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Wildernesse Conservation Area was first designated in 1994 and was extended in 1998 to include virtually the whole of the former Wildernesse Estate. The area covered is now 40 hectares and includes four listed buildings.
Open countryside to the south and east of Wildernesse is designated a Special Landscape Area and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Conservation Area consists entirely of a residential estate formed in the 1920s and later around an existing 18th Century large house. It is bounded on the south, west and east sides by local roads and abuts the Seal Conservation Area at its north end. Three private roads cross the area, running roughly from east to west. The residents of the Conservation Area control the use of these roads. There are no shops, public buildings or transport routes within the Area, although a major outdoor Sports facility/School lies immediately to the north-west.
The most notable built feature of the area is the house (formerly Wildernesse House, now Dorton House, (a School for the Blind) around which the estate was built. The other outstanding features are the tree-lined private roads and extensive planting within the grounds of the residential properties.
Wildernesse is effectively a suburb of Sevenoaks, lying to the east of the urban area and immediately to the south of the A25. The nearest major railway station is 3km away at Sevenoaks (there is a small station nearby at Bat and Ball). From the A25, the M25/M26 junction is approximately 6km from the edge of the Conservation area.
Sevenoaks and its environs lie in a valley between the North Downs and the foot of the Greensand ridge to the south. The land to the south and east is extensively wooded.