Gun Hill and the Six Guns
About
Six eighteen-pounder guns stand in a line on the clifftop green at the southern end of the seafront, pointing out over Sole Bay, and they are what gives Gun Hill its name. The bay in front of them was the site of the Battle of Sole Bay in 1672, an Anglo-Dutch fleet action fought within sight of the town in which, by Southwold Museum's account, nearly four thousand seamen died; cannonballs still come up in fishing nets off this coast. The guns were taken away and buried during the Second World War and put back on new carriages afterwards. The green behind them is one of the open spaces that give the town its shape, and the old coastguard lookout at the seaward edge is now a local radio studio. Free, open, always accessible, and the best place in Southwold to understand where you are.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓Six eighteen-pounder guns in a row above the beach
- ✓Looks out over the site of the 1672 Battle of Sole Bay
- ✓Beach huts on the sand directly below
- ✓Free and open at all times
Tips
- →Fully exposed to the sea wind; this is the coldest corner of Southwold in winter.
- →Steps and a ramp lead down to the beach huts and the sand below.
- →The Southwold Food and Drink Festival and the Christmas Day charity swim both use this green and the beach below it.
Best Season
More Attraction Activities
Southwold Pier
A 623-foot pier with a restaurant, arcades, a water clock and Tim Hunkin's machines under the deck.
Under the Pier Show
Tim Hunkin's arcade of home-made, satirical coin-operated machines, built into Southwold Pier.
Southwold Beach and the Beach Huts
Sand over shingle the length of the town, with the colour-coded huts running above it.