The third walk was on a remarkably clear and relatively warm Sunday in late-November, so to make the most of the weather I extended the Margate walk to Broadstairs. This first section (5km) has been done before in the reverse direction (Walking>Birchington), but with more overcast skies and a lower tide. There are a number of small sandy bays in this part of the walk - the map indicating Epple, Westgate, St Mildred and Westbrook Bays - ending in Margate's inspirationally-named "The Bay"

Click map to zoom Click here for Multimap

History of the area

The internet has very little light to shed on this short stretch of coast - although a nice selection of photos of the area from the early 20th century can be found at the Birchington Heritage Trust site - including Beresford Gap, Epple Bay, the beached whale of 1914 and the sea freeze of 1963. Perhaps the most commonly quoted and self-proclaimed fact about Birchington is that it's "England's largest village" - at 14000 people - and it was formed around a church dating from the 13th century. The only other point of note was that Westgate was used as an air base in World War II, and had its short airstrip near to St Mildred's Bay.

More recently, Thanet has been showered with European Blue Flag awards for clean and safe beaches - scooping 7 of Kent's nine in 2006 (85 were awarded in the UK as a whole) ; and 12 Seaside Resort Awards from the Tidy Britain Group:

Green - Blue Flag & Seaside Resort Awards Yellow - Seaside Resort Award only 1 - Minnis Bay 2 - West Bay 3 - St Mildred's Bay 4 - Westbrook Bay 5 - Margate Bay 6 - Walpole Bay 7 - Botany Bay 8 - Joss Bay 9 - Broadstairs East Cliff 10 - Viking Bay 11 - Ramsgate Sands 12 - Ramsgate, Western Undercliff Base map of image (C) Google Maps

The walk

The variation of this stretch of coast between low and high tide is suprising. In 2005 I walked this section in reverse whilst the tide was low, and was able to stroll around the base of all the cliffs. When I completed the previous coastal walk which ended up at Beresford Gap, there wasn't a sign of a beach here, and the sea was pounding against the sea wall. This time it must have been a couple of hours past low tide - so while the beach and rock outcrops were visible, you couldn't get around the bottom of the cliffs without chancing wet socks - and a few climbs up to the clifftop were in order.

It was also apparent that the storms of the previous night had sent the waves way above the main sea wall, with loads of seaweed strewn across the footpath in places - which makes you realise that you wouldn't want to be trapped down there during high tide (and that it must be great for a photo opportunity during the next daytime storm...)

On a Sunday afternoon in November the beaches were empty - but there were a couple of nice stretches that must be good during the summer months. With a few stations in a short distance (Birchington, Westgate-on-Sea and Margate), this is definitely worth an easy stroll.