SWC Walk 13 - Folkestone to Dover
Length: 14.5km (9 miles) or 15.5km (9.6 miles)
Toughness: 4 out of 10

9.34 train from St Pancras International to Folkestone, arriving 10.30

(Or the 8.40 from Charing Cross, 8.49 London Bridge, to Folkestone, arriving 10.21)

Buy a day return to Dover "plus high speed" if using the specified train

For walk directions click here.

OK, I realise this is a hostage to the weather. If it is wet and windy, best give this walk a miss. But if the weather is clear, or at least stable, a walk along the chalk cliffs can be a bracing treat. This walk has made a good winter outing before.

Today will also introduce you to some minor tweaks to the walk route, which all date back to the summer when it looked like the original steep path up the cliffs on the Folkestone Circular walk had become overgrown. That path has since been cleared, but in the meantime I devised two new starts to the walk, one or other of which you can try today:

- The new main walk takes you straight up onto the cliff top from Folkestone (reversing the ending of the Folkestone Circular walk) and keeps you there all the way to Dover

- Option a) takes you along the wild seafront of the Warren, as per the original Folkestone Circular, but gives you a longer option that takes you by another cliff-climbing path up to the lunch options for this walk. This is the 15.5km/9.6 mile option.

Either way your lunch stop is most likely to be the the Lighthouse Inn: I would be surprised if the Clifftop Cafe is open, and I have no recent information on the Royal Oak a bit further on.

The afternoon of the walk gets increasingly interesting as it approaches Dover, with a lovely path along the cliff edge, interesting World War II gun emplacements and views, and a beautiful narrowing ridge as you approach your destination. There is also a main road not far inland, but its noise is less troubling if the wind is coming off the sea. The last section into Dover climbs over the Western Heights with its slightly spooky Napoleonic era fortifications.

Dover itself is not a place you will want to linger, but its one bright spot is a typically large and cosy Weatherspoons pub. There is also a Costa Coffee open till 6.30pm.

Trains back from Dover are at 49 past to St Pancras (1 hr 05) or 58 past to Charing Cross (1hr 54).

T=3.13 Catch the 09:37 from St Pancras. Arrive Folkestone at 10:30

13.1km (8.2 miles) - fewer miles than the average walk :)

As it's meant to be hot, an extra seaside walk...

This is a highly scenic coastal walk with fine sea views throughout and a steep but exhilarating climb in the middle. It firstly introduces you to some of the quainter sides of Folkestone, a town which like many south coast seaside towns is undergoing something of a renaissance, and then takes you past two fine Martello Towers (part of a chain built for defence against an invasion by Napoleon). You next descend into The Warren, an unexpected area of wild coastline to the east of Folkestone, and pass along a strange concrete seafront esplanade, almost certainly left over from World War Two. In places this is cracking and care is sometimes needed, but it is perfectly well frequented. With chalk cliffs looming up to your left, on a sunny day this section of the walk can be quite entrancing. The esplanade should probably be avoided when the sea is stormy, however, and if in doubt, you can escape from it by any path leading inland, turning right along the road and later track which parallels the railway line to get to the footbridge in paragraph 28 of the walk directions. The highlight of the walk then follows – an exciting path that climbs perfectly safely and easily up among what look from below like impossibly sheer cliffs. This path owes its existence to the Warren Halt, a station on the line here from 1886 onwards, which in the Edwardian era was a popular tourist stop with a beach and tea garden. At the top of the path, there is a cafe with a spectacular view of the channel. The route takes you back along the cliff top to Folkestone, with stunning views of the English Channel and the Warren below. On the way you pass the official Battle of Britain memorial, attractively sited right on the clifftop.