Dungeness
Dungeness in Kent is one of the largest expanses of shingle beach in the world, a flat and extraordinary landscape of shin-deep flint pebbles extending across the low-lying headland at the southeastern corner of England in a scene of industrial, natural and architectural strangeness quite unlike any other place in Britain. The combination of the nuclear power station, the two lighthouses, the scattered beach community of black-tarred fishermen's huts and converted railway carriages, the Derek Jarman garden and the RSPB nature reserve creates a landscape of remarkable and entirely unique character.
The shingle habitat of Dungeness supports one of the most diverse communities of plants and invertebrates of any shingle system in Britain, the open shingle providing niches for rare plants adapted to the extreme conditions of high solar radiation, minimal water retention and the instability of the substrate. The RSPB reserve on the northern edge of the headland provides internationally important habitats for breeding birds including common tern, great crested grebe, bittern and a wide variety of wildfowl in the lagoons and pools.
Derek Jarman, the filmmaker and artist who lived at Prospect Cottage on the Dungeness headland from 1987 until his death in 1994, created a garden from the shingle surrounding his cottage using locally gathered driftwood, stones and plants adapted to the shingle conditions. The cottage and garden, painted black against the shingle, have become one of the most celebrated artist's homes in Britain and the garden continues to be maintained as a memorial to its creator.