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By Rachel Mills, loveEXPLORING
Kent has just over 350 miles (563km) of coastline and more than a few cosy pubs along the way. It’s the home of the White Cliffs of Dover and that beach at Botany Bay. There are castles galore and coffee shops too. And best of all, you’re never far from a local train station so it’s up to you if you just walk in the one direction the whole day long.
If you’re looking for a not-too-strenuous weekend pub walk, but want enough of a pace to work up an appetite – or a thirst – then these are the best Kent coastal walks for you.
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Ramsgate to Margate, via Broadstairs
The full Viking Coastal Trail is 32 miles (51km) and circles the Isle of Thanet in east Kent. One of the loveliest sections, which can be walked in either direction, is between Ramsgate and Margate harbours. It’s best at low tide, when it’s impossible to get lost as you follow the chalk headland from sandy bay to sandy bay, though the clifftop walk takes in more attractions (the Italianate glasshouse in King George IV park, Bleak House, North Foreland Lighthouse, Turner Contemporary…).If seven-ish miles (11km) isn’t enough for you, consider extending four miles (6.4km) beyond Ramsgate as far as Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve with its salt marsh and mud flats (restricted access but view wading birds from the coast path).
Pubs dot this part of the coast and two of the very best bookend the walk. The Bedford Inn is just inland from Ramsgate harbour and The Rose in June is a quick five-minute walk from the Turner.
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Herne Bay to Whitstable
If you like colourful beach huts, then let this be your walk. This easy, mostly flat, five-mile (8km) walk between Herne Bay and Whitstable begins (or ends) at Herne Bay’s Grade II-listed Clock Tower on the promenade. It takes in the curtailed pier (once extending for some 3,800 feet (1,154m) but these days a lot more dinky) and slightly shabby seafront before it becomes all pebble beach striped with wooden groynes. Swalecliffe is a lovely green section through a small nature reserve, then pretty soon you’re in well-to-do Tankerton, passing Whitstable Castle and arriving at the working harbour.Read More: 9 of the Best Places to Visit in 2022
Beyond here Whitstable’s pebble beach is usually thronging with people and the 19th-century Old Neptune pub awaits. Sit on a picnic table right on the shoreline and watch the world go by.
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Dover to Deal, via St Margaret’s Bay and Walmer
Begin at the National Trust White Cliffs of Dover car park (it’s also possible to park at Dover Castle an extra mile-and-a-half (2.4km) away) and set out along the undulating chalk grasslands of the vertiginous white cliffs. At the South Foreland Lighthouse turn slightly inland before beginning the downhill to St Margaret’s Bay, where The Coastguard – England’s closest pub to France – is nestled. Pretty Kingsdown village and pebble beach is next, then Walmer Castle and finally the fortress of Deal Castle, which marks the end of the roughly eight-mile (12.8km) walk. |
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Birchington-on-Sea to Reculver, via Minnis Bay
From Birchington train station, follow Beach Avenue to the seafront (there’s plenty of on street parking too) and once on the beach (or the promenade, if the tide is high), put the sea on your right and get walking. It’s roughly four-and-a-half miles (7.2km) there and back. You start alongside chalk cliff – and exposed chalk reef when the tide is out – and on a sunny day the white is dazzling. Beyond Minnis Bay and the contemporary Minnis Bay Bar and Brasserie, with its picnic tables out front, the path follows the concrete seawall and is shared with cyclists.Your destination is the twin towers of Reculver, the remains of a monastic church on the site of one of the oldest Roman forts, built to defend this shore against the Saxons. It’s a stupendous spot for a picnic and there’s a local pub here too: The King Ethelbert Inn.
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Hythe to Folkestone
This six-mile (9.6km) walk starts out from Hythe station, on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway. It follows the canal footpath towards the pebble beach at Sandgate, where on a clear blue winter's day the water looks like glass and you have views of Dungeness, Folkestone and – a little over 20 miles (32km) away – the shoreline of France (it’s not unknown for your mobile phone carrier to ping you a welcome).Read More: 5 Most Beautiful Sights To Visit In Ireland
Keep going east past the keep of Sandgate castle and you’ll soon be in Folkestone, where you can stay on the prom of the pebble beach or stroll the gardens of the Lower Leas. Either way, you’ll spot some great outdoor sculptures. When you reach the famous harbour arm, turn inland towards the Pullman Inn.
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