Welcome to Foulness Island.
The name is unfortunate.
It either meant 'muddy headland'
or possibly 'bird headland' a few centuries ago.
It's about nine square miles,
there's around 150 people who live on it.
But unless you are one of those people or you've got business with them,
you will not be allowed in.
Most of the island and, importantly,
the road and bridge that get you onto it:
they're owned by the British military and they will turn you away.
But despite having no business here,
I am on the island, legally.
And that's because I didn't use the road and bridge.
I walked along a very different path to get here.
The Broomway has been called
the most dangerous, most deadly path in Britain.
It goes back at least 600 years.
And the only reason that I walked here safely
is because I had a guide.
A few miles back before we set off, I asked him a few questions.
- Historically, there is reportedly 60-100 casualties on the Broomway.
The main thing is the tide. It whips round from the North Sea
and would come from, not as you expect, straight on from the horizon,
but it'll often spiral in to the coastline, and so it'll cut you off from your pathway.
It's very easy to get lost out on the Broomway,
particularly in low-visibility conditions when it's raining
or there's low fog, early morning, late at night.
As there's no features or markers to take your bearing from,
you can get very quickly disorientated.
Quite often, people will naturally walk further out to sea,
as opposed to back to land.
The Broomway's only open at the weekends for the public.
The MOD use this as an active firing range,
and they have done since the late 1800s.
And so, one thing that we might see out there is leftover ordnance.
They do a pretty good job of cleaning up after themselves,
but it doesn't mean that we won't see any out there.
I've seen shells this big.
You just have to really keep your distance.
Shell craters are also a problem
because of the exploded ordnance that has gone off,
so it's essentially quick sand.
And so, there'll be pockets of sand which are really soft and mushy
that your feet will sink into that we have to be careful of.
I only guide walks when the tide is constantly going out.
So, we are three hours after high tide.
The tide is still on its way out,
and we should be coming back here as the tides are turning.
- So, obviously, we made it. Thank you, Tom!
The path's called the Broomway
because back before the military built that bridge,
back when it was the only access onto this island,
it was marked by "brooms" every 30 metres or so.
Now, to 21st-century people,
that implies broom handles sticking out the ground.
But, no, I tracked down a photo from 1922,
and the brooms were just short lumps of brush.
But over the last century, those brooms stopped being maintained.
They were either swept away or eroded,
and now the path is unmarked. But it's still on the map.
It's still a legal path.
Permanently closing a right-of-way in Britain is difficult.
- On Foulness, there are public right-of-way footpaths that we can access.
They are rarely used. And so, if you do take them,
the security switchboards will light up
because you'll get reported by MOD staff or by locals who live there
because they think you're trespassing.
I wouldn't be guiding this if I wasn't a qualified mountain leader
who has map and compass skills,
good experience of this guided walk that I do.
I have first aid qualifications, so I know how to deal with
and treat the likely emergencies that could happen out here.
- That article from 1922
also named some of the people who died on the path.
Several doctors travelling to attend patients,
young women trying to reach partners, and island residents who got careless,
or who would sometimes stay in the mainland pubs too late
and then try to race the tide back on a galloping horse.
Because the part of the Broomway we walked isn't just a footpath.
Under modern law, it is a "byway open to all traffic",
which means that, in theory, you can take a horse
or a tractor or anything that's road legal onto it.
It would be a very, very bad idea to just drive onto the sands,
but in theory you could, if you didn't get bogged down.
Now, a few times a year, the village on the island
and the main road are open for tourism,
but not right now, not in 2020,
which means that right now there is only one way
for the average person to get onto Foulness Island.
But there are two ways to leave.
We could go off the rights of way, trespass onto military land,
and then very soon after get escorted off by soldiers,
assuming we weren't arrested.
Or... we can just walk back.
Ready when you are! - Let's go!
- Thank you very much to Tom Bennett!
He's a qualified mountain leader who runs tours across Britain.
I'll put a link to his website in the description.
It feels really weird talking about you
in the third person when you're just there.
[both laughing] - Yeah.
[water sloshing]
- Ugh!