Weekend breaks, High Weald
Two nights near Tunbridge Wells
- Sleeps 4
- From £220 a night
- Usual 2-night minimum
- One well-behaved dog included
4.8/5 from 85 verified guest reviews
Before you plan anything
A weekend that fits in one valley
Martins Farm sits above Frant, in the High Weald National Landscape, a short drive south of Royal Tunbridge Wells. Almost everything below is within half an hour, which is the point: two nights is not long enough to drive across two counties, and the Weald rewards staying put.
Treat this as ideas rather than a guaranteed itinerary. Opening times, tickets, tours and dog policies change with the season and with the weather, and we do not publish hours or distances we cannot stand behind. Check each place before you set off.
Friday evening
Arrive, then walk
Arrive, and walk the fifteen acres first
Orchard, meadow and the old trees between them. Deer come through from the neighbouring parkland at first and last light, on their own routes, so the early evening is the walk to take.
The George, Frant
The village pub, ten minutes up the lane, and the one we send guests to first. It is a country lane with no pavement for part of the way — daylight out, torch back. Ring the pub or ask in the village for current hours.
The Abergavenny Arms (opens in a new tab)
On the Frant road, useful when The George is full or when you want a table booked properly in advance.
Saturday morning
Provisions, and the town
The Pantiles, Royal Tunbridge Wells (opens in a new tab)
The colonnaded Georgian promenade built around the chalybeate spring that made the town's name. Ten minutes north, and best on a weekday morning with coffee before the shops fill — a Saturday will be busier.
Fuller's Butchers & Farm Shop, Frant (opens in a new tab)
Butchery counter and locally sourced provisions at Bunny Lane, a few minutes from the top of our lane. The makings of dinner rather than a full weekly shop. Check hours on their site before driving over.
Frant Post Office and village shop (opens in a new tab)
Milk, a newspaper, stamps and a conversation that takes longer than the errand. Hours are best checked on the branch finder.
Saturday, the one outing
Pick one castle or one garden
The common mistake is three of these in a day. Choose one, go early, and leave the afternoon to whatever the weather decides.
Scotney Castle (opens in a new tab)
A moated ruin in a picturesque garden, twenty minutes east. The best short outing on our list with children and a dog.
Bayham Old Abbey (opens in a new tab)
Premonstratensian ruins in a river valley, almost on the doorstep and rarely crowded.
Penshurst Place (opens in a new tab)
A medieval hall and formal gardens in the Eden valley, half an hour north.
Sissinghurst Castle Garden (opens in a new tab)
Vita Sackville-West's garden in rooms. Go early; go in June if you can choose.
Great Dixter (opens in a new tab)
Christopher Lloyd's house and garden at Northiam — exuberant, opinionated planting, and a nursery that will cost you money.
Bodiam Castle (opens in a new tab)
The castle children draw when asked to draw a castle. Worth the drive south for the moat alone.
Saturday evening
Dinner, out or in
Thackeray's (opens in a new tab)
A tile-hung seventeenth-century house on London Road, and the town's long-standing occasion restaurant. Book well ahead for a Saturday.
Sankey's (opens in a new tab)
Fish and shellfish, unfussily done. The kind of dinner that repairs a wet afternoon.
Dinner in, with the AGA
The Oast has an AGA, a butler's fridge in the kitchen and an American-style fridge in the boot room, and the farm shop is minutes away. A good number of guests cook on the Saturday and go out on the Friday instead.
Sunday
Slowly, then home
A walk before anything else
The estate first, then the signed public rights of way beyond it. The county's own rights-of-way map is the definitive answer to where you may walk; we do not publish routes across land we do not own.
A section of the High Weald Landscape Trail (opens in a new tab)
A 145km waymarked route through the National Landscape this farm sits in. Sections of it make a good half-day out by car.
A vineyard, if the weather holds
Bluebell Vineyard Estates is the closest of the three we point guests towards; Domaine Evremond is Champagne Taittinger's Kent estate, and Rathfinny sits above Alfriston on the South Downs. Opening, tours and tastings vary — check each estate before you drive.
Walking notes and the maps we useOutdoor days at Bewl Water and BedgeburyIf the dog is coming tooOur own account of a weekend here
Two nights
Stay at Martins Farm
The Oast sleeps four across two bedrooms, with an AGA kitchen and fifteen acres outside the door. Two nights minimum, from £220 a night, booked direct.