Samphire Hoe

This stunning location, nestling beneath the White Cliffs of Dover, was created from material dug to create the Channel Tunnel.

It was originally known as Shakespeare Cliff, where in the 1880s the first attempt to build a tunnel began. The engineers managed to dig 2,000 yards under the sea before being stopped. Some said the company ran out of money, but others thought the Department of War was worried that the French would invade if there was a tunnel under the Channel.

The site was taken over by coal miners, but was abandoned in 1921, due to flooding, gas explosions and poor returns. A second attempt to build a tunnel was started in 1974, and the road tunnel through the chalk cliff remains as access to the site. Eventually the Channel Tunnel was started in 1987, when seven million cubic metres of soft grey rock called Chalk Marl was dug out, which had to go somewhere!

Today, the chalk has been landscaped and seeded with wild flowers and grasses, which as you can see are now establishing theirselves, and are already attracting a wide variety of wildlife - and the human visitors enjoying walks round the site with fabulous views of the cliffs and coast, with Dover Harbour to the east and Folkestone to the west.