10. Ramsgate to Birchington

As mentioned last time, I completed this leg on a weekend away down in Ramsgate. As I was staying in Ramsgate, I started there so actually completed this part ‘backwards’ compared to the direction of all of the other walks. This means that the whole length of my walk for the summer, starting from the Thames Barrier, ‘ends’ at the beginning of today’s leg, the Viking ship in Ramsgate.

The Viking ship sailed from Denmark to Thanet in 1949, landing in what is now called Viking Bay in Broadstairs. It was built to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the A.D. 449 landing of Anglo-Saxon chieftains Hengist and Horsa at Ebbsfleet, and the betrothal of Hengist’s daughter, Rowena, to King Vortigen of Kent.

The ship is on the top of the cliffs at Pegwell Bay in Ramsgate. Following the path from there back towards the town, you pass the first sign of the popular resort town that Ramsgate was in years gone by, the glorious Pegwell Bay hotel overlooking the sea.

Past the hotel, you enter one of many promenades in Ramsgate, the West Cliff promenade, which has this very interesting sculpture by David Barnes. It was apparently voted the 7th best piece of outside art in the country, according to a Sky Arts poll.

At the end of the promenade is the international ferry port, although no ferries have run since 2013. Slightly more picturesque is the only Royal Harbour in the country, decreed by King George IV in 1820 who was so impressed by the hospitality he received as set off from Ramsgate with the Royal Squadron en route to Hanover.

Ramsgate has plenty of historic connections. A whole chunk of the town is named after Wellington and Waterloo, as Ramsgate was one of chief embarkation points for Wellington due to its proximity to mainland Europe, as it would also be for the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. From the 1830s, Ramsgate grew in popularity as a resort and anyone who was anyone made their way down there. There are blue plaques for Coleridge, Darwin, Wilkie Collins, and even Van Gogh taught here. Princess Victoria even stayed here before she became Queen.

Viking Bay, Broadstairs

Leaving Ramsgate behind, the resorts keep coming and after a lovely walk along the coast I soon got to the next sandy beach haven of Broadstairs. Also very popular in years gone by, the Dickens House Museum close to the seafront is opposite the hotel he used to stay in and is said to be the inspiration for the home of Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield. 

Stone Bay

The path alternates between stunning cliff top walking and sea level promenading, both of which are stunningly superior to the industrial estates and aggregate companies of the start of the walk. It was definitely worth persevering through some of the grim north Kent ‘sights’ to get this far.

Joss Bay

Making my way all around the tip of north-eastern Kent, I then make it to Margate. Signs in the town claim that Margate is the original seaside resort, although this also seems to be claimed by Scarborough. It has been through a bit of a revival in recent years with the opening of the Turner Contemporary gallery right on the seafront.

Rather like the Naval College in Greenwich, the town clock used to have a ball mechanism that dropped at precisely 1pm to allow ships out at see to know the time. The clock tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.

The Tudor House in King Street is one of the best kept Tudor houses in the country and is thought to have been one of the biggest houses in the area at that time.

I was walking along King Street away from the seafront to get to the Margate Shell Grotto. Discovered in the 1830s, the grotto is an underground wonderland of 4.6 million shells. It has never fully been established why it was built, as it is too far from the sea to make sense as a smuggler’s hangout; it may even just be a folly. It was very impressive nonetheless.

On the way out of Margate I passed by the entrance to Dreamland, the seafront amusement arcade that opened in the 1880s. Although it fell into disrepair and closed at the start of the millennium, it was bought out and re-opened ten years later.

On leaving Margate, the path once again flipped between sea level and cliff-top walking. I made it as far as Birchington, where I joined up with where I ended the previous leg.

With that, my series of summer walks in 2023 comes to an end. Although not quite as long as walking the Thames last summer, it provided (eventually) a variety of landscapes and different views of places in my home county of Kent that I had never visited before. In some of the more remote areas, logistics were quite challenging as public transport was scarce (Grain I’m thinking of you). Ironically, getting to and from some of the places closer to Bromley where I live was more challenging that some of the further places as most of the towns and resorts from Rochester onwards are on the mainline from Bromley.

However, once again it has achieved my main goal of getting out and about in the summer holidays, off the sofa and exploring some interesting (and some not-so-interesting) places that otherwise I doubt I would ever have visited.

Distance: 24.8km / 15.4 miles
Total distance: 133.1 miles

9. Herne Bay to Birchington

The final two stages were completed over a weekend away where I was based in Ramsgate. Chronologically, I completed both of these before leaving Rainham. First I walked in the opposite direction from Ramsgate and got as far as Birchington (nope, I’d never heard of it either) – that will follow in Leg 10. This meant that I had planned a shorter day today to allow me to watch the Women’s World Cup final in the morning and still be able to close the loop afterwards.

Before the match started, however, I had the chance to walk around Herne Bay a little. Having navigated my way past thousands of nursing homes from where I parked I found my way back to the seafront.

The clock tower was built in 1837 and is apparently the oldest known free standing purpose built clock tower in the world. Between the clock tower and the pier is a statue of the pilot Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930. In 1941, her plane crashed off the coast at Herne Bay, and neither she nor her plane were ever seen again. Her statue looks out into the estuary towards her final resting place.

Herne Bay pier used to be the second longest in the UK after Southend. Following a storm in 1978, the central section washed away, but you can still see the pier head just over a kilometre out to sea.

The promenade out of Herne Bay

The path follows the promenade all the way out of Herne Bay towards Reculver. In the distance from several miles in both directions (you can just about it see it on the promontory in the photo above) are the remains of St Mary’s church, an old monastery built on the remains of even an older Roman fort. The fort was originally built to monitor the northern end of the Wantsum channel that separated mainland Britain from the Isle of Thanet, back when it was actually an island before it finally silted over in the 17th century.

Further remains of the Roman fort

The rest of the afternoon was spent pleasantly walking along the embankment in glorious conditions until I reached Birchington where I took the train back to Herne Bay and the car home.

Distance: 13.5km / 8.4 miles
Total distance: 117.7 miles

8. Faversham to Herne Bay

An overcast morning took me through Faversham from the station, passing some of the centuries old buildings. In front of the 16th century Guildhall, they were setting up for the market.

Just up the road from there is the Shepherd Neame Brewery (at least the quaint building is on the main road, and what I imagine from the address is the head office in the brick building to the right – the brewery itself is down the road just to the left).

Further down the road are the scattered remains of Faversham Abbey, the original burial place of King Stephen. When the abbey was destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries, Stephen’s bones were said to have been scattered in Faversham Creek which is where I was heading next.

Some very large trespassers on the footpath

The path returned again to the Swale, and the glorious view that I’d had for the whole of the previous leg. As luck would have it, the tide was in this time which mixed it up ever so slightly. Walking through a few more bird sanctuaries, I was this time able to spot a black heron and a pair of birds that looked a little like magpies but without the blue streak on them. Clearly need to get back to my I Spy book of birds to better determine the more interesting ones I see.

Approaching Seasalter, the marshland finally disappears to be replaced with a shingle beach that continues round to Herne Bay.

Seaside houses on the approach to Whitstable

After all the marshlands, creeks and industrial estates, there was finally a seaside vibe as I entered Whitstable. Beach huts and tourists eating fish and chips replaced the odd birdwatcher or dogwalker as signs of civilisation.

Whitstable harbour is where they unload the oysters for which the area has been famous since the Romans.

On leaving Whitstable, you walk under the Tankerton slopes, another long area of beach huts in front of Tankerton beach. At low tide it is possible to walk right out to sea on a natural causeway known as ‘The Street’, although the tide was still in when I walked past so I was unable to see it. A very desirable stretch of beach, one of the beach huts here was once owned by Tracey Emin.

Finally the approach into Herne Bay, and the first proper pier of the north Kent coast (Gravesend technically has one that the ferry to Tilbury runs from, but it’s hardly a proper seaside pier). As there are only trains back from Herne Bay once an hour, I didn’t hang around for long when I arrived, as I headed promptly for the station.

Distance: 24km / 15 miles
Total distance: 109.3 miles

7. Sittingbourne to Faversham

Safe to say this was easily the most boring leg of the whole walk.

After a half hour walk through yet another industrial estate, I finally get back to the other side of Milton Creek and the Swale. The tide is out so the view for pretty much the whole of this leg was as in the picture below. Not a bad view by any means, but it was almost unchanging for a good 4 hours!

View looking back over to the bridge over to Sheppey

The walk along the Swale was briefly broken up by a detour around Conyer Creek, on which there is quite a nice marina. Or what I’m sure would look a lovely marina at high tide anyway.

For a short blissful half kilometre, I passed some farmland where I could walk past some sheep and cows to break up the view of the low tide on the other side.

On entering Oare Marshes nature reserve, there were a good deal of bird watchers. I was able to spot a couple of egrets without any binoculars, but I don’t know if they were able to spot anything more interesting themselves.

Faversham itself seemed really quite pleasant, and probably deserved more than the quarter of an hour I spent walking through it to the station. It is the home of the Shepherd Neame brewery, which claims to be Britain’s oldest brewer, and there were many dainty pubs in the town. On the next leg, re-joining the path will pass past the brewery itself.

Distance: 23km / 14.3 miles
Total distance: 94.3 miles

6. Rainham to Sittingbourne

The next few legs would see very few towns en route, and would pass through a lot of north Kent marshes. Luckily the few towns I did pass were reasonably equally spread out and so made natural breaks between each of the days walking.

From Rainham, the path headed north through Wetham Green and Ham Green, two areas that were really devoid of anything beyond the odd farm and long discarded boat on the marsh.

I assume that at high tide these boats all become sailable, but I wouldn’t necessarily bet on it

The merest signs of life were visible in Lower Halstow where I passed past the pretty St Margaret of Antioch church. I think I was still yet to pass an actual person.

The path then steers away from some marshes for a while, to instead wind its way through some wheat fields. After the fields, the footpath I had planned to take was being dug up by a farmer so I had to take a detour along the road instead to catch up with it a little further down the line. That road took me to the Sheppey Crossing and the Kingsferry Bridge, the two routes connecting Kent with the Isle of Sheppey. I could see from my map that the coastal path carried on on the other side of the road, but finding how to actually get back to it was a little confusing.

Eventually I found my way back to the path and back to more dilapidated boats. The part of the walk by the Swale (the channel between Kent and Sheppey) was actually reasonably pleasant, but soon the path soon turned away from it into (it had been a while!) yet another industrial estate!

After the industrial estate, however, the path went through another country park (Milton Creek), which returned to the prettier side of the area. The country park led straight into Sittingbourne where I ended this leg.

Distance: 23km / 14.3 miles
Total distance: 80 miles

5. Rochester to Rainham

The delights of Chatham high street kicked off this leg before heading back to the Medway to head onto Chatham Dockyards. This sign was probably the highlight of the high street.

This looks like it should be a nice riverfront pub if it were open

As the dockyards approached, the waterfront became dotted with more and more cannons, now protecting the Medway council buildings from attack by sea.

For over 400 years, the Chatham dockyard was established as the country’s premier naval industrial complex and produced over 500 ships for the Royal Navy. The dockyards had a glorious entrance, sadly not the main visitor entrance as that was further down the road and round the corner. The path gloriously skirted the car park, but I didn’t go into the dockyard and headed further round the coast back to St Mary’s Island that I had seen from the opposite bank on the previous leg.

Upnor Castle, an artillery fort opposite the dockyard that was built to protect both the dockyard and the ships docked in the Medway

Ships in the Medway, this time at high tide

Upon leaving St Mary’s Island, the path follows the main road for a section towards Gillingham. I diverted away from the river to pay a visit to the Priestfield stadium, home of the only Kent-based team in the football league.

Heading back to the river, the path winds its way through Riverside Country Park, which must be the most pleasant part of the area near Gillingham.

On leaving the country park I saw this sign to a place called Horrid Hill, which Wikipedia says was named due to the conditions at (yet another) cement plant.

After passing through some orchards, I called it a day and headed to nearby Rainham station to head back home.

Distance: 21.4km / 13.3 miles
Total distance: 65.7 miles

4. Cliffe to Rochester

Leaving the few roads in Cliffe behind, I followed the Saxon Shore Way as it returns to the countryside and slowly winds its way through the Isle of Grain. A mix of fields and country roads takes you to the village of Cooling and St James’ Church, which Dickens used as his inspiration for the church where Pip meets Magwitch in the first chapter of Great Expectations. Lots of the houses along the road through Cooling had cute little Dickensian themed names which I thought was nice.

Cooling Castle Barn, a wedding venue

St James’ Church

After leaving Cooling, the path leads through a farm before skirting the edge of the RSPB Northward Hill nature reserve and climbs a big hill that gave a panoramic view over where I’d just come from.

After a few more miles of fields and a strange path down the side of a petrol station, I made it to the River Medway at Hoo, where the tide was out. This area of the Medway around St Mary’s Island on the opposite bank is where the prison hulks were stationed in the early Victorian period, from which Magwitch would have escaped to go and meet Pip at the church.

Boats in the marina

The figurehead of the HMS Arethusa which saw action in the Crimean war

The walk along the banks of the Medway back into Rochester seemed to take forever, so I stopped for a drink in the King’s Arms in Upnor, since as you can see from the photos it was a baking hot day.

A beautiful collection of dumped trolleys

Before this walk I don’t think I’d ever been to Rochester before despite how close it is to Tonbridge where I grew up. The bits by the river seemed nice enough, but as I had a train to catch I couldn’t hang around long.

Distance: 21.9km / 13.6 miles
Total distance: 52.4 miles

3. Northfleet to Cliffe

A beautiful day welcomed leg 3 as I continued on my way from Northfleet. I drove down and parked at Ebbsfleet International station for the day, about a 10 minute walk from Northfleet station, as I felt driving was more reliable than the bus I’d got home after the last leg (the bus driver got lost on a diversion and ended up having to do a three point turn and being directed by the passengers!).

Northfleet was very quiet at about half 10 in the morning when I passed through, although it doesn’t look like it gets particularly animated at the best of times.

After leaving what I guess would be called the High Street, I veered left towards the river and down some steps to, joy of joys, another industrial estate! This stretch of river had previously seen plentiful cement works owing to its proximity to both water from the river and chalk from the surrounding area. According to Wikipedia there were 9 cement works on the river between Swanscombe and Gravesend, I dare say many of which must have been in the industrial areas I’ve been through recently. With the cement works now all closed down, the area is now home to the largest toilet roll producer in the UK, Andrex, and their toilet roll designed office.

After another quarter of an hour or so of other warehouses and factories, the path finally returned to the waterfront and the approach into Gravesend. The path weaves between houses and the road until reaching the LV21 Art Space in the big red boat on the riverfront. In front of the boat stands a statue to Mahinder Singh Pujji, a Sikh pilot who flew in all three theatres of World War 2. There is also apparently a statue of Pocahontas in Gravesend commemorating the site where she died, although I completely missed it as it wasn’t by the river and I only read about it after I’d passed through!

Shortly after the HQ of the Port of London Authority, who control the Thames from Teddington lock to the North Sea, I entered a lovely promenade where I stopped in the cafe for a sausage sandwich. There were plenty of people sitting on the grass and enjoying a the lovely day by the riverfront. At the end of the promenade, a short passage takes you around a dumping ground for massive old anchors and a dilapidated old pub (the Ship and Lobster) which is apparently still open, and then I finally reached some countryside again!

Horse dressed as a cow

The path leads along an embankment by the river, and for a long time passes alongside a shooting range with lots of ‘danger’ signs and then the Higham Marshes, an RSPB reserve. Although supposedly a haven for birdlife, I didn’t see (or at least recognise) anything particularly exciting. Despite that, walking this stretch was far nicer and well worth persevering through all the industrial estates of previous stages.

At the end of the embankment, I reached a second RSPB reserve called Cliffe Pools. It was here that the signs became a little confusing. I was a little surprised that the signpost seemed to point towards this gap in a fence, and there was clearly a footpath that went through. There was a sign with a map that did suggest there was a footpath through there, but as far as I could tell it just led to an aggregate plant and there was no discernible way through. Having tried to find a successful path that didn’t cross a barbed wire fence, after more than half an hour I had to turn round and try a different path. Typically I immediately spotted a sign to the left of the gap in the fence that I hadn’t noticed earlier and continued around (and then eventually through, but at least on a recognised footpath) the aggregate site.

After navigating my way around the Cliffe Pools, I ended up in the village of Cliffe. I had originally planned to follow the Saxon Shore Way all the way round to Rochester (the route I ended up taking in the next stage). Owing to the time lost while I was lost, and already starting to feel a bit tired, I felt that continuing that way was probably too long (it ended up being 13 miles, so a wise decision). Instead, Google Maps suggested a ‘short cut’ following a road that would take me to Rochester in as little as an hour and a half of walking (only an extra 4 or 5 miles).

While in Cliffe, this was fine enough as there was a pavement to walk along. Once I’d left however, and the pavement disappeared, it suddenly became a lot more dangerous with many blind bends and nowhere to avoid traffic apart from in a hedge. Combined with the HGVs travelling to and from all the construction sites I’d passed (you can see a snip I’ve taken from Street View underneath to show how tight it was), I reached Cliffe Woods and decided it was a much better idea to take a bus back to Rochester, and just as luck would have it the hourly bus was due within 10 minutes.

On my return for the next leg, I took the bus back from Rochester to the Six Bells pub in Cliffe and continued with my original plan of following the Saxon Shore Way round the Isle of Grain.

Distance: 23km / 14.3 miles
Total distance: 38.8 miles

2. Erith to Northfleet

Leg 2 was a little more overcast as I headed back to Erith to continue along the route. After a short walk along a small promenade, I headed out in to the country for a short time before finding another industrial estate.

Following the lighthouses/beacons from yesterday, today I walked past a radar tower, all useful in directing the river traffic.

After about an hour, the way is blocked by the River Darent and the Dartford Creek Barrier, used to prevent flooding as the surrounding marshland and fields lie several metres below the maximum tidal height of the river. Sadly, you are unable to cross the barrier so in order to continue I had to follow the Darent inland to Barnes Cray in order to cross it. It was quite a pleasant walk alongside the tidal creek but it was a long 2 hour detour from following the river!

After navigating yet another industrial estate and a short distance along the A206, eventually I made my way back to the barrier on the other side of the river. 2 hours later, and about 50 yards gained distance along the Thames, I could carry on!

Turning back to follow the Thames again, the Dartford bridge was now properly in sight. It was visible in the distance from Erith but now it was approaching rapidly. I heard several gunshots over to the right which Google Maps told me was Dartford Clay Shooting club, although I couldn’t actually see anything. Past another sewage works and another old power station (now an Amazon warehouse) I finally made it to the QEII bridge, the final crossing over the Thames.

After the bridge, there is a pleasant walk along Greenhithe before heading into Swanscombe marshes. Along with the pylon on the other side of the river, the Swanscombe pylon (below) is apparently the highest pylon in the country, being even taller than the BT Tower. Who knew! (or cared!)

As the river bent round again, the Tilbury Docks became visible on the other side. Originally built in the late Victorian period to alleviate pressure on the central London docks, it then became the main site of the Port of London when the central London docks closed at the end of the 20th Century. It is currently the third busiest port in the country after Felixstowe and Southampton.

Upon leaving the marshes, I followed the path past the Ebbsfleet FC stadium and learnt for the first time that Gravesend and Northfleet had been renamed Ebbsfleet in 2007. Shortly after the stadium was Northfleet station where I ended my trip for the day and headed back home.

Distance: 26km / 16.2 miles
Total distance: 24.5 miles

1. Thames Barrier to Erith

A year after walking the length of the Thames, I had again got bored of sitting around at home for the first couple of weeks of school holiday and had the itchy feet to get out of the house again. Wanting a route I could mostly make from home each day I decided to continue along the Thames from where I left it last year and carry on along the Kent coast, seeing how far I got.

After getting back to the Thames Barrier, the path immediately stopped and took me back to the main road before passing along the embankment to the Woolwich ferry. The ferry is suspended until the beginning of September for some reason so the area around it was quite quiet.

Beside the Woolwich Uber Boat station are these 16 interesting sculptures by Peter Burke, depicting a collective human presence within a series of defined spaces.

The path then leads past some flats and scrubland before heading onto more of a country path skirting around the edge of Thamesmead. There are several red beacons at the main bends in the river to aid navigation.

This interesting mile marker gives several useful distances, and also how far away Inverness is! I’m not sure which route they are taking to get there as that was pointing back towards central London!

The river was much more industrial along this section downstream from Greenwich, regularly passing industrial estates and large warehouses and storage depots, not the nicest environments to walk through.

Further round the bend in the river is Crossness, famous at certain times of the year for seals. Sadly none to be seen while I was walking past. The building above in Crossness is the Grade I listed building built by Joseph Bazalgette in 1865 and according to the sign on the path contains the largest rotative beam engines in the world. This was the end point for his new sewage system and was used to pump untreated sewage from the capital into the Thames (what’s new you ask!).

A pair of oystercatchers

This was a typical view on this section of the Thames, with the industrial factories on the right side and the conveyor belts leading their products directly to boats on the river.

On arrival in Erith, I called it a day and enjoyed a pair of buses to get back home.

Distance: 13.3km / 8.3 miles