Holiday Cottages In High Weald

The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) reaches up into the south west of Kent, the part of the county the locals call the Weald, and a number of Kent's inland holiday cottages sit inside it. It is one of the best-surviving medieval landscapes in northern Europe, a close-knit pattern of small fields, ancient woodland, sunken lanes and scattered farmsteads. Designated in 1983 and covering about 1,450 square kilometres across four counties, it takes in around 87 of the self-catering cottages in Kent.

The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Designated in 1983 and now branded as the High Weald National Landscape, this is a protected landscape of about 1,450 square kilometres spread across Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey; the part on this page lies in Kent. Its character comes from the geology underneath: ridges of sandstone and clay cut by steep wooded valleys known as gills, with rounded hills, small irregular fields and large surviving blocks of ancient woodland. The medieval framework of dispersed farmsteads, droveways and worn lanes is still readable on the ground, which is much of the reason it was protected. This was a centre of the Wealden iron industry, and the hammer ponds dug to power the furnaces still lie in the valley bottoms. Hop gardens and the oast houses built to dry the hops are the other hallmark of this corner of Kent, the old Garden of England. It is managed by the High Weald Joint Advisory Committee.

Where to stay in the High Weald AONB

The cottages are spread through the villages and small towns of the Kentish Weald, and many of the best-known places sit inside or right beside the AONB:

• Tenterden: the handsome small town often called the jewel of the Weald, with a broad tree-lined High Street and a steam railway
• Goudhurst: a hilltop village with a pond, long views over the orchards and hop country, and a classic Wealden church
• Hawkhurst: a village of two halves on the Sussex border, well placed for the surrounding woods and gardens
• Biddenden: a pretty village of timber-framed weavers' houses, with a vineyard nearby
• Benenden: a quiet village around a green, deep in the orchard and woodland country
• Sissinghurst: the village beside Sissinghurst Castle Garden, one of the most famous gardens in England

Landscape and landmarks

The pleasure of the Kentish Weald is the lie of the land: wooded ridges, the deep shady gills between them, orchards and hop gardens, and bluebells in spring across the ancient woodland. Bewl Water, on the Kent and East Sussex border, is the largest area of open water in the south east of England, with a path right round its shore for walkers and cyclists. Bodiam Castle, the moated 14th-century castle just over the boundary in the Rother valley, is an easy outing from this side of the Weald. The marks of the Wealden iron industry survive in the still hammer ponds and in old place names, while the oast houses, with their white cowls and round kilns, are the buildings that say Kent more than any other. Sissinghurst and Scotney add some of the finest gardens in the country.

Walking the High Weald

The High Weald Landscape Trail runs for about 90 miles across the protected area, from Horsham in the west to Rye, and part of its length crosses the Kentish Weald, so a cottage here puts you within reach of a long-distance route. It is gentle, intimate walking rather than anything dramatic, dipping in and out of woods, crossing the streams at the foot of the gills and following field edges between orchards and hop gardens. Plenty of shorter circular walks cover the same ground if you would rather keep it to an afternoon.