Monthly Archives: January 2015

shingle

A great, lonely, flat, spit of shingle projecting out into the English Channel from Romney Marshes might not sound enticing, especially compared to the popular Camber Sands nearby, but it’s well worth a visit by both the  Scientific Tourist and the ordinary kind.  Even at the height of summer Dungeness has a somewhat bleak appearance, which actually enhances its charm and belies the existence of multiple attractions.  In winter the place looks quite desolate.

Further away, you can take a tour of the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, which supplies part of the electricity that supplanted the Giants of Brede. Lonely out on its great shingle bank spit jutting out into the English Channel; it’s an almost surreal sight set in a fascinating, if bleak-looking, landscape. (See also Dungeness Nuclear Power Plant)  Again, this is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with much rare flora and fauna.  The miniature Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway runs a regular scheduled service out to the plant.  The human inhabitants are equally unusual, living way out here in a scattered collection of eccentric chalets, and the film director Derek Jarman’s garden is worth looking out for and is not the strangest. You can also climb the old lighthouse.

Behind Dungeness lie the Romney Marshes, another special wetland habitat, famous for its sheep, the extensive marshes embody a fascinating story of a landscape reshaped by the efforts of humans and the sea. (See )

• Dungeness is a great shingle promontory jutting out into the English Channel, featuring the vast grey bulk of the nuclear power station at its end, which is also a terminus for the RH&D Railway.  A well-deserved Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its almost desert-like habitat, Dungeness is almost as fascinating for its lonely human environment as it is for its wide skies and unique ecosystem.  The estate has largely resisted any form of large-scale development, resulting in a uniquely weird and wonderful collection of isolated habitations that mostly seem to be impermanent structures adapted from railway carriages and old boats.  A great day out for anyone who appreciates the unusual!