Folkestone; Saturday, 25 January, 2025

I was up relatively early, most because the dog that was staying in the neighbouring room was up and barking its head off by 8am, so I had a quick shower and was down to breakfast much earlier than I had originally been planning on.

After breakfast I retraced my steps from the previous evening out along The Leas, past the Cliff Hall from where on the roof of the theatre (that’s built into the cliffs, so the roof is in fact at pavement level) I was able to take in some pretty stunning views down into the harbour area of Folkestone and along the White Cliffs towards Dover, as well as out across the English Channel with Cap Gris-Nez on the French coast being clearly visible.

When I reached the town centre I headed into the small Folkestone Museum to have a look around their exhibition before heading downhill through the Creative Quarter until I was down at the harbour area.

Up until the coming of the Channel Tunnel in the late 1990s Folkestone was a major cross-channel ferry port with services across to Calais, Boulogne and Oostende. Roll-on-Roll-off ferries plied back and forth and where the pulled in not only were there the loading ramps for cars, but also a very conveniently placed station which had direct trains straight back to London. However, with the Chunnel the number of ferry routes were cut back with services all being consolidated in neighbouring Dover and the last ferries and trains departing in 2001 – though it took until 2014 for Network Railway to finally complete the process of officially closing the station.

Since then a small stub of the railway viaduct, the swing bridge over the fishing harbour, the former Folkestone Harbour station and the Harbour Arm have been redeveloped into a major cultural and food destination with a large street food market, craft stalls and associated services located in and around the ferry and railway station area turning it into the main focal point of the town, and creating a linear park similar to New York’s Highline.

I spent quite a bit of time wandering round the whole area, taking in the views, and the incredibly well restored station – looking as it would have done at the height of it’s importance in the post WWII period. I also stopped off at one of the street food stalls to grab a Halloumi Gyro.

I continued along the coast heading in the direction of Dover and back up onto the cliffs above the town to reach Martello Tower number 3. This, as it’s name indicates, is the third of the southern Martello towers that run along the English channel from Dover west to Seaford, matched by another string of towers (lettered A-Z plus AA, BB and CC) up the East coast to Aldeburgh in Suffolk.

Unlike many of the other Martello Towers along the coast this one was adapted into service during WWII and has an additional lookout point placed on top of the original Napoleonic era fort. During the summer months the site is open as a visitors centre, but on a Saturday in late January it was all locked up, but the view from the base of the tower over the town and along the coast towards the looming presence of the Nuclear power plant at Dungeness were still pretty impressive.

From the Martello tower I retraced my steps back down to the harbour arm and then out along the beach, along the boardwalk art trail, past the lower lift station of the Leas Cliff Lift and on along the seafront past many colourful beach huts to the neighbouring settlement (albeit now pretty much swallowed up by Folkestone) of Sandgate to have a look at Sandgate castle, originally built in a similar style to the castles at Deal and Walmer it was reduced in size when it was converted into a Martello Tower before finally falling out of use as the beach encroached right up to the outer walls. Today it’s a private residence, but from the beach you can still see the Martello tower element and some of the ruins of the former castle.

By now the light was rapidly fading, so rather than walking the 2 miles back to the hotel I headed up to the main road and caught the bus back into Folkestone, stopping off for an early dinner in town, before having a wander back through the town and along the Leas back to my hotel and a well-earned early night.