South Foreland

South Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England. It presents a bold cliff to the sea, and commands views over the Strait of Dover. It is centred 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Dover and 15 miles south of North Foreland. It includes the closest point on the Island of Britain to the European mainland at a distance of 20.6 miles (33.2 km).

This proximity gives it military significance and during the

sandbank, its two lighthouses were important for navigation before their disuse. Much of the area is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public; it is traversed by the Saxon Shore Way

, the Kent coastal walk.

LB&SCR H2 class 4-4-2 no. 421 (later no. B421, 2421, and 32421) was named South Foreland after this landmark.

Lighthouses

Two lighthouses are on South Foreland: the lower light disused since 1910 and the upper light, a

National Trust asset, disused since 1988.^[1]

Geography and geology

South Foreland marks the south-western limit of

département of Pas-de-Calais. The two are the landward ends of the fiercely cleft Strait of Dover land bridge and their chalk geological stratum dictates the route of the Channel Tunnel. Geologists have theorised that much of the erosion was river erosion from the extended Rhine

and numerous southern North Sea channels discharging through the Strait of Dover.