🥾 Walking route
Curlews, Convicts & Contraband
Medway
- 📏 9.4 km · 5.8 mi
- ⛰ +64 m
- ⏱ 2 hr 15 min
- 🐕 On lead
Walk stats
- Distance9.4 km · 5.8 mi
- Elevation+64 m
- Duration2 hr 15 min
- DifficultyModerate
- Route typeLinear
- TerrainField paths, farm tracks and sea wall across low-lying marshland; can be muddy.
- Best seasonAutumn to spring for wintering wildfowl and waders.
- DogsDog-friendly but keep on lead near livestock and ground-nesting birds on the saltings.
About this walk
Setting out from High Halstow, this 9.4 km route heads north into the quiet farmland and marsh country of the Hoo Peninsula. The path drops gently through Forge Common and on towards Swigshole, skirting the edge of Northward Hill, the wooded ridge that overlooks the North Kent Marshes and the Thames estuary beyond.
Beyond Swigshole the landscape opens out completely as you reach Egypt Saltings and St Mary's Saltings, a flat expanse of creeks, reedbeds and tidal mud where curlew and other waders feed. The sense of remoteness here is striking, with big skies, distant shipping on the estuary and the low sea wall guiding you eastwards above St Mary's Bay.
The final stretch turns inland past Newlands Farm and the Walnut Tree, climbing gently back onto slightly higher ground to finish in the small village of St Mary Hoo. With only 64 m of ascent spread across the walk, it is a moderate but unhurried outing, well suited to anyone who enjoys atmospheric estuary scenery away from the crowds.
Route map
Route line drawn from OpenStreetMap footpath data. Numbered markers are waypoints on the route; amber star markers are points of interest a short detour away.
Waypoints along the route
6 waypoints along the way
- 1
Start: High Halstow
- Start
The start of the route.
- 2
Forge Common
- 3
Swigshole
- 4
Egypt Saltings
- 5
St Mary's Saltings
- 6
Finish: St. Mary Hoo
- Finish
The end of the route.
Worth a short detour
Points of interest just off the route, look for the amber markers on the map.
Northward Hill
~250 m off the route
St Mary's Bay
~277 m off the route
St Mary Hoo
~223 m off the route
Walnut Tree
~446 m off the route
Newlands Farm
~457 m off the route
Route & waypoint data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).