The naturist beach lies to the east of the main town beach and can be reached by following the road through Leysdown and for about 1.5 km beyond. It becomes a track (watch out for potholes) and sweeps away from the sea wall and back again in a U-shaped loop. Where it rejoins the sea wall there is a small parking area on each side, Mile End gate. Park here and continue eastwards on foot past some old wooden chalets. The naturist beach begins after 100m and extends for 250m. The beach is of sand and shingle.
Nearest shops and toilets are in Leysdown.
Information Office, Swale Borough Council, Trinity Road, Sheerness, Kent ME12 2PG.
Location
The beach is located two km south-east of Leysdown-on-Sea - which is at the eastern end of the Isle of Sheppey off of the north Kent coast.
Access and Parking
The Isle of Sheppy can be accessed from the mainland by a new road bridge (A249) - once on the island you should pick up signs for Leysdown, but if not then head east on the A2500 which becomes the B2231 at Eastchurch.
To get to the beach you’ll need to drive on through the centre of Leysdown itself.
Once you’re through the town you’ll get quickly to the estuary and head south along the shore (Shellness Road) - there is plenty of parking along this road but this is still a couple of km from the beach so you might want to carry on.
For the most direct access to the beach, head on along the shoreline where Shellness Road heads back inland. The road here very quickly becomes a track which is in very poor condition. It’s possible to drive all of the way along with care to a parking area about one km from the main road. However, this does take some nerve so you might choose to park further north and walk in. (Update Sept 2020 - the track has been repaired, but now gets very busy!)
The parking area is directly behind the naturist beach which is hidden by a small dune system. The closest post code is ME12 4RP, a little distance beyond the naturist beach parking area.
Update on parking - July 2021:
It’s probably possible to get a bus to Leysdown from Sheerness.
The Beach
The beach itself is OK - but certainly not as picturesque as others. The beach is coarse sand and shells but fairly wide and not impacted too much by the rise and fall of the tide. There is a grassy area / dune area behind the beach which stretches about 50m inland from the beach. This has a number of hollows in it which can be handy for sunbathing and getting out of the wind which comes in off of the estuary. There’s a footpath which runs behind the beach down towards Shellness itself at the far south east of the Island.
The water is safe for swimming, but its important to remember that the beach is on the Thames estuary, rather than the coast itself so the water isn’t as clear as you might expect. There’s is a also quite a lot of mud underfoot in some places which might be a problem for some (although the beach itself is sandy). The water isn’t rough and the shore doesn’t shelve away from the beach so should be fine even for less confident swimmers.
Naturism
The beach is ‘official’ with the naturist area clearly marked by signs. The ‘permitted’ area isn’t huge - running for about 250m. Whenever I’ve visited naturists have respected the boundaries set by the signs.
Most people will set up in the grassy / dunes area which has a little more shelter when compared to the beach itself.
Updated 5.5.19 AW