Wye

Wye is a North Downs village at the point where the Stour Valley cuts through the escarpment, giving direct access on foot to some of the most dramatic chalk downland in Kent. The village itself is modest -- a church, a pub, a station and a handful of streets -- but the ridge above it contains the Devil's Kneading Trough, a dry chalk coombe of a scale and steepness that surprises most people who arrive expecting a modest viewpoint.

The Kneading Trough is the largest and most accessible of the steep-sided coombes that characterise the Kent Downs. The view from the Millstone at the top reaches Romney Marsh, Dungeness and the Sussex coast on a clear day. The coombe is managed by Natural England as part of the Wye National Nature Reserve, grazed to maintain the chalk grassland habitat for the Black Veined moth and a range of specialist downland plants. The 8km loop from the Coldharbour Lane car park can also be reached on foot from Wye station in around 45 minutes via the North Downs Way.

Spring brings wildflower meadows at full height on the Downs slopes; October gives the best long-distance visibility for the southward view. Summer is the most popular season but the coombe is never crowded compared with more structured visitor sites. Winter visits are viable in good conditions and the Downs landscape is at its starkest between December and March.