marks the route as suitable for dogs and lists Dartford as the nearest station; OS Explorer 162 covers the north end. Through town it passes Central Park, and National Cycle Route 125 shares part of the way from Brooklands Lake to the Thames. Kent Ramblers have published a guide to the path. One closure is listed: footpath SU11 between Bradbourne Vale Road and Lambarde Road in Sevenoaks, shut for up to six months from 5 October 2026 with a signed diversion (Explore Kent).

Dartford Heath

One of the few lowland heaths left in the south east, registered as common land: 314 acres of heather, dwarf gorse, acid grassland and broadleaved woodland, with three seasonal ponds (Donkey Pond, Woodland Pond and North Pond) that dry out in summer and fill with frogspawn in spring. The council says linnets and willow warblers live in the gorse and heather and green woodpeckers and red kites in the woods. Explore Kent adds the “Glory Bumps”, dug for brick earth, and the first recorded local cricket match, in 1723. Car parks open 7am to 6.30pm. Explore Kent lists waymarked trails, picnic areas and dog bins, and at least one accessible route, but says much of the heath is less suited to buggies. Start postcode DA1 2TN (Dartford Borough Council).

Joyden’s Wood

A 333-acre Woodland Trust wood on the Bexley border near Wilmington, with traces of a Saxon defensive bank, the Faesten Dic, running more than a kilometre through the trees. The Trust lists two waymarked circular routes: the Faesten Dic Trail (3.3km, 2 miles) and the Woodland Walk (2.7km, 1.7 miles). There is no car park; the Trust points to limited street parking on Summerhouse Drive, where the main entrance is beside the Squires Way bus stop, and says only that entrance suits wheelchairs and pushchairs, with a wide kissing gate onto a surfaced stone track. Buses run from Dartford, Swanley and Bexley. Dogs allowed, open at all hours, start postcode DA5 2AW (Woodland Trust).

Darenth, Bean and the North Downs edge

Darenth Country Park

Opened in 2002 on the grounds of the former Darenth asylum, on the northern edge of the North Downs looking over the Darent Valley. The council lists a chalk grassland Site of Special Scientific Interest, home to the rare Watling Street thistle, a traditional orchard of more than 150 apple, pear, plum, cherry and cobnut varieties, and a scheduled Saxon burial site where 12 graves were found. Paved and unpaved paths, including cycle routes; picnic area by the car park; dogs allowed. Gates open 6.45am and lock from 5pm from November to January. By car from Gore Road; buses 96, 428 and Fastrack B stop at Darenth Hospital, five minutes’ walk away, DA2 6LZ (Dartford Borough Council).

Darenth Woods

Around 300 acres of semi-natural ancient woodland and a nationally important Site of Special Scientific Interest, according to Explore Kent, which says the woods hold two nationally rare beetles that live in dead oak, and hornbeam coppice worked for 400 years. It describes “the sensation… of truly being out in the wilderness”. This is the least developed walk on the list: Explore Kent lists no car park or facilities and warns of uneven, narrow paths, stiles and gaps that make it hard going with a buggy or wheelchair. Start postcode DA2 7JP (Explore Kent).

Beacon Wood Country Park, Bean

Opened in 1991 on a site Explore Kent says carried an Armada warning beacon in Elizabethan times, then made gunpowder from 1885 and was dug for cement clay from 1935. The old clay pits have grown back into woodland, with trails around them, a pond with a viewing platform, a shady picnic area and views over the countryside. Explore Kent lists a car park with parking charges, waymarked trails and dog bins, and opening hours of 8.30am to dusk, but warns of uneven trails and stiles. Its 1.25-mile Beacon Wood Walk has a 0.6-mile shorter option. Start postcode DA2 8AR (Explore Kent).

Swanscombe and the Thames

Swanscombe Heritage Park

The former quarry where pieces of the same human skull were found in 1935, 1936 and 1955, making Swanscombe one of only two places in the UK where human remains this early (around 400,000 years old) have turned up, according to Explore Kent. It is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve. An accessible trail starts at the giant hand-axe sculpture and runs through the landscaped, wooded quarries, with information boards on the finds; there is a playground, a football pitch and grassland looking over to the Thames. Open at all hours, dogs allowed, start postcode DA10 0LP (Explore Kent).

Swanscombe Peninsula circular

A 4-mile (6.5km) circular that leaves Swanscombe High Street, by the former Church of All Saints (DA10 0BQ), and heads out over Swanscombe Marshes on the King Charles III England Coast Path, with views across the river to Gravesend and Tilbury. Explore Kent’s route card says to allow two and a half hours, on uneven gravel and grass tracks with some road sections, “not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs”. Parking is on residential streets; shops and refreshments are on the High Street. Swanscombe station is two minutes from the start, and buses B, 306, 480 and 490 stop nearby (Explore Kent route card, PDF).

Up the Darent Valley

Horton Kirby to Farningham: mills and meadows

A 3.2-mile (5.1km) circular from the sports field car park in Horton Kirby, along the Darent past Franks Hall, a red-brick Tudor mansion, to Farningham, where the Lion Hotel overlooks the river and, the route guide says, counted Charles Dickens among generations of anglers. Explore Kent calls it “easy walking with gentle slopes”, allows an hour and a half, and lists it as dog friendly and suitable for small children, with gates rather than stiles. Toilets are at the Horton Kirby car park and there are pubs in both villages. Nearest station Farningham Road; start postcode DA4 9GR (Explore Kent).

Farningham Woods

A 168-acre nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest on the hill north of Farningham, opened by Sir David Attenborough in September 1986. Explore Kent says it has views to Dartford in the north and Sevenoaks in the south, small-leaved lime found at only one other Kent site, and the largest British colony of the rare Deptford pink. A waymarked 1.6-mile route takes in most of the wood. The car park is at the end of Calfstock Lane, off the A225 south of Horton Kirby. Bikes and horses are allowed only on the byway between Calfstock Lane and Button Street. Paths are uneven, with stiles. DA4 9JH (Explore Kent).

Lullingstone Country Park and the Shoreham circular

A Kent County Council country park known for more than 300 veteran oak, beech, ash, hornbeam and sweet chestnut trees, some thought to be 800 years old, and chalk grassland orchids in spring and summer. The visitor centre has a cafe, toilets and a shop; Explore Kent lists disabled parking and toilets, surfaced paths and a children’s Discovery Trail with a zip wire. Open 9am to dusk or 9pm, whichever is earlier, closed Christmas Day; Explore Kent lists an annual parking pass for the car park. The 6.5-mile circular follows the Darent Valley Path to Shoreham, with “a couple of challenging climbs”, and returns past Lullingstone Roman Villa and Lullingstone Castle. DA4 0JF (Explore Kent).

How we chose

These are the walks people near Dartford search for and the ones with published details we could check: every walking site on Dartford Borough Council’s parks and open spaces pages, the Woodland Trust’s Joyden’s Wood, and the routes Kent County Council’s Explore Kent service publishes for the borough and the Darent Valley up to Lullingstone. Further out, Shorne Woods Country Park and Jeskyns near Gravesend are also on Explore Kent. Distances, surfaces, gate times and facilities are as those pages give them on 26 October 2026; paths change with the weather, so check the owner’s page before a long walk. Run a site, a cafe or a walking group that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@dartfordonline.co.uk.

For more ideas, see things to do in Dartford, what’s on in Dartford this month and our guide to Dartford playgrounds and parks for children. For somewhere to eat after a walk, try our guides to Dartford pubs, restaurants and Sunday roasts, or browse local businesses in Dartford in our directory.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best circular walk near Dartford?

For a short one, Joyden’s Wood has two waymarked circular trails, the Faesten Dic Trail (2 miles) and the Woodland Walk (1.7 miles), according to the Woodland Trust. For something longer, Explore Kent publishes a 3.2-mile mills and meadows circular from Horton Kirby to Farningham, a 4-mile circular from Swanscombe High Street along the Thames, and a 6.5-mile circular from Lullingstone Country Park to Shoreham.

Can you walk from Dartford along the River Darent?

Yes. The Darent Valley Path starts at the Thames in Dartford and follows the river for 19 miles through the Kent Downs to the hills above Sevenoaks, according to Explore Kent. It runs through Central Park in the town centre, and stations along the valley, including Eynsford and Otford, make it easy to walk one stretch and take the train back.

What time do Dartford parks close in winter?

Dartford Borough Council publishes locking times for each park. Central Park locks from 6.35pm in the last week of October and from 5.45pm in November, December and January. Darenth Country Park locks from 5.50pm in late October and 5pm from November to January. Dartford Heath car parks are unlocked from 7am to 6.30pm.