Farthing Common and Postling Down
Travellers have likely stopped here at the top of the hill and admired the views for thousands of years, and who can blame them?!
Farthing Common and Postling Down
A Geosite with stunning views from the top of the Downs, Farthing Common sits at a junction of current and former routes across the Kent Downs, including the former Roman road, Stone Street, the ancient Pilgrim’s Way, and the more recent addition of the North Downs Way National Trail. Travellers have likely stopped here at the top of the hill and admired the views for thousands of years, and who can blame them?!
Just along the North Downs Way from the Farthing Common viewpoint you can find Postling Down.
In this area you can see an unusually clear example of how the landscape has been formed by ancient processes, in this case either erosion by a stream or river or of mass movement similar to that which created the Devil’s Kneading Trough a bit further northwest of here.
Sites such as Postling Down are great places to gain an understanding of how, despite Chalk having been formed 100-60 million years ago, it is the relatively recent erosion processes that happened at the end of the last Ice Age (around 12,000 years ago) which carved out the rough shape of the landscape we know and love today.
About Geosites
Geosites are sites of geological interest across the aspiring UNESCO Cross-Channel Global Geopark, where people can visit and interact with our geological heritage. This wide range of sites will offer varying opportunities and values including cultural, heritage, scientific, educational, and aesthetic.
About the aspiring UNESCO Cross-Channel Global Geopark
Hundreds of thousands of years ago a catastrophic flood swept away the chalk ridge connecting Dover and Calais, carving out the white cliffs of Dover and starting Britain’s history as an island.
Did you know the Kent and French coasts are actually still connected today by the layer of chalk which runs below the Channel?
In celebration of the chalk and the channel, we are working to secure UNESCO Cross-Channel Global Geopark status for the Kent Downs National Landscape together with our neighbouring protected landscape in France; the Parc Naturel Regional des Caps et Marais d’Opale.
The Geopark will include both the protected landscapes and the Channel connecting them, recognising and celebrating the geological connection between us.
