White Dover in October (May)

Visited: May 05, 2018

Taking advantage of the proximity to London, I did a day trip from London Bridge station to Dover Priory station to visit the famous Dover Castle and White Cliffs of Dover. Should you do the same. Yes.

White Cliffs of Dover are bigger than they appear in rear view mirrors

Dover is a lovely town on the Southeast coast of England in Kent. It is the closest or close to the closest spot in England to France. So close in fact you can clearly see the French coast from Dover on a clear day.

Dover is well known for quite a few things

Due to its proximity Dover is the leaving (or arriving depending on your location) point for France via the Channel Tunnel, a 50+ km tunnel under the English Channel connecting England and France. I bet Napoleon, Louis VIII, Henry VIII et all wish this existed during the invasion days.

Dover has a very large port which serves commercial and regular passenger ferries and ships. For the same reason as the tunnel being located in Dover, Dover is a very common place to take a ferry from with two routes into France - Calais and Dunkirk.

Traffic from the port has slowed down in the recent years, however there is effort to reinvest in the port in the coming years.

Castle!

Dover Castle is one of the three Castles (The others being Canterbury Castle and Rochester Castle) between Dover and London built by William I to protect the land route to London.

The castle sits atop a very large hill right in the heart of old Dover. The walk up alone will get your heart moving as it's quite step. Nothing like exercise on your holiday. Dover Castle is a site run by English Heritage. I recommend joining as they have hundreds of sites across England (including Stonehenge) you get access to and even a few discounted sites in Scotland (including Edinburgh Castle).

Dover itself, the castle and the surrounding areas have for years been part of the defensive line defending England. Dover is especially key due to its proximity to France. During the post W1 decades and centuries there was concern the Viking, Norman and/or French rulers would try to attack England. Centuries onwards the list of potential invaders kept growing and Dover was also a potential target to great care was taken to defend it. Dover even have large involvement as a key base for the military in WW1 & WW2.

At the top you'll find all kinds of great things to see. The castle itself is brilliant but there are also the Medieval Tunnels, Military Tunnels and museum and some themed experiences including the Underground Hospital and Operation Dynamo. You really can take the whole day at the castle.

In fact if you add in a meal and seeing all the White Cliffs of Dover have to offer it's almost too much for a day - so make sure you arrive early if you plan to do both.

White Cliffs of Dover

Speaking of which, the White Cliffs offer a brilliant hiking experience filled with views, an underground military bunker and a lighthouse. The cliffs - made of chalk millions of years ago when they were below sea level and attached to France. As it turns out chalk is from dead microorganisms which made it brilliant white chalk.

If you want to take an entire day at the White Cliffs there's nothing wrong with that. You can hike out and enjoy the views, take a picnic with you and explore the bunker and lighthouse over 5-6 hours easily.

First stop as you walk from Dover Eastward along the cliffs is a visitor centre. It's worth a visit in there to get topped up on information, water and snacks. In there you can get a membership to the English National Trust which gives access to both the bunker - which is called Fan Bay Deep Shelter and the Lighthouse. Like English Heritage, the membership gets you into hundreds of sites throughout English

Next stop after a leisurely walk is Fan Bay Deep Shelter. The shelter was built into the White Cliffs to house troops during air bombings of the 9” inch guns above them. One of 3 sets of artilery guns in that section of the English coast. Used to give the Germans the 6 gun salute if they wandered to close to the channel with their ships. These guns were powerful enough to hit France 21 miles away. 

Troops spent many hours sheltered in there from bombing raids and the weather. However it didn't turn out to be the best shelter due to the conditions inside and a separate barracks was built behind it so it was only used in emergencies thereafter.

Around the shelter are also some radio dishes built into the cliffs used to triangulate incoming ships and planes. With somewhat limited success they were later replaced with proper radar system.

The shelter feel into disrepair and we often vandalized for scrap metal until it was sealed up in the 1970s. It was 'rediscovered' and dug out for tourists in 2012.

The lighthouse is at the end of the cliffs is also a beautiful stop. It's full of history and was a very relevant lighthouse (1 of 2) which helped ships move successfully into the English Channel.

Dover in a day or two

If you do go to Dover for just one day you should arrive as early as possible start hiking the White Cliffs. When done have lunch and then explore the castle (you'll need at least 3 hours to see most of its attractions)

If you have two days I recommend it - take a more leisurely pace and enjoy the outdoors along the cliffs.