The beauty of Norfolk for me is the remoteness. Especially out of season (and knowing the right spots) you can feel so cut off from the world; miles from other humans and your troubles a distant memory.
It was November 2018 when Matt, my husband, first brought me to Norfolk. We stayed in Blakeney, somewhere he’d stayed many times with his family as a kid. He knew I’d fall in love with Norfolk as much as him, and he was so right.
I remember walking on the coast path out to Morston and being overwhelmed with this feeling of release, this feeling of freedom. I felt liberated somehow.
Even living here now years later, I often get the same feeling on that stretch of coast path; early morning when there isn’t soul around and the fog is rising over the marshes.
It feels like you’re at the end of the earth sometimes on that stretch of coast path. Beyond the water though you do reach more land…and it turns out that bit of land is even more magical than the bit I found all the way back in 2018.
Enter The Watch House.
Half Way House (or The Watch House) is a building 2.4kms from Cley beach car park. Originally built in the 1800s as a lookout for sailors in distress and to spot smugglers, The Watch House has since become many things, from a coastguard station, to a girl guides hut, to featuring in the thriller Black Shuck by Piers Warren. It’s now a very undiscovered holiday let.
I’ll use the term holiday let loosely to set expectations. A stay at The Watch House, although having 4 walls and a roof, is more like camping; hard camping. A bothy if you will, you just need to book (more on this later).
The building comprises of three small bedrooms, each with two single camp beds. There’s a large living room with open fire, a tiny kitchen with a gas oven (and all the cutlery, crockery, pots and pans that you need for your stay) and a look-out station at the top of the building up some ladders. There’s also a separate outbuilding which houses a toilet which you flush with a bucket of water.
There’s no electric and there’s no running water.
If you’re not fazed by what I’ve just told you then you, the brave, will be most certainly rewarded.
To say The Watch House is remote is an understatement. We stayed for three nights in peak season, just before the August Bank Holiday weekend, and we didn’t see a soul. The only way to get to The Watch House is either by walking the 2.4kms from Cley beach car park on the shingle, or sailing in (either with your own boat or by booking with Sail North Norfolk or Beans Boats).
For those lucky enough to have their own boat, there’s a private jetty to moor your boat that’s just a minute from The Watch House. Just dock and head over to the house to collect a wheelbarrow and then you can easily unload and get your things over to the house.
One day we’ll have a boat, it’s on the wish list. We don’t right now though so we decided to be adventurous and risk the walk from Cley beach car park. You’re not normally allowed to stay overnight in this car park but if you’re staying at The Watch House you’re classed as a resident and can leave your car for the duration of your stay (stays are limited to 3 nights at a time. Full weeks are occasionally available at low season) and you don’t have to pay either.
Any of you who have tried walking on shingle before will know it’s a mission at the best of times. Add backpacks full of 3 day’s-worth of clothes, bottles of water, fire wood and food and you’ll be wondering how on earth we actually survived. Tactics, that’s how!
If you time your walk for low tide, the shingle disappears and the wet sand hardens underneath your feet and allow a more stable footing making the walk hard, but more than doable. We also strategic and only packed enough food, water and logs for one day knowing we could easily walk back to Cley each day and either eat at The George & Dragon pub (one of our favs anyway) or pick supplies up from Picnic Fayre. It worked perfectly and I’m so pleased we did the walking route as it just added to the adventure.
Whichever way you get to The Watch House though, the memories you make there will stay with you for a lifetime. I’ve never felt such a feeling of freedom. I cried on our first night. I was overwhelmed with just how spectacularly beautiful it is out there and how lucky we were to have it all to ourselves.
To all intents and purposes, your nearest neighbours are the seals at Blakeney point. As the tide rises, you get entirely cut off from civilisation. The creeks flood to the front of the house and the sea rises up onto the beach behind. We sat on the jetty each night dangling our feet into the water as the tide rose, watching the sun as it set behind the house.
We spent mornings eating breakfast watching the marshland sway in the wind and hearing the incredible noise of the nesting turn colony nearby.
Time disappeared at The Watch House. Being so remote, so cut off, so alone, so free, you really do (not matter what place you were in when you arrived) somehow end up just learning “to be”. There’s nothing to do there. There’s no need for any agenda. All that’s needed is an open mind and a heart waiting to be filled.
I hope a stay at The Watch House will be something we’re able to do every year. It’s left a mark on me and I want more than nothing else to visit that special place again. I crave being there again already. A stay though (as you can imagine) isn’t guaranteed. Bookings are taken commencing 1st January every year on a first-come-first-served. It’s the only fair way to do it. For bookings during peak season (like when we stayed), you must apply via letter (during December) and then bookings are drawn via ballot in January of each year. If you’re successful, it’s £150 for the three nights.
If you love adventuring and finding the special, untouched and unique parts of Norfolk that set your soul alight, make sure you enter that ballot. I’ll be as bold as to say it might just change your life.
To find out more and to book visit The Blakeney Watch House Trust via this link.