Walk 33. Winchelsea Beach to Cliff End

Today I set off from Winchelsea Beach in lovely Autumn sunshine, although it is a bit breezy! 

The path runs along the top of a big shingle bank at the back of the beach. Walking over pebbles is a slow and tiring process, but as it turns out, this surface is well compacted and a bit of a doddle to walk on!

Once past the holiday chalets of Winchelsea Beach, to the landward side is a sheep-filled Romney Marsh…

It’s at about this point that I see orange flashing lights in the distance and men in hi-vis, and I realise I haven’t seen any traffic on the coast road. Turns out the road is closed while work is carried out. Bugger! The bus I was planning to take back to my car runs along this road. So I decide I’ll only continue to Cliff End and walk back to the car!

The tide is high and looks on the turn, so the waves are crashing onto the beach in a picturesque manner…

I come across an information board about the Anne which was wrecked in 1690. It is only visible at low tide though, so nothing to see at the moment.

Reaching the little settlement of Pett Level, which seems to blend in to Cliff End, the road closure is very obvious…

The path is now a concrete sea wall and I pass some boats and some pricey-looking beachfront properties…

The beach runs out at Cliff End so it seems a good place to finish today. Next time it will be over the cliffs to Hastings!

Walk 32. Rye Harbour to Winchelsea Beach

Today’s walk is just a short one I managed to fit in!

Starting at the Martello Tower at the end of the last walk…

…the nice tarmac path follows the bank of the River Rother down to the sea. 

Most of this walk today is around Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, which is a large area of mostly salt marsh. Surprisingly it has been built up by the sea over the last couple of hundred years - the Martello Tower was built on the shoreline of the day!

Beside the path is a Discovery Centre with exhibitions, loos, cafe, etc.

Here is the view across the wetlands…

A couple of minutes further on is this distinctive hut…

Apparently the ‘red roofed hut’ is a bit of a local icon and is a privately-owned fishing hut. It’s age is unknown but it dates to sometime before 1900.

Also down here are a couple of WW2 pillboxes…

Reaching the mouth of the river I get an excellent low-tide view of Camber Sands where I walked last time…

From the river mouth I turn right along the path that runs between the beach and the nature reserve. The beach curves away into the distance and the cliffs that are between Fairlight and Hastings.

A short walk down the path and I come to a bird hide and some birds in a lake. I consult the handy notice board and am reasonably confident in identifying them as cormorants! Possibly.

I think this may be the first actual wildlife, that isn’t a seagull, that I’ve seen in a nature reserve on this entire journey!

Anyway, moving on. 

Five minutes later I come across a ruined building. As I approach I think it might be another pillbox, but there is an information board that identifies it as Gasson’s Ruin - named after the family that used to own it. Looks like it might be a bit bleak living here in the winter!

Another five minutes on, I arrive at another building. This one is just derelict, rather than an actual ruin! It is an old lifeboat station that once housed the Mary Stanford lifeboat. As the info board explains, this was the scene of the worst disaster in the long history of the RNLI…

I continue along the path for another twenty-odd minutes which brings me to Winchelsea Beach and my finish point for today, the splendidly-named Dogs Hill Road!

As I said, just a short walk today, but plenty of things to see!