Saxon Shore Way
Saxon Shore Waymarker

Saxon Shore Way

The Saxon Shore Way is a long-distance walking path following the south east coast of England for 257 kilometres from Gravesend in Kent to Hastings in East Sussex. The path follows the line of the coast as it existed in Saxon times, and one of the interesting things about the walk is discovering how the coastline has changed over the centuries. Some of the changes are due to natural events such as rivers silting up (causing several formerly important port towns to find themselves stranded several kilometres inland) and some of the changes are due to more modern events such as the new land reclaimed from the English Channel near Dover as a means of disposing of the massive amounts of earth excavated during construction of the Channel Tunnel. These changes mean that the trail frequently leads the walker out of sight of the coast, across farms and through villages.

While most of the Saxon Shore Way is fairly well waymarked, there are places where the fingerposts and waymarker discs are damaged, missing or, in a couple of cases, appear to have been deliberately interfered with. Therefore, it's wise to carry the relevant Ordnance Survey Explorer or Langranger maps and/or a reliable GPS receiver.

Just before this walk, I started using a Garmin Dakota 20 GPS, which I have loaded with the OpenStreetMap data for the UK. To my surprise, I found that several of the off-road sections of the Saxon Shore Way were included in the OSM data, though so far I haven't found a full set of GPS waypoints for the trail online.

I completed the walk over several visits to England, hence the stages are a little out of order, and one stage is shared with the North Downs Way National Trail, which I completed in the summer of 2010.

Day 1

Gravesend to High Halstow

Gravesend to High Halstow

29 Dec 2010
17km

Day 2

High Halstow to Rochester Castle

High Halstow to Rochester Castle

30 Dec 2010
15.1km

Day 3

Rochester Castle to Gillingham Station

Rochester Castle to Gillingham Station

31 Dec 2010
5.3km

Day 4

Gillingham Station to Lower Halstow

Gillingham Station to Lower Halstow

01 Jan 2011
17.5km

Day 5

Lower Halstow to Sittingbourne

Lower Halstow to Sittingbourne

02 Jan 2011
21.3km

Day 6

Sittingbourne to Faversham

Sittingbourne to Faversham

29 Jan 2011
26km

Day 7

Faversham to Herne Bay

Faversham to Herne Bay

30 Jan 2011
23.5km

Day 8

Herne Bay to Sandwich

Herne Bay to Sandwich

12 Feb 2011
31.3km

Day 9

Sandwich to Deal

Sandwich to Deal

19 Aug 2010
10km

Day 10

Deal to Dover

Deal to Dover

27 Feb 2010
15km

Day 11

Dover to Etchinghill

Dover to Etchinghill

11 Aug 2010
21km

Day 12

Etchinghill to Hamstreet Station

Etchinghill to Hamstreet Stationng

28 Feb 2011
24.5km

Day 13

Hamstreet Station to Rye

Hamstreet Station to Rye

02 Mar 2011
22km

Day 14

Rye to Hastings

Rye to Hastings

03 Mar 2011
19.6km