Walks

Welcome to The Barking Bedgebury, the quintessential English Country (dog) House Hotel. A luxury hotel exclusively for dogs!
We are situated in an Area of Natural Beauty on the edge of Bedgebury Forest with direct access to 2000 acres of real countryside to explore. This is the Weald of Kent, yet we are only 50 miles from the centre of London.
A warm reception awaits your dog at our comfortable home, an idyllic timber framed farmhouse, which dates back to the 15th Century and is actually two miles from the nearest road.
It is a haven of peace and tranquillity and a magical place to stay. Your dog will become a member of the family, and live with us like they would with you, and for your peace of mind, be treated exactly the same.
The walks around here are amazing, and the principal attraction. We do not have to put the dogs in the car to take them for a walk. We usually go off first thing in the morning for about an hour.

Towards the end of the afternoon we go out again, for maybe a little longer (depending on the weather). The dogs love all the smells, we have wild boar, lots of different deer, as well as the usual foxes etc, and they chase the rabbits and squirrels, and generally just enjoy the countryside.

We are able to venture off in any direction, straight from the farmhouse along ancient walkways, public footpaths and bridleways, as far we like with no traffic. Some have great views (for us) others provide shelter from the rain, we take advantage of the sunny routes, and use others to shelter from the wind.
A favourite place to go is Luisa Lake, in the middle of the forest. Almost without exception they all like to go for a swim.
By the time we have got there, let them play for a while, and return home, it is a two hour walk, which we mainly do in the afternoon.

We provide an abundance of exercise for fit healthy dogs, and as much or as little for older ones. In the autumn we like to forage for mushrooms, it would be good to train the dogs to find ceps for us, but we have not had much luck so far!

We walk our dogs off the lead in the forest, but we may meet horses, or encounter livestock and have to use the lead, so if you have a dog that is not always good at coming to a call, or not used to walking on the lead, it is imperative that you tell us. We need this (and lots of other) information on our booking form, because, apart from anything else we don't want your dog getting lost. We offer a prize for the most comprehensive character assessment!

Most of the dogs enjoy the odd trip in the car, so just for a change we may choose for our afternoon walk a trip to the South Downs. All this fresh air and exercise makes for a keen appetite, so they eat well and then sleep well.
We have a large reservoir nearby at Bewl Water, with 800 acres of it, and a footpath around the perimeter, and lots of space down to the water-line for the dogs to play around on away from the enevitable bicycles and joggers! Occasionally we go there as it has the added incentive of allowing us to stop for a drink in the neighbouring pub garden after our walk, only because it is just where we park the car!

If we have dogs that love to lengthen their stride and really run, sometimes we take them to Camber Sands on the coast, about 40 minutes away where there are vast open spaces (when the tide is out)