Dungeness

Dungeness is a flat shingle headland at the south-eastern tip of Kent, occupied by two nuclear power stations, two lighthouses, a cluster of black-tarred fishermen's cottages and one of the most important RSPB nature reserves in south-east England. There is no conventional amenity and no effort to make the place presentable. The landscape is singular and the light, on the flat open shingle with water visible on three sides, is unlike anything in the rest of the county.

Prospect Cottage -- the black shiplap house with bright yellow window frames where the filmmaker Derek Jarman made his garden from shingle, driftwood and flint until his death in 1994 -- is the specific pilgrimage for many visitors. The cottage is not officially open or closed; it can be approached and viewed from the road at any time. Jarman's diaries describe the garden in terms that make clear how deliberately the found objects were placed; the result is land art in the correct sense of the term rather than domestic gardening.

The RSPB reserve is the other layer. April and May for spring migrants, August to October for the autumn passage, with the reserve at its most active during both. Winter visits are viable purely for the landscape: the power station silhouettes, the flat horizon and the sound of the shingle in wind. The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway reaches Dungeness halt, making the headland accessible from Hythe without a car.