Mermaid Street
The street everyone photographs, and rightly so: a steep lane of cobbles with timber-framed and Georgian houses either side, climbing up to the inn that gave it its name. Go early or late for a bit of elbow room.
Local guide
What to do in Rye
Reggie's Place sits at Playden, a short hop outside Rye, so we spend our days in the town, out on the marshes and down on the beach with dogs in tow. Here's what we'd tell a friend who was coming to stay — for a wedding, a weekend, or a fortnight.
A town worth slowing down for
Rye is small enough to walk end to end in half an hour and old enough to keep you busy for days. It was a working port once, when the sea still reached the hill, and the town is still shaped by that past — steep cobbled lanes, a jumble of rooftops, and the smell of salt when the wind is in the right direction.
Take a dog and most of it is open to you. We've threaded a few notes on that through the whole page, and pulled them together at the end.
The town itself
Cobbles, towers and old inns
The bits of Rye we'd point a visitor towards first. It's all within a short walk of the High Street.
Ypres Tower & Rye Castle Museum
Rye's stout 13th-century tower, now a small museum with views over the town and the levels. A good first stop if you want the town's story in one go.
St Mary's Church
The parish church at the top of the town. Its tower is open to climb for the best view in Rye, and the church clock is one of the oldest working turret clocks in the country — the gilded Quarter Boys chime the quarter-hours.
Landgate
The last surviving of Rye's old town gates, built in the 14th century and still the way into the old town. Stand under the arch and you're standing where centuries of traffic has passed.
Rye Art Gallery
A bright, friendly gallery on the High Street showing changing exhibitions of painting, print, craft and photography, with work by local and visiting artists. Worth a wander even if you're only browsing.
Rye Heritage Centre
On Strand Quay, home to a huge model of Victorian Rye and the town's sound-and-light show, The Story of Rye — an easy way to get your bearings on the town's raids, storms and smugglers.
The antique shops
Rye is full of them, from the dealers and vintage shops around Strand Quay to the furniture and decorative pieces on the High Street. Half the pleasure is the browsing, so leave time for it.
With a dog: the cobbles are easy on paws but the town is small and gets busy, so keep dogs close on the High Street and through the churchyard. Many shops are happy for well-behaved dogs to come in — do ask first.
Eating and drinking
A town that eats well
Rye has more good places to eat than a town its size has any right to. There are two broad camps. First the old inns, all beams and open fires: The Mermaid Inn, with its cellars and its smugglers' history; The Standard Inn, a proper pub by the church with cooking that leans on local produce; and out towards the marsh, The Globe Inn Marsh, whose garden is the place to be on a warm evening.
Then the cafés and small kitchens. Simon the Pieman does pies and pastries; Knoops, which started in Rye in 2013 and still keeps its original shop here, does hot chocolate by cocoa percentage. Seafood is the local speciality — we're a fishing coast, after all — and fresh fish and the seasonal Rye Bay scallops turn up on menus all over town.
Our honest advice is not to work from a list. Rye rewards wandering: pick a street, look at a menu, and if it's busy at the weekend or in summer, book ahead.
With a dog: the marsh-side pubs and most of the old-town bars are relaxed about dogs — The Globe Inn Marsh and the Ypres Castle Inn welcome them inside and in the garden, and The Standard Inn is happy for dogs in the bar. The Mermaid takes dogs in some rooms by arrangement but not generally in its bars and restaurants, so check when you book.
Walks and wildlife
Marshes, shingle and big skies
This is the Rye we know best. Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, run by Sussex Wildlife Trust, is a wide, flat patchwork of shingle, saltmarsh, reedbed and pools stretching down to the sea — well over 400 hectares of it, and one of the best places in the south-east for birds. There's a Discovery Centre with a café, and a network of waymarked paths, including easy loops that take in the saltmarsh and the red-roofed hut, and longer ones out towards the Mary Stanford lifeboat house.
From near the Brede Lock you can walk out across the fields to Camber Castle, the strange, roofless artillery fort Henry VIII built to guard the harbour. You can't go inside it, but it sits out on the levels looking like something from another century, and the walk to it is lovely.
Inland, the River Brede and the wide Brede Valley give you gentle riverside paths and huge skies — good, easy walking when you want distance rather than hills. The Royal Military Canal runs through the area too, and the long-distance 1066 Country Walk and Saxon Shore Way cross the marshes nearby.
With a dog: the nature reserve welcomes dogs, but keep them on a lead on the main track between the car park, the Discovery Centre and the beach, and watch for extra nesting-season restrictions on the signs. Dogs on leads are welcome inside the Discovery Centre. Out on the levels, keep dogs out of the water and away from wildlife.
Beaches and nearby
Half a day out, or a full one
Camber Sands
A great sweep of sand and dune just the other side of Rye Harbour, and the beach most visitors come for. The dunes are protected, so dogs go on a lead to cross them.
Winchelsea
Tiny, quiet and very old — a planned medieval town founded in 1288, with a grid of streets, a fine church, old gate ruins and a web of cellars under the houses. A lovely afternoon's wander.
Hastings
The Old Town and The Stade, with Europe's largest beach-launched fishing fleet and the tall black net huts that have stood on the shingle for the best part of two centuries. Good museums, good pubs, plenty of character.
Battle
Battle Abbey and the battlefield, on the spot where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. A proper half-day out, with the abbey ruins, the battlefield trail and a visitor centre.
With a dog: at Camber Sands, dogs are welcome across the whole beach outside the summer season; from May to the end of September they're kept off the busiest central stretch, but there's a dog-friendly zone at the western end, towards Rye Harbour, that's open all year. In Hastings the central parts of the beach are off-limits to dogs in summer, though the promenade is fine year-round on a lead, and the old-town museums at The Stade are generally glad to see dogs. At Battle Abbey, dogs on leads are welcome through the outdoor grounds, battlefield and walled garden, but not indoors.
With your dog
Out and about with your dog
Almost everything on this page works with a dog beside you. A few practical things we've learned from a lot of days out:
- Water and shade. Take your own water. The cobbles hold the heat in summer, and the shingle out at Rye Harbour can be hard going on paws in the middle of the day.
- Tide times. Camber Sands has a big tidal range. Check the tide before a long beach walk and don't get caught out.
- Leads where they're asked for. Cross the dunes on a lead, keep to the marked tracks on the reserve, and mind the seasonal restrictions on the busiest beach stretches in summer.
- Bin bags and manners. Clear up behind your dog and keep them close around livestock and ground-nesting birds on the marsh.
And if you'd rather do the town, the gallery or a long lunch without your dog in tow, that's what we're here for — we're only a few minutes out at Playden, with a secure field and a warm doghouse.
Coming to Rye with a dog? Give us a ring and we'll happily point you in the right direction — and if you need doggy daycare while you're out and about, we're just down the road in Playden.
Staying near Rye?
We're at Playden, just outside the town. Pop in and say hello.