Map 189: Dungeness, an apparently desolate landscape of national conservation significance

4 March 2023

The oldest miniature steam engine on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, Hercules, dating back to 1927, was being made ready to pull the waiting passenger carriages to Dungeness. Soon the waiting passengers were aboard and we travelled at scale express-train speeds down to the end of the line, huddled in tiny carriages. As we travelled on a track flanked by back gardens, we waved at both children and adults who waved back; even a dog in its owner’s arms raised its paw (well the owner raised the dog’s paw) to acknowledge us as we passed.

Leaving the shelter of the railway carriage at Dungeness, it was windy, cold and bleak. The whole area is dominated by the massive decommissioned nuclear power station. Notices warn of action to take should the alarm sound if there is a radioactivity leak. Further notices explain that photography is prohibited without a licence apart from photographs taken as a hobby or holiday snap. The area has been said to be Britain’s only desert although this has been refuted as it has more than 250mm rain per year, thereby falling outside this defining qualification. Yet the landscape is of international conservation importance for its geomorphology, plant and invertebrate communities and bird life. It is one of Europe’s largest expanses of shingle. This is recognised and protected mostly through its conservation designations as a national nature reserve (NNR), a Special Protection Area (SPA), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and part of the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) of Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay. It is the third most biodiverse site in the country for its insects, including a large number of rare bees.

We began our walk near the old lighthouse and walked towards the new lighthouse.

Walking on the shingle isn’t permitted except along defined paths as there is a risk of footfall destroying important habitats. However, a boardwalk permitted us to venture out towards the distant sea.

We returned to the road to continue our walk. Abandoned railway carriages have been turned into homes. There is a random collection of wooden shacks, lean-tos and single storey bungalows along the road and extending on to the shingle. Many of the residents have of course moved here to enjoy a reclusive lifestyle and it is only right to respect their privacy, although it is said that particularly at busy times, nosy tourists have been caught peering through windows to look at the homes. There aren’t fences round the properties but it is clear where residents have defined their boundaries.

The beach is still a working area with fishing boats from which local families make their living. These can be seen in the distance from the road. Some tracks up which boats could be pulled lie over the shingle and approach the road.

A square black brick construction near the road is a tanning copper used to preserve fishing nets and clothes worn by fishermen. We saw a few of these further out on the shingle as well.

We turned past some white terraced coastguard cottages to follow a path across shingle scrubland. It’s really hard walking over the loose shingle, particularly in the wind, but at least it kept us feeling warm. Stunted blackthorn and broom grow as well as some very tough looking grass. There’s also evidence of fragile lichens to the sides of the path, which is why it’s important not to stray.

We reached two large gravel pits with a path between them. These have been flooded and are now important lakes which are part of the RSPB reserve. We spotted diving ducks, geese and even a marsh harrier.

We ate our picnic in the RSPB picnic area where we were entertained by garden birds, including a couple of extremely tame robins.

We returned towards Lydd-on-Sea past some more flooded gravel pits and reached the coast close to another boardwalk jutting out over the shingle.

We discovered a bridge over the miniature railway and were fortunate that we were able to wait a short time for the steam train to pass below us.

All that remained was to follow the England coast path to Littlestone with fine views of the white cliffs of Dover in the distance.

Dungeness has been described as a “Marmite” landscape – either loved or hated. It is certainly a place of extremes and contrasts – desolate yet biodiverse, a remote preserve for reclusive residents seeking a quiet life and yet with the potential to be over-run by tourists, a photographer’s dream and yet any commercial or student photography is carefully controlled, accessible and unfenced yet with strict access codes, fragile to footfall yet exposed to enormous physical forces of wind and tide. It is a place that is unique in UK and possibly in the World. It is important that it is preserved and there is of course a precarious knife edge between allowing access and ensuring that it is conserved for the future.