Reculver, River Wantsum, St Nicholas at Wade and Saxon Shore Way

Over the centuries, the sea ate away the cliffs and began to destroy the village. In 1809, the vicar of Reculver persuaded the villagers to rebuild their church inland at Hillborough. Most of St Mary's was dismantled for its building materials.

The towers, known as the Sisters, were an established landmark and they were bought as a navigational aid by Trinity House, which established shore defences to protect them. Today they perch only a few precarious feet away from the edge of the cliff.

The walk goes through the ruins and along the Northern Sea Wall. Ahead are Minnis Bay and the resort of Birchington-on-Sea. To the right is the drained and dyked Wantsum Channel. Now largely rich arable land, the reclaimed marshes were used in the Middle Ages for grazing sheep, and several banked 'drove roads' cross the low ground.

The slow moving River Wantsum is channelled beside the sea wall. At a lagoon bounded by a shingle bank, the walk turns inland and follows the now unfettered river. The reed lined banks and numerous channels provide nesting places for abundant birdlife, and you may see ringed plovers, sanderlings, short-eared owls, little terns and wheatears. The thistles attract goldfinches, and painted lady butterflies and cinnabar moths are both plentiful in summer.

As you turn away from the river, the ground rises slightly ahead of you. This is the old shoreline of the Isle of Thanet. The edge of the marsh is marked by a little bridge over the Wade Marsh stream. From here, a gently rising lane runs to the cluster of cottages that make up the hamlet of Potten Street. One of these cottages is Nine Nails, one of the many domestic buildings on the Isle of Thanet that is more than it seems at first glance. Curiously roofed, half in thatch, and half in tile, it has a 19th century brick facade masking a half timbered medieval house.

The view ahead is dominated by the 14th century tower of St Nicholas Church, which rises above the quiet and fascinating village of St Nicholas at Wade. The village is reached by a bridge across the busy Thanet Way. Medieval houses jostle around the church; one of them opposite the church porch, retains an interesting Victorian window display of haberdashery items. A handsome Dutch gabled 17th century house on the corner of Shuart Lane has a replica further along the village street, just beyond the forge.

Sir Nicholas at Wade was a very prosperous place in the Middle Ages, when it was a centre of wool production. Its houses and the splendid proportions of its church bare ample witness to this.

You pass more old houses along Down Barton Road. Ahead, the restored and working Sarre Mill marks an important site of Saxon occupation. In the village of Sarre, graves have yielded an abundance of superb 6th to 8th century jewellery, testament to the wealth and importance of these powerful Kentish tribes. In Sarre there is also Sarre Windmill, now disused, but still worth a look.

A bridlepath leads you on to the tranquil Chislet Marshes. Here, butterflies and wildflowers abound. At Belle Isle, you turn on to Snake Drove, whose name derives from its serpentine course across the marsh. Just before you cross the Whitfield Sewer, you pass the site of an old saltworks, a valuable holding in medieval times.

Snake Drove reaches what was mainland England and turns along a lane leading to the hamlet of Grays where, nearby, is the site of the redundant Chislet Windmill. This smock mill remains unrestored and stands still besides its lovely mill house, which was built in 1727. From here, the Saxon Shore Way long distance footpath leads you across the flat fields to the coast back in Reculver.