Discover Rye & the surrounding area

In recent years the beautiful sea-fort town has slowly become just a little bit more cosmopolitan but without losing any of it's endearing old world charm.

The town is perched high on a bluff over looking the salt marshes below. Ever since Norman times the town's history has been one of invasion and resistance standing firm against the winds of change that have swept across the Channel or over the marshlands and meadows that hold the rest of England at bay.

Once sitting right on the coast Henry VIII thought it a sensible place to build one of his impregnable gun fortresses to halt the annoying French approaches but the seas so quickly receded that even before it could be occupied in anger it was marooned in the fields soon to be surrounded by grazing sheep - now the hauntingly beautiful Camber Castle in the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. The steep cobbled streets are lined with enticing shops and buildings straight off a period Hollywood set (it's a yet to be denied rumour that Johnny Depp was so taken by the place he bought one himself).

If you are looking for a bit more activity and adventure then the coastal nature reserve at Rye Harbour is English big-sky country at its best, with a chance of a seal-spotting in the Harbour as a bonus on your blustery walk. Here you can literally get lost in the myriad of paths that criss cross the marshes peppered with stunning lagoons, the home to it seems, virtually every sea bird common to our shores.   And if walking isn't your thing, just hire a bike from Rye Hire in the town and peddle you way around the freedom and space of the pancake flat marshes.