Today’s walk will take me round the first part of the Isle of Sheppey.
Now, many coastal walkers don’t ‘do’ islands, but there is a bridge you can walk across and my stated aim is to go where I can reach on foot. So I’m off round Sheppey!
I start at Swale railway station which is just yards from the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge. The central part of the bridge can be raised to let shipping pass…
On the far side I turn left along the north bank of the Swale. This is the body of water that separates Sheppey from the mainland. I’ve heard it referred to as a river, but it seems more like a sea channel to me!
There is a good path that follows the bank although it is not marked as a public footpath on the map.
After about twenty minutes I reach the most westerly point on Sheppey, the fantastically-named Ladies Hole Point! This looks like it used to have some sort of industrial activity as there is a lot of concrete rubble and lumps of rusty metal and stuff left to decay. There is also what appears to be a small boatyard.
From Ladies Hole Point there is a path, marked as a public right of way, that heads roughly eastwards past Rushenden Hill.
On the way I see yet more mouldering boats in the mud. In the background is Queenborough…
Past Rushenden the path appears to be blocked by a fenced off area of land that looks like it is soon to become a housing estate. As I walk up to these gates I’m expecting to take a short detour round a couple of residential roads…
But then a bloke on a mountain bike whizzed past me and through this gap…
He disappeared from view and didn’t come back so I figured there must be a way out at the other end! A few yards in and there is this sign…
It doesn’t take long to get to the other end, but there I find a snag. The exit is flooded. No problem if you are on a mountain bike, but I’m not wearing my ‘winter’ boots and the water is too deep for my footwear! After spending a few minutes trying to get round the edges/climb out etc, I give up, go back to the gate, and take the road detour.
All things considered, it’s almost as though the developer is only very grudgingly keeping this public right of way open! Who’d ‘a thought…
A short walk brings me to Queenborough. This seems a very nautical place with a nice little quay on The Creek…
Past The Creek the path follows the sea wall for a short distance…
You can also see across the Swale to Deadmans Island which lies at the northern end of the Chetney Peninsula. Apparently this was so-named because prisoners who died aboard the prison hulks moored in the Medway Estuary were ‘dumped’ there!
Access to the coast is blocked by the Sheerness docks. A large number of cars and vans are imported through these docks and the well-fenced path runs around, and sometimes through, the huge storage and marshalling yards.
The path eventually emerges at Blue Town, the old historic docks area of Sheerness. They have a slightly battered information board that tells you all about it…
Leaving Blue Town I arrive at Sheerness Tesco which is just behind the seafront. This is my end point of today’s walk as I plan to do Sheerness and Minster seafronts next time.
I enjoyed today more than I thought I was going to. Plenty of variety and unusual stuff to see!
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