Fan Bay Deep Shelter

There's something properly sobering about stepping into a wartime tunnel carved 110 feet into the White Cliffs themselves. Fan Bay Deep Shelter isn't a museum display or a reconstructed experience - it's the real thing, a Royal Artillery gun emplacement built during World War II and hidden inside the chalk. You walk down into the darkness and suddenly you're standing where soldiers actually stood, operating anti-aircraft guns while the Channel churned beneath them.

The National Trust has opened this up to visitors in recent years, and it's absolutely worth the detour if you're spending time around Dover. The shelter itself is compact - you're not wandering about for hours - but the claustrophobia and the immediacy of it all hits differently than a conventional war museum. You get a real sense of what it meant to be tucked into the cliffs during air raids, waiting for enemy aircraft. History types will find it fascinating; children old enough to understand wartime tend to be gripped by it, though younger kids might find the confined spaces a bit much.

Allow about an hour, maybe ninety minutes if you're absorbing the details properly. Check the National Trust website before you go for exact opening times, as these things can shift seasonally. If you're camped at St Margaret's Bay Holiday Park or Hawthorn Farm nearby, it's practically on your doorstep - makes for a solid morning's outing between beach days. Dress warmly; it's chilly down there regardless of the season.