Scotney Castle: History, Visiting Guide & Estate Walks
I’ve visited Scotney Castle many times and it’s always wonderful to see the different seasons in the garden and park. I remember that on my first visit more than 20 years ago, the main house wasn’t open to the public as Mrs. Hussey was still in residence. I’ve enjoyed seeing the different improvements over the years and always have a fond memories of Scotney Castle.
Last time I visited, I also had the chance to take a walk around the castle estate and see the places where the seasonal East End hop pickers came to spend their summers at Scotney until the 1950s to help with the hop season.
PIN TO KEEP FOR LATER
MORE PLACES TO DISCOVER
- Discovering the historic Rochester town >>
- The visiting guide to seaside town of Broadstairs >>
- Best places to see and do in Canterbury >>
Introduction to Scotney Castle
Scotney Castle is a magnificent English country house with beautiful gardens owned by the National Trust and open to the public.
The castle’s gardens hide a ruin of a medieval, moated manor house, Scotney Old Castle, which sits on an island on a small lake. The lake is surrounded by sloping, wooded gardens with an impressive collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and kalmia for spring colour, summer wisteria and roses, and spectacular autumn colour.
At the top of the garden stands Scotney New Castle, a house built to replace the Old Castle between 1835 and 1843. Designed by Anthony Salvin, it is an early and unusually restrained example of Tudor Revival architectural style in 19th-century Britain.
Visiting Scotney Castle
Scotney Castle is situated in the county of Kent, South East England. The Castle is located near the settlements of Lamberhurst and Kilndown, with the nearest large town being Royal Tunbridge Wells, which is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away. Despite the A21 main road passing the grounds, it is not visible from the Castle.
- Opening Times: The estate, walks and tea room are open all year round (10- 4pm in the winter, and later in the summer), but the house and the moat castle is open during the main summer season only (all week 11 – 5 pm)
- Tickets: £13 (winter time), £16 (summer time)
- Parking: Members park free
MORE KENT PLACES TO EXPLORE
The Scotney Castle History
The house is sometimes called Scotney New Castle. I’m never quite sure the difference between a castle and a stately home. One has been fortified but is out of service and the other serves fortified wine? But, however you look at it, Scotney has both. But nothing is quite what it seems.
At the top of the hill is the newer stone house, designed by Anthony Salvin in an Elizabethan style, and built for Edward Hussey III in the 1830s. Pan down to the bottom of the valley, and just out of sight from the house, to the romantic ruin of the old medieval castle surrounded by a lake and with its quaint moat and bridge.
Apart from the tower and stone approach, the castle itself is mainly 17th century. In fact, Hussey had it deliberately altered to enhance its picturesque style. So, it could be described as a folly. Well, that’s what I would describe any castle built in a dip in a valley and easy prey to besieging armies and a quiver full of arrows over its low walls.
So, at Scotney we have an example of Tudor Revival architecture built in Victorian times and the remains of a castle made to look more of a folly than it originally was. Explore on!
Scotney Castle is a historic estate located in Kent, England. The earliest record of the estate dates back to 1137, when it was owned by Lambert de Scoteni. However, it was not until 1378-80 that the castle was built by Roger Ashburnham.
Initially, the castle was built as a fortified house with towers in each corner. However, it is believed that the original plan was never completed, and by 1558, only the southern tower remained. In 1580, the south wing was rebuilt in the Elizabethan architecture style, and around 1630, the eastern range was rebuilt in the three-story Inigo Jones style.
The castle was owned by the Darrell family for over 350 years, and during this time, Thomas Darrell hid Jesuit Father Richard Blount, S.J. in the castle while he ministered to Roman Catholics from 1591 to 1598. Catholicism was illegal in England at that time, and during the second raid by authorities to arrest the priest, he fled over a wall into the moat and escaped.
MORE KENT PLACES TO EXPLORE
- Visit the vibrant Old Kent Market in Margate >>
- Visiting the seaside town of Margate >>
- Down House – the home of Charles Darwin >>
The ‘New Castle’ at the Scotney Castle
In 1778, the estate was purchased by Edward Hussey, and his grandson, also Edward, built the ‘new’ Castle to the designs of Anthony Salvin, from sandstone quarried from the slope below. The hollow created was developed into a Quarry Garden and contains a 100-million-year-old impression of a dinosaur’s footprint.
The Scotney Castle House and connection to Mrs Thatcher
On Christopher Hussey’s death in 1970, the estate was left to the National Trust. Several apartments in the castle and on the estate were let out by the Trust, with tenants including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rented the Belfry flat for a time during the 1970s and 1980s, when it served as a weekend escape for her from Westminster life.
Betty, outlived her husband by over thirty years and lived in the house until her death in 2006. A year later, the house was opened to the public. The Hussey’s were great hoarders of painting, textiles and curios from across the world. A helpful guide told us that researchers are still uncovering items for their collection hidden away in old draws and attics.
Once such recent discovery found in a metal track in the attic was the First World War diaries of Brigadier-General Arthur Hussey who commanded the Royal Artillery, Fifth Division.
Filming at Scotney Castle
Continuing the war time connection, film buffs may be interested to know that the Second World War movie Yanks, starring Richard Gere, was filmed at Scotney in 1979. Indeed the proceeds from the film, were used by Betty to update the furnishing of the house.
Today, the castle grounds are a popular location for Shakespeare productions, notably A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the actors appearing from behind the bushes on cue. The old Scotney Castle was also used as the location for the video to the Squeeze song Some Fantastic Place.
The ruins of Scotney Castle, Priests and their secrets
From the house, it’s a short stroll down to the lake and the ruins of Scotney Castle by the river Bewl. The round tower makes a wonderful reflection in the lake and in the summer the surrounding rhododendrons, wisteria, roses and azaleas are in full bloom.
Crossing the stone bridge with the moat below allows one to fully appreciate the island setting of the castle as well as the spectacular woodland views.
Once inside, spot the tiny priest hideaway which so often eluded being discovered by Elizabethan authorities. There a story that a Jesuit priest escaped capture at Scotney by jumping over a wall into the moat and making good his escape via a waiting boat to take his to safety.
MORE KENT PLACES TO SEE
The Hop Trail country walk & the Hop Picker’s Huts
The estate itself offers the chance to explore the myriad of lush woodland and parkland trails. We followed the Hop Trail, stopping off at the pretty village of Kilndown, before continuing to the Hop Pickers’ Huts.
This collection of modest sheds housed the mainly London East End families who spent their summers helping to pick the local harvest. Conditions were hard with entire extended families sleeping in a single hut. Relations between the hop pickers and the local community appear to have been strained with the workers being viewed with more than a degree of suspicion.
For the city folk often living in slum housing, it was a chance to have a working holiday in the countryside, however long the hours or menial the work. For the locals, it was time to fumigate anything the hop pickers touched to protect against the incoming bugs and flees as well as keep on guard for the supposed dubious morals and living standards of the iterant east enders.
You can continue the trail to the Hop Gardens by little Scotney Farm where hops are still picked and dried. The whole walk can be completed at a relaxed pace, enjoying Kilndown Wood in around an hour. The gently undulating landscape is varied with grazing cattle and sheep as well as evidence of charcoal production.
MORE KENT WALKS
- Walk from St. Margaret’s to Dover >>
- Walk from Farningham to Eynsford >>
- Walk from Ide Hill to Bough Beech Reservoir >>
This blog post was originally published on 13 July 2016 and last updated on 14 January 2024
