As you head anticlockwise around the island you can witness the beaches turn from mud to shingle and then into sandier fare as picturesque pastel-coloured beach huts appear once you near the holiday camps and more traditionally touristy side of the island that bustles with activity during the peak season. The eastern side of Mersea is primarily rural farming-land but significantly also includes the island's only country park, Cudmore Grove.
Cudmore Grove is a fantastic nature reserve, with walks that provide stunning views over the estuary towards Brightlingsea. Wild beaches, bird hides and nature trails contribute to the visitor experience, and a large impressive children's play area combined with an old WWII pill box that is ripe for exploring make it a great day out for young children too.
At High Tide the causeway on and off the island floods and can leave you stranded! Don't get stuck, and check the tide times at the bottom of this page. You can walk around the entire island on a mixture of footpaths and public beaches, however some planning is required to avoid high tides. You can find an excellent guide to walking the perimeter of the island on www.
The only way on and off Mersea Island unless you have a boat is via the Strood Causeway. At very high tides the strood can become impassable and crossing is not advised.
The water depth can be deceptive and local emergency services do not look kindly upon rescuing cars attempting to cross! Tide times can only be acurately predicted a few days in advance and flooding over the Strood causeway is likely if the water level is above 5m, or 4. We generally advise to leave an hour either side of such a high tide before attempting to cross, although on occasion the road can be flooded for longer.
Today's tide times can be found below, or click the link to plan further ahead. Cudmore Grove offers visitors a trip to the seaside with a difference at the eastern tip of Mersea Island. The park includes a sandy beach and open grassland, perfect for picnics and great views.
Mersea Island is the perfect place for walking, whether you would like a short stroll of "The Old City" or a longer walk along the "Strood Channel", there are plenty of beautiful views and an abundance of wildlife to see along the way. Ideal family park. Private beach. Grassland sheltered with trees and four fishing lakes, boating lake, crazy golf, footgolf, golf driving range, heated swimming pool, pitch and putt. Family entertainment. Licensed bar and restaurant. Mersea Island Holiday Park is a peaceful and tranquil park set in 22 acres of mature Essex coastal countryside.
Within minutes of spotting it, I'd phoned the owner and booked our family in for a long weekend. Beautifully furnished with antiques, oil paintings by local artist David Britton and with piles of magazines and books and beams and lots of cosy little nooks, it's the kind of place that makes you long for a rainy day so you can stay inside.
But the sun was shining when we arrived and my daughter and nephews were itching to get on to the beach. Mersea is not known for its golden sands but Monkey Beach, just across the road from the cottage, is probably the island's best.
The children set about exploring the network of tiny creeks and boardwalks which criss-cross the marshes and collecting sun-bleached oyster shells to decorate their sandcastles.
I had some half-baked idea about eating in the Company Shed, but by the time we got there at midday the queues had already started to form they don't take bookings, and a two-hour wait is not unusual on a sunny day , so we walked m further up the Coast Road to the West Mersea Oyster Bar , which makes a decent some would say better alternative — with the added bonus that it's licensed, takes bookings and serves dishes such as fish and chips for shellfish refuseniks.
Later, after a gentle hour crabbing on the pontoon, we took a boat trip around the bay. Our captain, Stacey Belbin, who is descended from a long line of Mersea fishermen, pointed out the 19th-century oyster-packing sheds and the square hulk of Bradwell Power Station — now decommissioned — squatting on the opposite shore. In winter she runs fishing expeditions for cod, sea bass and whiting, and trips to see the wading birds which gather on the surrounding mudflats.
East Mersea, by contrast, is mostly farmland. The only people who tend to head east are holidaymakers staying at the caravan parks here. Cudmore Grove Country Park, at the far eastern tip of the island, is a perfect spot for a picnic, with acres of grassland and forest sloping down to a vast beach and views of the white sailing masts of Brightlingsea sparkling across the Colne estuary. Hard to believe but the eroding cliffs here have yielded hippopotamus bones, elephant tusks and shark's teeth dating back , years.
Whether that adds to the island's charms or is reason to avoid it is entirely a matter of personal opinion. The beach itself is the main draw of the island. A mixture of sand and shingle interspersed with tufts of plants including sea holly and sea couch, it's hard to believe that it was mined and surrounded with barbed wire during the second world war.
Views stretch over the Blackwater Estuary, to the Dengie Peninsula opposite, and the large warehouse-style building on the horizon, the Bradwell Power Station, serves as a reminder that the waters in this part of Essex are estuary rather than open seas.
The shoreline level varies quite dramatically between high tide and low tide, but there's always plenty of room for the scores of paddlers, swimmers and body boarders on the sand and in the sea. And then of course, there are those famous beach huts. The pastel sheds for which the island is known run eastwards from Seaview Avenue, but heading west along Victoria Esplanade also gives way to rows and rows of beach huts in charmingly mismatched hues — the island has about huts in total.
East Mersea is the less inhabited of the two, though that's not to say it's not worth a visit. Cudmore Grove Country Park is the main attraction over this side, home to wild coastal countryside suitable for birdwatching and beachcombing, and for those willing to hunt it out, the remains of a listed Tudor blockhouse defensive structure can be seen.
There's plenty of space for walking and cycling, though two-wheeled travel is best left to the more experienced due to some of the fast and narrow country lanes. Country pubs including the Dog and Pheasant and The Fox Inn offer bucolic pitstops, but in high season they do tend to get booked up in advance. Mersea Barns , a shop and cafe on East Road, is dog and cycle friendly, offering a light breakfast and lunch menu, and roast dinners on Sundays.
The nearby Mersea Boating Lake is a relatively recent addition to the island's offerings, with a chance to try kayaking, windsurfing and other water sports on a manmade lake.
West Mersea is the livelier corner of Mersea Island, though it's still fairly sleepy compared to other seaside resorts. It's definitely a place where tourists fit into the local way of life, rather than the other way around.
The main high street is home to a mere handful of shops and cafes, and, with the exception of a Tesco Express, is refreshingly chain-free. Even the beach front has resisted over-commercialisation, with just a couple of cafes and ice cream stalls to satiate hungry beach goers, although each holiday park has its own on-site facilities for guests.
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