The Kent Downs AONB has a wealth of fine heritage sites and there are many places across this beautiful area for you to explore. From Chartwell, Ightam Mote or Leeds Castle, to the Western Heights at Dover or various Woodland Trust sites and nature reserves, you will be spoilt for choice. Use our map to see the extent of the AONB and what it has to offer.

You can also go to The Association of Tourism Attractions in Kent (ATAK) which provides a wealth of information on what to do and see in the county. By clicking on the link you will be able to use their interactive maps and direct links to find details of each of their 85 member attractions.

As part of the Sustainable Tourism Project in the Mid Kent Downs, the AONB is working with a number of unique privately owned visitor attractions, trusts and even a gliding club. Be sure to check opening dates and times with each attraction. Use the links below for further information…

Brogdale Horticultural Trust, home to the National Fruit Collection. Here you can learn about the largest collection of fruit trees in the world – over 4000 different varieties of fruit, nuts and vines are grown in 150 acres of beautiful orchards, including the amazingly ugly Knobbly Russet and the ancient Decio (which the Romans would have known) – or simply enjoy a walk through the orchards in spectacular blossom time.

See the finest collection of clocks in the country and enjoy the tea rooms at the unique Georgian house of Belmont, set in beautiful gardens and surrounded by classical English country parkland.

At the Agricultural Museum in Brook near Wye, you can learn about one of Kent’s most distinguishing features – the oast house.

Doddington Place Gardens offers 10 acres of landscape gardens and tea rooms set in the grounds of a Victorian Mansion, including a woodland garden, impressive clipped yew hedges, and Edwardian rock garden and a folly.

Tour around Beech Court Gardens and you will find many rare and beautiful trees. Various events are staged here – attend an Evening of Wine and Roses, outdoor Shakespeare productions, or Art Week when artists are invited to paint in the gardens.

The Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway is staffed by a “group of friends” who restore and run a collection of narrow gauge steam locomotives. Public open days are held one Sunday a month during the summer, and one day steam driving courses can be booked. A collection of vintage cars are also on show.

The Kent Gliding Club, set in 110 acres on top of the Downs, offers trial lessons giving you an aerial view of the AONB.

Take a walk around the Hucking Estate near Hollingbourne – the Woodland Trust’s ground breaking restoration project involving the planting of 180,000 trees and bringing mature woodland back to life through coppicing and ride widening. Already butterfly numbers are on the increase.

As an ancient woodland site, Kings Wood is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna. See the unusual sculptures and the children’s play structures to represent creatures of the forest.

Enjoy the dramatic views looking south into the Devils Kneading Trough from the Wye Downs.

Visible for miles around, the Mount has long been a significant landscape feature of the Perry Wood Local Nature Reserve, near Selling. The top of this hill offers a superb panorama, and a wooden platform known as the ‘Pulpit’ has been built to help visitors get an even better view.

Discover Lorenden Park, a small country park featuring chalk grassland, administered by a private charitable trust. As well as interesting wildlife you will see a rough metalled track, reminding you of how all country lanes once looked before they were covered with tarmac early in the 20th century.  

Note to Tourism Businesses

If you have a visitor attraction or site in the AONB, and would like your details added to our website, please email mail@kentdowns.org.uk.