A very short day trip from London is this cute little village in Kent called Eynsford. This is a village but it had very many attractions. A 15minutes walk from the station is my first stop called Lullingstone Roman Villa. This site is managed by English Heritage and is free entry even for non-members. The old ruins cannot be viewed closely due to maintenance work but you can view it from the upstairs gallery. The site is a typical Roman villa and did farming! You can watch a short video relating to the history of the site and upstairs you get to see some artefacts of what has been excavated from the site. This was a quick visit but perfect for any history geeks as the mosaic tiles were well preserved.
10minutes walk from the Roman Villa is Lullingstone Castle and Gardens. It has an try price of £10 for the gardens and the grounds. The actual mansion is lived in so you can only visit on events days. The grounds are beautiful with a lake, with the River Darent flowing through the it. The walk around the grounds takes 15minutes. The gardens is called the World Garden and features plants and flowers from around the world. It was a nice garden to explore with an Orchid garden, a cacti garden and other unique features! The Lullingstone Castle and Gardens was a nice and restful stop!
I then walked to Eynsford village centre which took me directly to the iconic bridge with the river flowing through it. The best thing was to walk through the river. The walk was very picturesque too taking you through some beautiful fields!
On the other side of the village, is Eynsford castle ruins which is free to visit. It is well documented as to what used to stand in each corner of the castle!
The whole trip took me half a day and really enjoyed it!
