Botany Bay Kent
Botany Bay is one of the finest and most dramatically set beaches on the north Kent coast near Broadstairs, a bay enclosed between chalk stacks and arches whose combination of the brilliant white chalk formations, the sandy beach and the rock pools at low tide creates one of the most characterful beach environments in the southeast. The beach is backed by chalk cliffs of considerable height and the stacks standing in the sea at each end of the bay have been sculpted by wave erosion into the arched and undercut forms characteristic of the chalk coast of this section of Kent.
The chalk stack at the western end of the bay is the most impressive natural feature, its arch and undercut base demonstrating the wave erosion that has progressively separated this mass of chalk from the cliff behind. The rock pools exposed at low tide contain a rich community of marine invertebrates in the clear, relatively uncontaminated water of this section of the North Sea coast, and the beach is popular with fossil hunters who find shark teeth, sea urchins and other marine fossils weathering from the chalk in the cliff faces.
The beach is reached by steps from the clifftop above and the relative inaccessibility compared with the more developed Broadstairs beaches nearby preserves a quality of discovery and natural character that makes Botany Bay one of the most rewarding beach experiences on the north Kent coast. The coast path connecting Botany Bay with Kingsgate Bay and North Foreland provides excellent chalk cliff walking with extensive Channel views.