Visiting the area?

 

Here’s how to help preserve the area during your stay and things to look out for while you’re here. When visiting Dungeness please respect the area and follow the Countryside Code. Please stick to footpaths and only park in designated car parks. Keep dogs under close control and take all litter home.

Set out below are a number of questions you may have when visiting Dungeness. Click each question for answers.

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Respect – Protect – Enjoy

Respect other people:

  • Consider the local community and other people enjoying the outdoors
  • Leave gates and property as you find them and follow paths unless wider access is available

Protect the natural environment:

  • Leave no trace of your visit and take your litter home
  • Keep dogs under effective control

Enjoy the outdoors:

  • Plan ahead and be prepared
  • Follow advice and local signs

The full version can be found here.

Dungeness is the largest mass of shingle anywhere in Europe and possibly the world! It covers a massive underground aquifer which is where all the drinking water comes from. It is formed of many parallel ridges that have been deposited by the sea over hundreds of years.

The shingle is home to many plants and invertebrates that are incredibly rare and one that is found nowhere else in the world! A moth, the Dungeness Pigmy Footman.

The area really has its own special identity and feeling, bleak and open with few barriers and fishing boats strewn across the beach.

Dungeness is a privately-owned estate and active nuclear site surrounded by very fragile but important habitats therefore photography is heavily regulated here. If you are taking photos for anything other than personal memories you must gain a licence first. This can be booked here http://www.dungenessestate.co.uk or by calling 0844 7369654 (24hr Helpdesk) and must then be followed up with a call to the Romney Marsh Countryside Project – RMCP (Owen Leyshon) on 07770 670316 for more info go to http://www.dungeness-nnr.co.uk/photoshoots.php

The cost is £1250 per day (for students it’s £200 for each of the first two days then full price for any subsequent days).

(Prices correct at time of publication)

It is prohibited to fly drones on Dungeness.

As well as being an active nuclear site, the area is important for many birds which will be disturbed by drones.

The estate has its own police force the CNC police, expect them to turn up.

Parking must only be in marked bays. The shingle verges are some of the most important habitats and can be easily destroyed by driving on them, and also you’re very likely to get stuck – on average five cars a month have to be towed off the shingle causing lasting damage.

Deliberate or reckless damage under any of these designations can incur a fine of up to £20,000.

When driving it’s very simple, stick to roads and only park in designated parking spaces.

To explore the area on foot there are numerous footpaths which can be a great way to see the area. Public footpaths are all marked on Ordinance Survey maps. There are lots of places to access these on the internet. One of the best is here https://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm which will show you a photograph of the area at the same time which can help to get your bearings.

Many of the footpaths are not well marked and it is easy to get lost so it’s always advisable to have a map with you.

There are additional maintained footpaths which are permissive (not formally paths but you are allowed to walk there) these are maintained by the Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership and are concentrated in the area to the south of the Long Pits.

The whole of Romney Marsh is a fantastic place to explore. Bikes can be hired from New Romney Cycles or in Rye, or why not take the train. The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway has regular departures from Dungeness and is Britain’s smallest passenger railway. Timetables can be found on their website www.rhdr.org.uk

There are 14 historic churches to visit, some are situated in the middle of fields where the original town is long gone like the iconic St Thomas a Beckett at Fairfield.

The whole landscape is criss-crossed by a myriad of ditches which are fantastic for wildlife and make walking here all the more interesting.

Visit our sister site http://visitromneymarsh.com for more information and places to stay.

Vipers bugloss, wild carrot, Nottingham catchfly, red hemp nettle, sea holly, yellow horned poppy, sea kale, wood sage, cats ear, lichens, prostrate broom.

For waste collection information https://www.folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/recycling-waste-and-bins/garden-waste (most of the area is on a Monday in 2019)

For up to the minute wildlife sightings http://www.dungenessbirdobs.org.uk/

 

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