Going For A Walk Along This Stretch Of Sand,

could cost you dearly,

the footpath runs for about 6 miles through vast sand flats and mud flats that look deceptively easy to navigate, photograph helen miller / Wakering Stairs / CC BY-SA 2.0 the 600-year-old footpath connecting the coast of Essex to Foulness Island, in the UK, does not look out of the ordinary, but looks can kill, the Broomway is rumoured to have claimed over 100 lives over the centuries, which has earned it the reputation of Britain’s deadliest path and the eerie nickname “The Doomway” when the tide goes out between Foulness and the coast of Essex, vast swaths of sand and mud flats are revealed, but only the marked Broomway is reliable enough to traverse. Straying off the path opens travelers up to all kinds of dangers, such as deep holes covered with mud, or quicksand traps that can swallow a person. That’s why trying to traverse the Broomway in mist, fog or heavy rain is considered extremely dangerous, in case you are wondering it was given the name Broomway after the hundreds of “brooms” – bundles of twigs attached to short poles – which once marked the path, the Broomway is now outlined by wooden pole,

but even staying on the path is risky, if you venture on the Broomway at the wrong time of day. When the tide comes back, it comes fast, or at least faster than the average person can run, flooding the sand flats and making them extremely hard to navigate. Death by drowning for anyone caught on the sand flats when the tide comes in has been described as “near inevitable”. Stories of people whose lives have been lost on the Broomway, or who barely escaped with their lives have been recorded by various writers over the years, people like Rochford historian Philip Benton. The Foulness Burial Register records 66 bodies recovered from the sands since 1600, but there are dozens others’ whose bodies were never found, a road bridge was built over Havengore Creek in 1922, and the Broomway has since seldom been used by anyone except members of the military. Still, there are daredevils attracted by the eerie reputation of “The Doomway”, as Edwardian newspapers once called it, so the warning signs are still quite necessary. “Warning: The Broomway is unmarked and very hazardous to pedestrians,” one sign reads. “Warning: Do not approach or touch any object as it may explode and kill you,” another one warns. If the natural hazards of this footpath weren’t enough, the military has been conducting artillery drills on Foulness Island since WWI, and some unexploded ordinance may have wound up on the sand and mud flats as well, members of the public are only allowed to walk the UK’s deadliest path on specific days. To get to the starting point, a person must pass through land owned by the Ministry of Defence, so it’s a good idea to call before traveling to the Broomway.