The Naze, Walton-on-the-Naze

The Naze is Essex's best cliff flight: the octagonal brick Naze Tower of 1720 standing on crumbling red crag cliffs, with the fossil-rich beach below and the maze of Hamford Water's saltmarsh islands opening up behind. From height the composition is remarkable — open sea one side, a filigree of tidal creeks the other, container ships queuing for Felixstowe on the horizon. Launch from the grassy open space by the tower car park and you can cover cliffs, beach and pillbox-strewn shore in one flight. Two things demand respect. The John Weston nature reserve occupies the northern tip of the headland and Hamford Water behind it is a National Nature Reserve, internationally important for dark-bellied brent geese and little terns — treat everything landward of the sea wall as a no-fly, especially October to March when the geese are in. And the cliffs shed constantly; the shots of slumped sand and stranded pillboxes are great precisely because nothing here is stable, so keep off the edge. The tower is privately run — orbit it rather than buzzing the viewing gallery. Sea breezes build through summer afternoons; mornings are calmer and quieter.