Herne Bay to Whitstable walk

Herne Bay to Whitstable

Distance: 7.7 miles.
Time without long breaks: 4 hours (add time for pub breaks).

Terrain: Flat.
How to get there and back: Train to Herne Bay, return from Whitstable. Trains run from London Victoria and St Pancras.
Pub breaks: Plenty of pubs and bars to choose from. In Herne Bay, we recommend Beer on the Pier and the Hampton Inn and in Whitstable, the Old Neptune (a must), the New Inn, the Fountain, the Sea Farm Diver's Taproom and the Twelve Taps. There are many eating establishments in Whitstable, but if you want a stop-off for food halfway we recommend the excellent JoJos, overlooking Tankerton Slopes.
More information: Whitstable is famed for its oysters and every year in the summer hosts an Oyster Festival, which you could tie-in with this walk (if you don't mind the crowds). It also has a number of oyster restaurants, including Wheeler's Oyster Bar and the Royal Native Oyster Stores. There are a lot of online guides to the town's attractions. We found this one useful for the pick of the places to eat and drink.

Click on the image below to access the full map on plotaroute

Not a country walk, but a lovely one to do on a summer's day if you want a quick trip out of London for some sea air. It starts in Herne Bay, where there is a statue of the aviator Amy Johnson (see below). Following the beach huts, you cut through a small nature reserve before reaching the green spaces of Tankerton Slopes. Just beyond is Whitstable Castle and its grounds. Whitstable itself, built on the oyster farming industry, is an interesting town to explore, and has some excellent pubs and restaurants, including the Old Neptune, where you can grab a table overlooking the estuary.

Turn right when leaving Herne Bay station and walk up Station Road, passing the Heron pub. In 200m, just after the turning on the right, enter Memorial Park. Walk up the path and then turn left opposite the bowling greens to reach the war memorial. From here, head north along the Avenue of Remembrance, exiting via a memorial gate. Turn right into Kings Road and in 175m you will come to a visitor information centre, where there is also a cafe, gallery and arts centre. Turn left here into Beach Street and then immediately take a right into Queen Street. This comes out on William Street. Turn left and head down the road all the way to the seafront, passing the quirky Seaside Museum.

The pier has been reinvented as Herne Bay Pier Village. Although the helter-skelter remains, it now features small shops selling clothes, antiques and bric-a-brac and a tiny craft beer pub called Beer on the Pier. On leaving the pier, continue along the seafront. Along the next stretch, there are dozens of colourfully-decorated beach huts. The path turns sharp left at Hampton Pier, where you will find the Hampton Inn. The pub has an interesting history, as it is the only surviving building in Hampton-on-Sea, which was flooded and abandoned in the early 20th century. The village's most famous resident was Edmund Reid, who had been in charge of the CID during the Jack the Ripper murders and became a well-known local eccentric during his retirement.

You come out by a road. There is a cafe and ice cream parlour to your left and just beyond this JoJos restaurant, perfectly located for a mid-walk break. To continue along the walk, turn right and follow Marine Parade, with the green spaces of Tankerton Slopes to your right. In about 3/4 mile you will come to some trees and, on your left, Whitstable Castle. The castle, initially a tower that was later expanded into a manor house, was built in 1789 by the Pearson family (there is also a Pearson Arms in the centre of the town). There is a cafe here and the gardens, which are free to enter, provide a nice spot to sit out in and chill for a while.

Turn right and where the roads divide take the left-hand fork into Harbour Street (there is a nice pub, the New Inn, just down Woodlawn Road on the left and you'll find another one, the Fountain, round the corner on Bexley Street). Harbour Street is one of Whitstable's best-known thoroughfares, full of quirky independent shops. When you reach Victoria Street on your left, turn right down Red Lion Lane. Cross straight over by the Prince Albert to reach the sea. The Pearson Arms gastro pub is on your left and the Royal Native Oyster Stores oyster bar (run by the Whitstable Oyster Company) on your right. Oysters have been harvested here since Roman times. Now thought of as something of a delicacy, they were once a very common food when meat was in short supply.

In a career spanning six decades, Cushing appeared in more than 100 films, including 22 horror films made by Hammer Productions, in which he often starred as Count Dracula or Dr Frankenstein. He also played Dr Who in two films and appeared in Star Wars. Cushing lived in Whitstable for 35 years and often frequented the Tudor Tea Rooms. One reason he loved the town was that it was the perfect place for him to indulge his love of painting. From Cushing's old house, turn left down a path next to a new development. This comes out at a lane (Island Wall). Turn left. In 300m, you pass the turning that leads to the Old Neptune.

If you are a craft beer lover, just before the Playhouse Theatre on the right, opposite the church, you will find the Twelve Taps taproom. To reach the station from here, carry on down the High Street and take a left into Argyle Road. In 125m, turn right down a footpath, which runs past a school. This comes out at Cromwell Road. Turn left then bear right at the mini-roundabout into Railway Avenue. The approach road to the station is a little way down on your right. The distance between the Twelve Taps / Playhouse Theatre and the station is about half a mile (10-12 mins walk).

As with many seaside resorts, Herne Bay underwent a significant decline when holidaymakers discovered cheap holidays abroad in the 1970s, but in recent years the town has undergone substantial regeneration. Although parts are still a bit run down, you'll now find plenty of spruced-up houses and independent shops and cafes. When you reach Central Parade, cross over, turn left and head along the seafront promenade. You will come to the clock tower, believed to be one of the first of its kind in Britain. Just beyond this is the central bandstand, now a public open space. Between here and the pier is Amy Johnson's statue. The aviator died off the coast here in 1941 (see panel).

Keep along the coastal path, which forms part of the Saxon Shore long distance footpath. It runs past a green space and recreation area. Just under a mile from here, you reach a holiday park and just past this Long Rock, which is a small nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest. As well as sea birds, it is also home to the rare fisher’s estuarine moth. Cross the bridge over Swalecliffe Brook and take the left fork to cut across the reserve. A little further on you will come to a row of beach huts at Tankerton. After the huts end, you will reach Tankerton Bay Sailing Club, just before some more beach huts. Turn left here and head inland.

Take the path through the gardens that skirts the south side of the bowling green. You emerge at a gatehouse (the main entrance to the castle). Go down the road straight ahead, passing a red phone box, and proceed down Tower Parade. After about 200m, just past Harbour Garage and before you reach a large car park on the left, take a right into the East Quay area and Whitstable harbour village. Turn left for the Harbour Market (if you follow the road straight down it leads to the Lobster Shack restaurant). Here you will find beach huts converted into cafes and shops selling various wares. At the end of the harbour you will see Whitstable Lifeboat station. Turn left here, past the car park, and walk down to the road.

Turn left. Just round the corner from the Pearson Arms, you will find the Sea Farmer's Dive taproom. Proceed along the path that runs along the top of the beach. In 250m you will reach the Old Neptune, a great pub right on the water. If you can grab a table outside in the evening, it's a wonderful spot to catch the sunset. On leaving the Old Neptune, continue along the seafront down Marine Terrace. Carry on straight ahead past the tennis courts. You will then come to another terrace of houses called Wave Crest. Just after the end of this terrace, you will see a blue plaque on a house. This is the former home of the actor Peter Cushing.

In another 200m, look for a house on the left called Squeeze Gut cottage. Opposite, there is a tiny passage between two houses. This is Squeeze Gut Alley, Whitstable's narrowest alleyway (the town is full of these alleys, which were used by fishermen as shortcuts to get to the sea and also by smugglers as escape routes). At the end of the passage, take a right into Middle Wall (if you don't fancy squeezing through the alley, simply follow the road round the corner and turn right). You will shortly come to the Smack Inn pub. Opposite is the Sea Cadets centre. Take Bonners Alley which runs alongside it, then turn right into the High Street.

The aviation pioneer Amy Johnson is commemorated with a bronze statue on Herne Bay seafront. Her connection with the town is a tragic one, however, as she died near here after her plane crashed into the sea. Johnson set many long-distance records and in 1930, in her Gipsy Moth plane Jason (now in the Science Museum), she became the first woman to fly solo to Australia – a trip that took 19 days. Until then, her longest solo flight had been from London to Hull. To reach Australia required fearless determination. She flew over uncharted and hazardous territory, often with an open cockpit. As a result of the trip, she achieved huge celebrity status, with songs (including Amy, Wonderful, Amy) and even a haircut ('the Amy Johnson wave') dedicated to her. Among other achievements, Johnson also broke the solo record held by her husband, Jim Mollison, for a flight to Cape Town. On a flight to New York in 1933, the pair had to make a crash landing and were thrown out of the aircraft. After recuperating, they were given a ticker tape parade down Wall Street.

Later in the 1930s, Johnson became involved in journalism and fashion while still acting as an ambassador for flying, urging the youth of Britain to 'take to the air'. During the Second World War, she was recruited by the Air Transport Auxiliary and it was while working for the ATA that her accident happened. On 5 January 1941, the Airspeed Oxford plane she was piloting plummeted out of the sky into freezing waters. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the incident, with suggestions that she had run out of fuel, but also unsubstantiated rumours that she was the victim of friendly fire after she twice failed to give the correct identification signal. She bailed out of the plane by parachute and was spotted waving for help as a boat set off to rescue her in adverse conditions. But as it neared she failed to reach the ropes thrown to her and disappeared underneath it, possibly sucked into its propellers. The commander of the boat also died during the attempted rescue. Amy Johnson's body was never recovered. KB

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Herne Bay to Whitstable

Click on the image below to access the full map on plotaroute

​

Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond