The second half of the walk starts at the Reculver Towers, follows the Thanet Coastal Path along the Northern Sea Wall, and joins the Wantsum Walk at Minnis Bay. The cliffs rapidly build up, and after Grenham Bay a turn inland allows access to Birchington train station. For more photos of Reculver and the area inland from here, see Walking>Reculver.

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History of the area

Reculver Fort was originally built in the first century (during Roman times) and was later enlarged in 210AD. It was built a kilometer from the sea, which goes to show how much the coast has changed in the last few thousand years around here. St Marys Church was built within the fort walls in 669AD, and the towers added in the 12th century. Unfortunately most of the church was demolished in 1809, although the site was then bought by Trinity House (who look after all the lighthouses in the UK) - and the towers maintained as a navigational aid. They also laid down the original groynes to protect the area, which has since seen a 200m sea wall (1954), boulders (1996), rock groynes (1999) and the 4km Northern sea wall added. Shingle is also regulalry added to replenish the beaches here.

Reculver was positioned as it is to protect the northern end of the Wantsum Channel - which at points was 2 miles across - from Saxon invaders. A similar fort was built at Richborough on the eastern end. Even in 839AD, the Vikings were able to sail to Canterbury to perform raids on the city. By the 16th century the channel was no longer navigational, and further silting up and land reclamation projects have joined the Isle of Thanet to the mainland. To protect this channel, some of which is below sea level, the Northern Sea Wall was built. (image sourced from hbay.co.uk)

The walk

After passing on the lunchtime pint in the Ethelbert I headed up to the Towers - which were open to tourists. Seizing the chance, I headed up the 70-odd steps to the top of the tower - only to find the widows are opaque....so it was back down to the first floor to take some photos from less high up. After the Towers it goes rapidly downhill (both physically and metaphorically).

A 4km trek along the featureless sea wall eventually ends in Minnis Bay - a haven for families with small children. It's here that the cliffs build up again, and the beach completely disappears - leaving a view to the left of just the sea, and to the right of just the seawall-protected cliff. Looking through some pictures on the interweb, it could be I'm being a bit harsh - as it was high tide when I got to this section - at low tide it looks like there are a fair amount of rockpools and platforms to play on - I'll see on the return. After passing Grenham Bay, I made my way up to the station through the Beresford Gap.