Use to get your first month for £1
Circular walk · Easy
A 4.7 mile circular coastal walk on the Isle of Sheppey, from The Boathouse Cafe at Barton’s Point along Minster Leas to ancient Minster Abbey and back.
This loop pairs sea views with some of the oldest history in Kent. Start with coffee by the lake at Barton’s Point Coastal Park, follow the seafront east to the grassy clifftop of Minster Leas, then climb inland to Minster Abbey, founded more than 1,300 years ago. Quiet streets bring you back to the park and The Boathouse Cafe, an ME Card partner.
The Boathouse Cafe sits beside the lake at Barton’s Point and is an ME Card partner, so members save at the start or end of the walk. Show your card when you pay, and check the current offer shown with the stop below.
Barton’s Point Coastal Park is on the seafront between Sheerness and Minster, with a car park on site. Sheerness-on-Sea station is about a mile and a half away, and local buses run along the main road into Minster.
The seafront is exposed, so bring a windproof layer. Minster Abbey Gatehouse Museum keeps its own seasonal opening times, so check before you go if you want to look inside.
Start
Start and finish at The Boathouse Cafe beside the lake in Barton’s Point Coastal Park. It’s an ME Card partner serving fresh food and good coffee, so pick up a hot drink for the seafront or save lunch for the end.
ME Card members get 10% OFF at The Boathouse Cafe - Barton’s Point.
29 m · 1 min walk to the next stop
A short 47 m detour from the path
This seaside park wraps around a large lake, popular for boating and fishing, with open grass and the sea wall just beyond. Walk out to the seafront and turn east, with the Thames Estuary on your left.
Photo: David Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)
1.6 mi · 32 min walk to the next stop
The Leas is a long grassy clifftop above the beach at Minster, with benches and wide views across the Thames Estuary to the Essex coast. On a clear day you may spot the masts of the SS Richard Montgomery, a Second World War ammunition ship wrecked off Sheerness in 1944. From the end of the Leas, head inland and uphill towards the abbey.
Photo: Chris Whippet, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk).
1.0 mi · 20 min walk to the next stop
Queen Seaxburh founded a religious community here around 670, making Minster Abbey one of the oldest places of Christian worship in England. The church of St Mary and St Sexburga still stands on the hilltop, and the medieval gatehouse next door is now a small museum of island history. From here, follow the streets back down towards the sea and Barton’s Point.
Photo: Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)
2.1 mi · 42 min walk to the finish
Back at the start
