Samphire Hoe

travel

12 May

Not only am I from a coastal town, but I’m lucky enough to have the White Cliffs of Dover practically on my doorstep. I’ve grown up by the sea, so when I’m home-based, I often like to go for walks along the coast with my sister-in-law.

Samphire Hoe is a country park located in Kent, southeast England, and is one of our go-to walks.

Samphire Hoe, situated at the base of a section of the White Cliffs of Dover, is reachable by the general public via a single-lane road tunnel between Folkestone and Dover. It was built using 4.9 million cubic metres of chalk marl excavated from the Channel Tunnel and controlled by traffic lights. The site is owned by Getlink, and managed by the White Cliffs Countryside Project.

It has its own ‘pay and display’ car park located next to the little education and information centre which can be rented out. Visitor facilities are also provided, including toilets and a small seasonal café.

If you’re lucky, the sheep might be out grazing as well!

The name ‘Samphire Hoe’ was actually chosen by a lady called Gillian Janaway, a retired primary school teacher from Dover. The first part of the name, ‘Samphire’, is named after a wild plant called Rock Samphire which was harvested from the Dover cliffs. Its fleshy green leaves were harvested in May, pickled in barrels of brine, and shipped to London where it was served as a side dish for meat. And the second part, ‘Hoe’, is a term used to refer to land that sticks out into the sea.

The walk around the reserve isn’t a long one but you can lengthen it by heading into Folkestone via The Warren Beach.

Quick history lesson!

In order to help build the Dover to Folkestone railway, gunpowder was used in 1843 to blow up the cliffs, which are now the park. In 1880, an attempt was made to build a tunnel that would cross the English Channel, but it failed soon after. There was a coal mine produced in 1895, but it was highly unsuccessful and was shut down in 1921. The platforms' remnants may be seen from the road leading to the car park. Shakespeare Cliff Halt railway station, located at the western end of the Shakespeare Cliff tunnel, served these operations.

Fun Fact: William Shakespeare is supposed to have routinely travelled through Dover while he was writing King Lear. His experience with the cliffs may have been the inspiration behind his descriptions, hence Shakespeare Cliff being named, well, Shakespeare Cliff.

In the 1980s, the location was chosen as the best one (out of 60) to dump chalk from Channel Tunnel excavations and in 1988, work began to reclaim the park from the sea by constructing sea walls to create an artificial lagoon. The Tunnel debuted in 1994, and Samphire Hoe became accessible to the public in 1997.

*The view of the Nature Reserve, White Cliffs of Dover, The Warren and The Harbour Arm in the distance.*

The walking trail takes you right through the nature reserve to the stony beach below, and back round to the sea wall. It’s a very high sea wall by the way, so if you’re not very tall it does take some doing to look over the edge. I say this from my own extremely short experience.

On this particular day, as we took the dog around the sea wall, clusters of flies were everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It must’ve been the time of year but they gathered around our ankles in hoards. It reminded me of a scene taken straight out of ‘The Mummy’, or something. With the midges in our faces and the flies at our feet, it was pretty bloody awful for us, so Lord knows what it was like for the poor dog!

Apart from that though, the sea wall of Samphire Hoe has stunning views all the way to France.

These are the ocean views from the stony beach which is located right under the chalky White Cliffs

*The Lighthouse structure just outside the car park*

Samphire Hoe is home to many birds and wildflowers, including Rock Samphire and Rock Sea Lavender, both blooming in July every year. This area is also home to a number of nationally uncommon plant species, including the early Spider Orchid.

Peregrine Falcons and Rock Pipits have been seen around the cliffs. In the meadow, Stonechats and Meadow Pipits gather, and beneath the overhangs of the chalk cliffs, House Martins build their mud nests.

There is a board up by the education centre that highlights all the different wildlife spotted in the area. Most recently, seals and porpoises have been seen and further up the coast - a humpback whale! No idea what a humpback is doing in these waters but I am beyond jealous that the divers in the area got to see it, that must’ve been an amazing experience!