Watch Tower X-1

A concrete sentinel from the Cold War sits quietly near Burnham-on-Crouch, watching over the Essex coast as it has done since the 1960s. Watch Tower X-1 is one of those structures that stops you mid-walk - you round a corner and suddenly there it is, a squat, brutalist tower that feels oddly out of place in the flat marshland landscape.

It's not much to look at from the outside. No grand entrance, no visitor centre, no gift shop. What you get is a piece of genuine Cold War infrastructure, preserved as a reminder of when Britain genuinely expected Soviet bombers. The tower itself is relatively small, the kind of thing that makes you wonder how much protection it could actually have offered, but that's rather the point - it's a time capsule.

Walkers and history buffs will find more to chew on here than families with young children, frankly. You can't climb it or go inside, so it's a fifteen-minute stop at best. But if you're doing a longer ramble around the Crouch Valley or staying at one of the nearby parks - Sea End Country Park and Riverside Village are both within striking distance - it's worth the detour. The marshes around it are genuinely atmospheric, especially at dusk.

Access appears to be free and unrestricted, though opening hours aren't formally posted. Go when the light's good and the midges aren't out in force.