The ghosts of Dunwich

Medieval Dunwich was a splendid city and a major seaport that exported wool and grain to Europe and imported cloth and wine. It had six churches plus numerous chapels, convents, monasteries, hospitals, alehouses, farmhouses and mills. Now it is a small seaside village with a handful of houses and a pub. So where has it gone? The answer is that, like so much of the Suffolk coast, it has simply vanished into the sea.

The sea has been the making and breaking of Dunwich. It was the sea that provided the very reason for its existence and supported its industries of shipbuilding and fishing. It was the sea that brought its most famous figure, St Felix of Burgundy, a missionary invited by King Sigebert, to preach Christianity to the pagans of East Anglia and rewarded with a bishopric and a cathedral at Dunwich in ad 630. It was the sea that silted up the harbour during a terrible storm in 1286, leading to the city's inevitable decline. And it is the sea, ever since, which has taken Dunwich back, a process which continues at the rate of around 1yd (1m) each year as the tides chip away at the base of the cliffs. A scale model of the 12th-century city, housed in Dunwich Museum, reveals the full truth about its decline. The Roman town here extended 1 mile (1.6km) out to sea beyond the present coastline. Half of this had disappeared by the time of the Norman conquest but the worst was yet to come. The last church tumbled over the cliffs as recently as 1920 and the museum has a series of dramatic photographs showing it collapsing year by year. According to a local legend, you can still hear the bells of the sunken churches pealing beneath the sea on a stormy night.

This walk also takes you to Dunwich Heath, where the National Trust manages some 215 acres (87ha) of sandy cliffs and a mile (1.6km) of beach as a conservation area. The area was once part of the extensive Sandlings Heaths and consists of miles of excellent walks and tracks through open heathland. It borders the RSPB's Minsmere Nature Reserve and the shady woods and expanses of heather attract a wealth of birdlife, including Dartford warblers and nightjars. Come, if you can, between June and September, when the heathland on the cliff top is carpeted with glorious purple and pink heather.

Walk up the road from the beach car park and keep left at the junction. When the road bends, turn left on to a footpath that climbs through the woods to the ruins of Greyfriars Friary. Follow this path, ignoring turnings off, then go under an arch and come out onto a track that leads to a road.

Turn left along the road then turn left off it after 100yds (91m) on a track to the Dairy House. Keep straight ahead on this path as it enters Greyfriars Wood and continues to a road.

Turn left and walk along this road for 0.5 mile (800m), passing two caravan sites on the left. As soon as you enter National Trust land, turn left on to a path, ignoring the path off towards the cliffs soon afterwards. 

Walk around the National Trust's Coastguard Cottages and take the track beside Heath Barn field centre, then bear right on to a sandy path that climbs through the heather. Keep on this path, bearing left and right at a crossing track to follow the Sandlings Walk nightjar waymarks. When you reach a bridleway, keep straight ahead on a farm track passing Mount Pleasant farm. Cross the road and keep straight ahead on a gravel and grass lane to Sandy Lane Farm.

Turn right for 0.5 mile (800m) on a shady bridleway to emerge by St James's Church, built in the 19th century when Dunwich's other churches were falling into the sea. (For a short cut, keep straight ahead here to return to Dunwich.)

Turn left at the road and, in 100yds (91m), go right at Bridge Nurseries and Café. Keep to the right around the farm buildings and stay on this track for 1.5 miles (2.4km) beside Dunwich Forest before turning seawards. Pass through a gate to enter a covert and fork right at a junction just before     Great Dingle Farm, then follow the path through the reed beds and a gate towards the sea.

Turn right at a junction when you see an old drainage mill to your left, and follow the flood bank across Dingle Marshes. Turn right to return to Dunwich along the beach or take the path behind the shingle bank.