Country:
District:
Start: Snap Maltings, Snape (IP17 1SP) Grid ref. TM 304 351
Follow the Suffolk Coast Path waymarkers
Ferry Service from Bawdsey to Felixstowe Ferry - Operates daily from May to September. Pre book during winter months.
(S) From Snap Malting, walk South-West along B1059 for 60m. Turn left at the junction to find a footpath left. The coast path follows the Alde estuary from the southern side of Snape Maltings. Keep straight for 2 Km as the path uses boardwalks across the marshes to Iken cliff where the path heads up the hill to the road.
(1) Turn right on the road and then left along a track down to a farm. The waymarker here has fallen down into the hedgerow which can be misleading. Keep to the farm track down to the farm and follow it around to the left and beyond the reservoir where another track leads off to the right.
(2) Take this South keeping alongside the woods on the right until there is a gap in the trees.
(3) Walk through the gap and continue in the same general direction, South-West, on the opposite side of the trees. This keeps to the boundary of a couple of fields until a thick row of trees is encountered on the right.
(4) A waymarker points down the side of the trees, follow this all the way through to the road.
(5) Cross the road and enter Tunstall Forest. A small path leads through the trees and emerges onto a broad track through the forest.
(6) When the track bends to the right, continue straight ahead onto another footpath and keep to this in a straight line, crossing a road, until it emerges from the forest onto a track down to Chillesford.
(7) Turn right, past the Froize Inn pub and take the road on the left for 840m. Keep to this down to Butley Mill.
(8) Then take the track on the left beyond the Mill. Keep to the track until it emerges onto a little road at Butley Low Corner, a small hamlet made up of a few houses.
(9) Turn left and follow the road to the end then right and onto another track. This leads down to Burrow Hill which lurks ahead.
(10) The path continues directly over the hill and down the far side where a footpath leads off to the left and up onto the River banks of the Butley River where the ferry operates during holiday seasons.
(11) Follow the river banks South. The Butley River soon joins the River Ore (which is called the River Alde further up the estuary).
(12) Keep to the path with the river to your left, the sea parallel to this beyond and drainage ditches to your right. This path leads all the way through to a road down to Shingle Street after 5 Km.
(13) On the way, either follow the road or take the river banks down to Shingle Street and continue past the beach-side houses to the Martello to the south.
(14) The path leads inland just beyond the tower, then up onto a defence bank. Keep to this all the way down to the East Lane Gun Battery (2.7 Km).
(15) A road then leads up to Bawdsey. Keep bearing left.
(16) Then take a left on the road to the ferry. Just beyond Bawdsey Hall the official route crosses the fields back down to the beach and there is a strenuous walk across the shingle and around the estuary to the ferry - this is now inaccessible due to erosion with the steps down to the beach having been swept away. The alternative is to follow the road down to the ferry. Wave the bat to Bat for hailing the ferry.
(17) Take the ferry. Keep to the promenade that follows the estuary round to the sea for 2.6 Km. Keep to this until the beach-side road on the top of the cliff turns inland.
(18) There is a path right up to the road.
(19) Turn left and keep to the road until there is a small roundabout. Turn left and the buses into Ipswich depart from across the road. The railway station is just through the shopping area beyond the bus stop. (E)
Walker
Easy 
Moderate 
