Moon Down Tunbridge Wells

Moon Down is located in over 150 acres of beautiful Wealden countryside on the Kent/Sussex border.

Moon Down offers Wild Mushroom Forays with John Wright and Christmas Wreath Kits.

Moon Down organises a yearly music festival in aid of charity. Moon Dance has raised over £20,000 in 6 years for various charities both local and national.

SOLD OUT - Wild Mushroom Foraging with John Wright 2026

2027 Dates to be announced

Christmas Wreath Making Kits

Make your own Christmas wreath with our Moon Down wreath making kits. All you need to make a beautiful wreath to decorate your home.

RoundandAbout Travel Blog

Just odd musings as we travel, sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes just roundandabout.

This blog follows our journeys in our motorhome.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day foraging with John Wright. It was thoroughly informative and also full of great humour. Lisa was very organised and helpful, with both booking and on the day. The 3 course lunch with wine was delicious too! Oh, and the cream tea, wow. Being sent a list of all mushrooms found has been really useful, and is helping me to remember each one more clearly. Highly recommended, and would go again.

I am a total novice at foraging and bid for this in a local charity auction (thanks Moondown for so generously donating it to the charity!) without any real idea of what I was coming to. I am SO glad I did. John totally opened my eyes to the wealth of fungi quite literally around our feet, some tiny and almost invisible unless you know what you are looking for, others like huge umbrellas, colours ranging from the obvious browns and whites through yellows and even deep purple. There were plenty of experienced foragers amongst the group, some had travelled big distances, but I felt totally welcome and so enriched by the day. Definitely recommend it.

Thank you for a very enjoyable day . Well organised by Lisa, John was able to talk both in lay and technical terms of fungi that was abundant in the surrounding fields and woods. Highly recommend.

We had a wonderful day out, loads of mushrooms found with John Wright providing patient support and suck knowledge. In the field he could name all of them (over 75 different varieties found). He had a wonderful sense of humour and regaled loads of fun facts and stories. Can’t wait for the next one.

I had a fabulous day foraging for fungi and mushrooms in beautiful countryside at Moon Down. I did not know there are so many types of fungi and mushrooms native to the UK that can easily be found. John Wright gave us a wealth of information in a sociable and humorous manner that made the whole group feel involved.

We started with a cup of coffee at the location for the foraging, and before we ventured far, many types of mushrooms were found. John is incredibly knowledgeable, very patient and a wonderful storyteller – he genuinely made this the best day out EVER! Lisa was great to deal with and the booking process was straightforward. She arranged for a scrumptious 3-course meal to break our foraging day before we spent the afternoon looking for more shrooms. Whilst we enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea, John had painstakingly laid out and labelled all our finds (with both their Latin & common names) – over 60 species! I thoroughly recommend Moon Down and John Wright! See you next year!

.A really wonderful day of fungi foraging with the famous John Wright along with John’s wife and Moondown’s Lisa, both knowledgeable fungi enthusiasts themselves. John imparts his vast knowledge of the fascinating and relatively incomplete science of mycology along with dry anecdotes from the world of publishing and gruesome stories that serve as warnings to the adventurous forager! There is a lot of information to take in – we found nearly seventy species over the course of the day – but the real benefit was becoming more attuned to the presence of fungi around us and how to read the environment as well as the books to help in the quest to identify each of the fungi we encounter. Also Lisa is a brilliant host!

Thanks so much for a wonderful days mushroom foraging, I learnt a huge amount under the expert guidance of John Wright and can’t wait to find more saffron milkcaps in the future!

I think the whole group was amazed by how many different species of fungi we found just in the first field we entered! And the day continued in this vein. It was a treat and also extremely useful to be able to see so many real specimens side by side, touch them and sniff them, and get John’s expert view on all of them. Thank you so much for such a generous dose of both learning and pleasure.

Really enjoyed this foraging course around Moon Down with John and Diane Wright – so knowledgable and just really confirmed that I’m on the right path with my learning around fungi! Great mix of field and woodland to explore! Classroom is a great base for the day, Lisa had organised a good schedule to accommodate our interests out & about and sit-downs with food and the participants were interested in fungi and foraging so we all had plenty in common! Great birthday/Christmas gift for a loved one.

As a first time forager of funghi, I didn’t have any expectations and was so pleased, it was all great fun. John and Diane were amazing company and John’s knowledge is second to none, he spent time with all of us individually and he kept us all entertained with his anecdotes. We found over 58 species, sadly most not edible, and the day went so fast. Food was fantastic and can’t wait until next year!!

A truly amazing day all round. Guided by John’s fantastic knowledge of fungi we found some 50 different species during the day, including a number fairly rare to spot. Lunch and afternoon cakes were substantial and very tasty and the general organisation of the day was excellent and very friendly. Highly recommended.

.My daughter and I had such a wonderful day and it was so interesting to find so many different types of fungi. John has an absolutely amazing knowledge of nature, habitat and mushrooms . The food ( lunch and afternoon tea) was homemade and so tasty too… just a wonderful day and one which we will repeat in the future.

Absolutely fantastic day. Wandering about in the woods and fields with John sharing his knowledge and being so friendly and approachable. Cannot believe we saw over 90 different types of fungi. Organiser Lisa looked after us all so well and the lunch and afternoon tea were both delicious and generous. Highly recommended. Hoping to get a place next year!

Wonderful day. John Wright is a brilliant, friendly guide with a great, dry sense of humour and massive knowledge. The hospitality provided by Moon Down is first class (only wish I had more room for the cream tea after the lovely lunch). But still found space for eating some of our finds that were cooked up for us. The added joy is a group of really friendly strangers whose experience ranged from minimal or limited (me) to confident foragers who wanted to learn more.

I am a total novice at foraging and bid for this in a local charity auction (thanks Moon Down for so generously donating it to the charity!) without any real idea of what I was coming to. I am SO glad I did. John totally opened my eyes to the wealth of fungi quite literally around our feet, some tiny and almost invisible unless you know what you are looking for, others like huge umbrellas, colours ranging from the obvious browns and whites through yellows and even deep purple. There were plenty of experienced foragers amongst the group, some had travelled big distances, but I felt totally welcome and so enriched by the day. Definitely recommend it.

John entertained us all with his wicked dry asides alongside fascinating knowledge of the fungi and their habits. John should have his own TV programme.
Lunch was good too. Well organised.

What a wonderful day my husband and I had foraging for and learning about mushrooms at Moon Down. John is a goldmine of information when it comes to the world of fungi, his enthusiasm is infectious and he is also very entertaining. I would definitely go again and would highly recommend to anyone wanting a really lovely day out.

Had a very warm welcome on my arrival from Lisa who instantly put me at ease with her friendly, warm and informal approach. Simply, a most enjoyable experience; the whole team were lovely as was the food. John shared his fountain of knowledge and many anecdotes with such generosity that it was a real joy listening to and learning from him.

We had a really great day foraging with John. He was extremely knowledgeable, patient, humorous and welcoming. He's clearly passionate about all things fungi but he also interspersed the technical talk with interesting and funny stories. The 3 course meal was superb, especially the spicy Thai butternut squash soup! The location, Moondown, was a foragers paradise with so much variety within such close proximity to the start point. We'd highly recommend this day.

A thoroughly enjoyable experience. John has an incredible knowledge which he shares enthusiastically. Combined with Lisa and Diane, they're a great team. Thank you x

I’ve attended many of these fungi days at Moon Down over the years, and has become a staple event in my calendar. Quite simply, it is just such a fantastic day! John has an encyclopaedic knowledge on all things fungi (and beyond), and Lisa is a first rate host as there’s always a good lunch plus afternoon tea (if you have room). You also get to meet some super interesting people, and everyone is super respectful and keen to learn from the master. Thank you all and see you next year.