I was in the desert last week. Not some legendary desert like the Sahara or the Gobi, but one that was much closer to home. This desert is in Kent. It’s called Dungeness.
Visiting Dungeness has been high on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. It’s a remote outpost on the most south-eastern tip of England and my expectations were wildly exceeded. Dungeness is one of the brilliant places I have ever been to.
It so happened that we were staying in nearby Rye, in East Sussex, and it’s a relatively short, albeit fiddly, drive to Dungeness. I had seen enough photographs of the place to know what we would be getting and as soon as we entered the town we realised what the fuss was all about.
The Dungeness desert is essentially shingle and lots of it. But the first thing you see from the middle distance is the nuclear power station, which is no longer operational. It stands tall above the dessert, as do the astonishing lighthouses.
There are boats, some working boats, others appearing to decay in the harsh conditions of the area. There are containers scattered here and there and if you look carefully there are men working close to the water. Everywhere there are signs instructing the visitor to not touch the boats or anything else.
Some people live there, too. There are around 100 cottages and shacks, some totally detached, others in small groups and there are a couple of pubs. But there is little by way of life, aside from tourists like us.
The noise is mainly from the wind and from the distant sea. While the land looks like a post apocalypse scene, the area has also been designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR), Special Protection Area (SPA), a Special Area of Conservation and a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI). People refer to Dungeness as weird, bleak, stark, windswept, otherworldly and hauntingly beautiful. All of these descriptions are true.
The highlight for me was Prospect Cottage, where the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman lived. It is renowned for its garden although in January it perhaps doesn’t quite look at its best. But I loved it and want to return one day to tour the house.
I also want to return to ride the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, which runs through the local area, but naturally isn’t in operation until tomorrow, which is a bit of a bugger because we came home today.
More than wanting to visit again, I want to stay there for a few days to experience the feel at night as well as by day. I am quite besmitten with the place and I will not be leaving it long.
Dungeness is not sight-seeing as we know it. But the sights are totally worth seeing. If you get the chance, go. There really is nowhere like it.
