Herne Bay Sea Forts

Turner who lives in gravesend. One of the forts still remainingred sands army fortsits rusting off the coast of englands herne bay.

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The trip was organised by mr.

Herne bay sea forts. Herne bay hrn is a seaside town in kent south east england with a population of 38563. One of the forts is managed by the unrecognised principality of sealand. Sign up for our newsletter and get the best of atlas obscura in your inbox.

You can see them from the coast on a nice day. It neighbours the ancient villages of herne and reculver and is part of the city of canterbury local government district. Built in 1892 the greta explores the maunsell forts at a very leisurely pace.

On the south coast of the thames estuary it is 6 miles 10 km north of canterbury and 4 miles 6 km east of whitstable. The red sands sea fort off the coast of herne bay and whitstable was originally built in 1943 to ward off german aircraft. I was visiting herne bay in the spring of 1997 and came across a poster advertising a boat trip to these forts.

In the past most of the trips departing to the maunsell sea forts commenced from the nearby herne bay. Built on land before being floated out to sea in 1943 the septet of towers were once connected by walkways and boasted an arsenal of anti aircraft cannons for taking down airborne enemies. Operation redsand forts performs regular boat tours to the forts.

Naturally i decided to go. Herne bay pier is slowly falling into the sea and this is a fascinating trip along the coast of whitstable and tankerton past hampton and on to herne bay we spend 5 10 minutes getting some great photos before coming back to whitstable. The closest place near the sea forts is whitsable about an 8 mile boat trip.

Boats visit the remaining forts occasionally and a consortium called project. The maunsell forts are armed towers built in the thames and mersey estuaries during the second world war to help defend the united kingdom. Over the years i became more interested in the purpose and function of these forts.

The forts were decommissioned in the late 1950s and later used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting. The red sands sea forts roughly 9 miles off the coast of whitstable herne bay. A return ticket price costs 60 and their exact schedule can be found on their site.

They were operated as army and navy forts and named after their designer guy maunsell. The cost of the trip is 20 a seat and takes about 30 minuets. Today daily tours are performed by a restored thames sailing barge.

The silhouettes of the rusty red sands sea forts off the coast of whitstable and herne bay are a familiar sight for many in the towns.