Teston Bridge Country Park - circular walk

Date of visit 03/05/2025

Car Park - what3words ///boots.scorpions.pushover

We have visited Teston Bridge Country Park many times over the years. Teston, like Shorne Woods, that I have posted about before, is one of Kent County Council's 9 country parks. We tend to visit to do the circular walk that takes you across the river, through meadows and woods, before returning back over the river and back to the park. The directions can be found here, in the Teston Walk Guide.

This was the first time we had carried out this walk without Little One using a carrier, so we were interested to see how he would cope with the 3 miles circular route.

The first thing of note, like Shorne Woods before, there is a car parking charge for Blue Badge holders, although concessionary rates can be applied if pre-arranged before your visit, the phone number for this is on the picture above. At £3.30 for the day the parking isn't extortionate, so I tend to let it ride and pay, although it does still prickle a bit that Wales and Scotland seem more able to support the disabled with parking costs!

The first stage of the walk crosses Teston Bridge itself. The road can get quite busy at times, particularly if the railway crossing has just opened. There are step-in areas across the bridge, to let cars pass. This was one of those ocassions when Little One's wrist strap came in particularly handy, there is a further stretch of on-road walking the other side of the bridge before turning off onto a private tarmacced road. This road leads through a small selection of houses and farm buildings before hitting open countryside.

This meadow section is quite easy going, although does go down hill towards the river before entering a section of woods. This area can get quite boggy and even on the day we visited, when there had been no rain of note to speak off, the ground was still quite damp in places.

The wooded area is pretty, with some nice flowers on show for our visit. As already mentioned it can get a bit boggy, but sensible footwear and a watchful eye for wet patches should be sufficient.

There are a couple of boardwalked sections along the way, largely over areas that get very damp, and a few gates to negotiate, there are however no stiles.

On a dry day there is also plenty of space in the meadows to have a wrestling match with your nanna!

There is also space here, before reaching the half-way point for a good run, when you've a child that has no understanding of danger. It's quite a long video, but worth watching to the end where he is in fits of laughter!!!

Crossing back over the River Medway, the walk continues turning to the right, in front of railway crossing. The public footpath takes you through the Bow Bridge Marina, and alongside the river. Due to the now closeness of the water, Little One had to go back onto his wrist strap, for safety.

This is a lovely section of the walk, with just the sound of feet on gravel/dry mud, the birds tweeting and the chug of the odd boat coming past up river.

Having been passed by the boat in the above video, we caught up with it further up river, as it was entering Teston Lock. The sitting on a boat lark looked quite relaxing, until we saw this bit, where it looked like hard work!

From the lock the pathway continues towards the bridge and then paths lead off back to the car park and large green area of the country park. There are good toilets in the car park and a refreshment kiosk, selling snacks, drinks and ice creams. There is also a play area a little further on, but we didn't venture on to that, so I can't say what this is like.

To sum up. This is a walk to only be taken on by those with good mobility, as there is a lot of uneven ground for trips and falls. There are also a number of steps and gates, particularly going through the wooded area. Clearly the river can be a draw to some children, and some of the walk is on roadway, so particular care and attention is needed around these areas. At 3 miles the walk is a manageable distance for our Little One, though he was flagging a bit towards the end.