Canterbury

Where Archbishop Thomas Becket was killed by the king's knights in 1170, a sculpture of blades marks the northwest transept. His martyrdom began the pilgrimages behind Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Entry is charged, but evening Evensong is free to attend.

The ruin of the abbey founded in 598 by Augustine, the missionary sent from Rome; early kings of Kent lie buried here. Dissolved by Henry VIII, it crumbled to footings and wall stubs in the grass. It is World Heritage along with the cathedral and St Martin's.

Counted as the oldest church still in use in the English-speaking world, where Queen Bertha of Kent prayed in the 6th century. Red Roman bricks show in its walls. Opening hours are short, so check ahead.

A city gate built in the late 14th century, the largest medieval gatehouse left in England. Once a jail, it keeps cells inside, and from the roof you see across the old town's rooftops. The riverside gardens beside the gate are a good place to rest.

A guide poles a flat punt along the Stour as it winds through the old town. You pass beneath 16th-century Huguenot weavers' houses, and a ducking stool once used on accused witches hangs by the bank. The bridges are low, so you duck under them.

Walls first raised by the Romans and rebuilt in the Middle Ages survive along a little over half the old town's edge, with a walk on top. From the round mound in Dane John Gardens the cathedral tower comes into view. The wall walk is free at any hour.

A Victorian red-brick building housing the library and city art gallery together, free to enter. Paintings by Sidney Cooper, a local artist fond of cattle, hang beside old collections from around the world. On the main street, it is an easy refuge from rain.

A 12th-century lodging built over the river for poor pilgrims, still an almshouse where a few elderly people live. A vaulted undercroft dormitory and a medieval mural of Christ on the upstairs refectory wall survive. One door off the high street lets you in.

A 17th-century timber building on Palace Street that leans hard to one side, its door frame askew. Dickens is said to have described it in David Copperfield. It is a shop now, and inside the floor slopes too.

White chalk cliffs run for kilometres east of Dover harbour, with a grassy path along the top. In clear weather the French coast shows across the sea. There is no fence at the edge and it crumbles easily, so keep to the inland side.

An underground museum off Butchery Lane, down at Roman street level. Mosaic floors from around AD 300, found in 1940s digs, lie where they were laid, beside a hypocaust. With the cathedral gate only steps off, the two make a single outing.

Henry II's huge 12th-century Great Tower looks over the Strait of Dover. A 2nd-century Roman lighthouse stands inside, and cliff tunnels below directed the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. The tunnels are cold, so pack a jumper, summer visits included.

A castle on islands in a lake formed by the River Len, southeast of Maidstone. Henry VIII remodelled it for Catherine of Aragon; Lady Baillie bought it in 1926 and her guest rooms survive. The grounds hold a 2,400-yew maze and a dog collar museum.

East of Herne Bay, two late-12th-century church towers stand on a Roman fort site. As the sea advanced the church was pulled down in 1809, but Trinity House bought the towers as a seamark. A country park around them has clifftop wildflower meadows.

A tiny place on the Stour northeast of Canterbury, said to be the least populous town in Britain with its own council. Its timber Town Hall of 1544 keeps an old courtroom and jail. A riverside path lets you walk out from the city.

A gallery of contemporary art opened in 2011 on the Margate seafront, where Turner went to school and kept coming back. David Chipperfield designed it; it hosted the 2019 Turner Prize. Big windows frame the sea skies Turner painted. Trains run from Canterbury.

A woodland park in the Blean between Canterbury and Herne Bay holding over 50 native British species. In 2022 it and Kent Wildlife Trust released European bison into the nearby woods. No dogs, assistance dogs included, and none left in cars.