Top Hidden Gems Day Trips from Canterbury
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The top Hidden Gems Day Trips from Canterbury include Reculver Towers and Roman Fort, Folkestone White Horse, Abbot’s Cliff Sound Mirror, Fort Burgoyne, Knights Templar, The Underground Hospital, Ramsgate Tunnels and Walpole Tidal Pool.
Canterbury sits within easy reach of the Kent coast, and a day trip in almost any direction turns up something unexpected. Strike north for the twin medieval towers of Reculver, marooned inside a Roman fort on the low cliffs near Herne Bay.
Head south toward Folkestone and Dover, where a run of curiosities awaits: the modern chalk figure of the Folkestone White Horse above the Channel Tunnel, the weathered Abbot's Cliff Sound Mirror listening out over the sea, the Victorian ramparts of Fort Burgoyne and the round ruined chapel of the Knights Templar on the Western Heights. Beneath Dover Castle you can walk the wartime Underground Hospital cut into the white cliffs.
Swing east into Thanet and you will find the air-raid shelters of the Ramsgate Tunnels and, at Cliftonville near Margate, the huge seawater Walpole Bay Tidal Pool. Coast, cliffs and hidden history sit within a short hop of the city.
Here are eight hidden gems for a day trip from Canterbury.
Reculver Towers and Roman Fort
Photo: Chris Whippet via Geograph.org.uk
See Reculver Towers and Roman Fort Just north of the city, on the low cliffs near Herne Bay, a pair of tall medieval church towers rise from the walls of a Roman fort. The Romans built that fort in the third century to guard a channel that then ran behind the Isle of Thanet, and a Saxon monastery and later a church grew up inside it.
As the sea gnawed away the land the church was abandoned and mostly demolished in the early nineteenth century, but the twin towers were spared as a landmark for shipping and still stand proud along the coast. It is a free English Heritage site, ringed by flint fort walls and earthworks.
Folkestone White Horse
Photo: Helmut Zozmann via Geograph.org.uk
Spot the Folkestone White Horse High on the chalk of Cheriton Hill above Folkestone, a great white horse stands facing out to sea. Unlike Britain's ancient hill figures, this one is thoroughly modern, created in 2003 to a local artist's design and formed from pale blocks set into the slope rather than cut down into the bare chalk.
It gazes out over the Channel Tunnel terminal below and has become a welcoming landmark for travellers arriving in the country. The figure stretches about ninety metres from end to end across the open down, an easy target for a walk on a clear day out from Canterbury.
Abbot’s Cliff Sound Mirror
Photo: Barry Hunter via Geograph.org.uk
Find the Abbot’s Cliff Sound Mirror On the clifftop between Folkestone and Dover sits a curious slab of grey concrete with a shallow bowl scooped from its face. The dish is about six metres across, tilted out toward the English Channel, and a short walk along the cliff path from the old coast road brings you to it.
Beside it stands a small concrete cabin that once held listening gear on a central pillar. The idea was to catch the drone of approaching aircraft out over the water before they could be seen, an early stab at air defence built in 1928 and made obsolete within a decade once radar came along.
Today it stands alone on the grass.
Fort Burgoyne
Photo: Chris via Geograph.org.uk
Explore Fort Burgoyne On high ground just north of Dover Castle stands this sturdy Victorian fort, thrown up in the 1860s to bolster the town's defences and once known as Castle Hill Fort. Its earth ramparts, brick bastions and gun positions all survive, wrapped around a deep defensive ditch.
A land trust now looks after the place and has started opening parts of it up, with a restored battery welcoming visitors and wildlife slowly reclaiming the grassland around it. Much of the main fort remains closed except for special events, so it pays to check what is open before making the trip out from Canterbury.
Knights Templar
Photo: Michael Dibb via Geograph.org.uk
Visit the Knights Templar Church Up on the Western Heights above Dover lie the low, foundation-only remains of a small medieval chapel. What is left traces the outline of a round nave, the circular plan the Templars liked, echoing their church in London, though some argue it may instead have been a roadside shrine on the old road to Folkestone.
Built in the twelfth century, it is remembered as the likely place where King John submitted to the Papal Legate in 1213. This free English Heritage site sits open in daylight on the breezy downland of the Heights, with uneven ground underfoot and sweeping views over the town and harbour.
The Underground Hospital
Photo: Graham Horn via Geograph.org.uk
Walk the Underground Hospital Deep beneath Dover Castle, a network of wartime tunnels burrows into the white cliffs, and this hospital is one of its most striking corners. During the Second World War the tunnels housed a command centre and a hospital, and it was from here that the evacuation of Dunkirk was directed.
The hospital section has been dressed to show its operating theatre, wards and corridors, complete with recreated sounds and effects. You explore it on a guided walk as part of a day at Dover Castle, cared for by English Heritage, and it conjures a vivid sense of what it meant to work below ground through the bombing.
Ramsgate Tunnels
Photo: John Baker via Geograph.org.uk
Go underground at the Ramsgate Tunnels Beneath the streets of Ramsgate, over on the Thanet coast, runs a deep network of wartime air-raid shelters now open to visitors. They opened in 1939, on the very eve of the Second World War, and were dug to shelter much of the town's population, joining onto an older railway tunnel dating from 1863.
Through the war years people not only sheltered here but sometimes lived underground, and a raid on the town in August 1940 claimed dozens of lives. Volunteer-led guided tours take you down through the shelter tunnels past wartime displays.
They open on set days and run more sparingly in winter, so check ahead.
Walpole Tidal Pool
Photo: Nigel Cox via Geograph.org.uk
Take a dip at Walpole Tidal Pool Out at Cliftonville, on the eastern edge of Margate, this vast open-air seawater pool is built straight onto the chalk foreshore. Three concrete walls pen in a slice of the beach, while the chalk itself forms the floor, and every high tide floods over the walls to flush and refresh the water.
It sprawls across roughly four acres and costs nothing to use, with no lifeguards and no admission gate. Opened in 1937 and now a listed structure, it remains part of daily life for local sea swimmers, and it makes a bracing finish to a coastal day trip from Canterbury.
FAQs
Which hidden gems near Canterbury are best for wartime history?
The Underground Hospital beneath Dover Castle and the Ramsgate Tunnels both plunge you into the Second World War, while the Abbot's Cliff Sound Mirror between Folkestone and Dover shows an early attempt at air defence.
How far is the coast from Canterbury for a day trip?
Not far at all. Reculver near Herne Bay sits about fourteen kilometres north of Canterbury, and the Folkestone and Dover gems lie roughly twenty to twenty-four kilometres away, all comfortable for a day out.
Can you swim on a day trip from Canterbury?
Yes. The Walpole Bay Tidal Pool at Cliftonville near Margate is a large, free seawater pool refreshed by every high tide, popular with sea swimmers through the year.
Conclusion
Few cities put such a spread of coastal oddities within a day's reach as Canterbury. In one outing you might stand beneath the twin towers of Reculver, trace the concrete dish of the Abbot's Cliff Sound Mirror, then descend into the Underground Hospital below Dover Castle.
History leans heavily toward the sea here, from Roman forts and a Victorian stronghold at Fort Burgoyne to the round Templar ruin on the Western Heights. When the weather warms, the Walpole Bay pool near Margate and the tunnels under Ramsgate reward a trip east into Thanet.
Wear sturdy shoes for the cliff paths, check seasonal opening days, and let the coast set the pace. Cliff-top, underground and steeped in the past, these are the hidden gems for a day trip from Canterbury.
