Things to do in Suffolk: Shingle Street

A visit to the eerie hamlet of Shingle Street gives you a great feeling for the remoteness of parts of the Suffolk coast.

It's a great place for a bracing walk whilst contemplating its history and mystery. Conspiracy theories include rumours of a German landing in WW2 and a shoreline littered with burning bodies, schemes to protect the coastline with an impenetrable barrage of flames; and the testing of experimental chemical bombs. Four dead German airmen were certainly washed up on the beach, and weapons testing did result in the Lifeboat Inn being blown up. As for the rest, the conspiracy theories rumble on. Desolate, eerie, compelling, Shingle Street is all of those; but it has a wild beauty, and an abundance of birds and other wildlife.