Dunwich

Greetings! Our next adventure was requested by none other than Penny herself. She wanted to go to the beach as she had never been to one before. After a little research, we came upon the Suffolk coast which includes the Dunwich area and is less than a two hour drive away.

And now time for a little history on the Dunwich area. In the 11th century, Dunwich was apparently the 10th largest city in England. Storms in the 13th and 14th centuries swept the city into the sea. An few articles on the research in finding the city and its history:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-35549952
http://www.dunwich.org.uk/history/

Someone impatiently waiting to leave.

We stayed in the charming little town on Westleton, just a mile or so away from the coast. It was a very dog friendly town. The White Horse, a cute little pub, was right across the street from our AirBnb and came highly recommended. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and didn't make it there, but it was on our list.

Our first day we went to the National Trust Dunwich Heath site. Dunwich Heath is an example of coastal lowland heath. Heath is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation.The heath is mostly covered with heather, both Common Heather and Bell Heather, and European and Western Gorse but there is also some woodland and grassland included in the reserve. Dunwich Heath has been owned by the National Trust since 1968 when it purchased the area with the help of a donation from the Heinz company as part of the Trust's goal of acquiring various coastlines to prevent them from being developed. We just missed the most colorful period of the heath a few weeks prior.

National Trust Dunwich Heath: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dunwich-heath-and-beach

Pictures from Dunwich Heath:

We ate at the highly recommended, The Ship, which is also a quaint inn near Dunwich Beach. We had excellent food there.

After dinner, we checked out Dunwich Beach.

The next day, we took Penny for her first beach experience at Dunwich Beach. She wasn't sure about the water and preferred to walk parallel to it, so she could keep an eye on it. She also enjoyed leaving her footprints in what little bit of sand she came across. Most of the beach was rocks, but she didn't seem to mind.

Just a bit west of the beach we came across, Greyfriars, the ruins of a Franciscan friary.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1006039

We had a great time in the Dunwich area and would absolutely return to explore some of the surrounding villages and towns.

On to the next adventure!