Lonely Landguard Point

This is a walk for people who find beauty in bleak landscapes and charm in the most unexpected places. You won't find any meadows or fields of wheat, just a shingle beach and a lonely spit where Suffolk dips its toe into the sea. You won't see country cottages or half-timbered farmhouses, but you will see gantries and cranes. If you're looking for a rural ramble, don't say you weren't warned!

Landguard Point is Suffolk's southernmost point, a wild and windswept place where fishermen can sometimes be seen casting their rods into the sea. Beneath the groyne there are views of Harwich across the river.

It lies within the Landguard Reserve, a small nature reserve containing at least one per cent of all Britain's vegetated shingle, a delicate ecosystem that is constantly under threat. The shingle spit here has been formed by the action of the tides over millions of years and has been colonised by rare plants such as the seakale and yellow-horned poppy. At the same time there are also reminders of human presence in the form of earthworks and anti-invasion defences at this strategic spot at the mouth of the Orwell and Stour rivers.

In spring and summer, you will notice that parts of the beach have been roped off to prevent any disturbance to nesting birds. Little tern return here each spring after wintering in Africa and ringed plover arrive from the nearby estuaries to lay their eggs in the shingle, cleverly camouflaged to resemble pebbles.

The reserve also contains the Bird Observatory, where 8,000 birds are trapped, ringed and released each year in an effort to understand migratory patterns and population trends. A board outside the observatory lists recent sightings and describes the annual migrations of birds like wood pigeon who travel south to Africa in winter and brent geese who arrive from Siberia to benefit from the warmer climes that the pigeons are leaving behind.

Towards the end of the walk, you'll reach the John Bradfield viewing area overlooking Felixstowe Docks. On most days you will find a surprising number of people here, admiring the ferries and cruise ships and watching the dockers at work bringing shiploads of containers ashore. This is the largest container port in England, the fourth largest in Europe and the thirteenth largest in the world. The statistics are staggering. At its two terminals, the Port of Felixstowe operates 20 ship-to-shore cranes and manages to deal with more than two million containers each year. In contrast to all these big ships, a foot ferry crosses the river from here to Shotley and Harwich in summer.

What to look for

The unpleasant stinking goosefoot, named after its smell of rotting fish, grows at only three sites in Britain and one of them is the Landguard Reserve. The plant flowers between July and October and its flowers are said to resemble miniature broccoli florets.

Where to eat and drink

There is usually a van in the dock viewing area serving coffee, cold drinks and bacon sandwiches to the ship-watchers. There are numerous choices along the seafront in Felixstowe.

While you're there

Landguard Fort is maintained by English Heritage and you can visit the fort to wander around its walkways and see the 18th-century casemates and 19th-century gun batteries. The opening hours are complicated but they are listed at the entrance. A separate building, once used as a mine storage depot, houses the Felixstowe Museum, which is open on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons in summer and features displays of military and naval history along with exhibits on the history of Felixstowe.