Mersea Island

The road onto Mersea Island, a causeway called the Strood, floods at high tide, so the crossing is only safe outside those times; check tide tables or the causeway’s own signs before you set out. The island lies where the Blackwater and Colne estuaries meet the sea, off the Essex coast. West Mersea, the island’s main town, has fished oysters since Roman times; the Colchester native oyster still comes from beds in the Blackwater estuary, and houseboats, beach huts and seafood stalls line the shore by the Hard. A Roman barrow at Barrow Hill, excavated in 1912, held a glass urn with the cremated remains of someone evidently important; mounds like it survive only rarely anywhere in East Anglia. Out at the eastern end, Cudmore Grove is a country park of dunes, saltmarsh and low, slowly eroding cliffs, with a beach and coastal path popular for walking.