A few years ago I wrote a number of posts about the ruins of the Roman fort at Felixstowe in Suffolk. The fort is known as Walton Castle. It stood on the cliff-top until the 1740s when it slid into the sea. The remains are visible at low water, about 50 metres offshore. A diving expedition in the 1960s led by Jeff Errington surveyed them. I did attempt to locate a copy of the diving expedition report, supposed to be held by Ipswich Museum Service, deposited with the Suffolk Record Office, and therefore in the archives at their new building, “the Hold”; but my efforts proved fruitless, despite contacting Jeff Errington himself, who was still running a diving business in 2020. The whereabouts of the “Errington Report” remain unknown, to me at least.
A few weeks ago I received an interesting email from a lady named Jackie Hole. She and her husband run an ice-cream kiosk at “The Dip”, directly opposite the place where the ruins are visible. The Dip is the local name for the place where a stream runs down to the sea. The fort stood on the southern side of the Dip, and a Roman cemetery was on the north side.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been filming the remains at low tide from Old Felixstowe (we’re based at The Dip), and have managed to capture some reasonably clear drone footage during very low tide windows.
What’s interesting is that when the light and tide line up, parts of the structure become just visible enough to suggest outlines, although still quite difficult to interpret from the shore….
It feels like one of those moments where the site is briefly more legible than usual.
and…
… here are the easy access links to public posts – we’ve started proper documentation for the museum with tide heights, times, drone height and the same (ish) path every time we go out so we’re trying to do our bit with regards to modern record keeping!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/
1282413653753367 – the original video – this started the whole thing as it just seemed super low
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1294183855949571 – not such a low tide but really interesting sand patterns on a calm water day
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1641026057347315 – something arty
There also is a video of kayaking out to the ruins, on YouTube here.
These are extremely interesting. It’s worth remembering that these “rocks” are about eighth feet tall, as is evident from some of the photographs from the 60s.
Here is a still:
And an aerial photo:
The small patch of ruins to the right is invisible at ground level. This was an unusually low tide, on March 20, 2026, between 06:00-07:30: Felixstowe Pier low = 08:27 at 0.56m.
It’s wonderful to see an interest being taken in this neglected monument!