Folkestone's beach sits at the foot of a cliff, below the clifftop promenade known as the Leas, and in 2026 there is one obvious way down: the Zig Zag Path, a sloping tarmac ramp that switchbacks through artificial caves into the Lower Leas Coastal Park. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing.

The alternative most visitors have heard of, the Leas Lift, is not running and will not be running this year. The Victorian water-balanced funicular closed in 2017 and its restoration has slipped again: on 5 August 2026 the charity behind it told KentOnline it is now aiming for spring 2027. The other historic route down, the Road of Remembrance, has been shut since a landslip in January 2024 and is still closed while Kent County Council stabilises the cliff above it.

So the Zig Zag Path it is. The descent is the easy half, and the walk back up is where people get caught out. Decide in advance whether you are doing it.

Which routes down are open, and which are not

The Zig Zag Path runs from the Leas clifftop down into the Lower Leas Coastal Park, and with the lift out of service it is the direct route most people end up taking. Folkestone and Hythe District Council names it as one of the ways into the park's Fun Zone, which is also where the park's guided walks start.

The Leas Lift is closed. The Road of Remembrance is closed. Beyond those, you can walk the long way round: east through town, down to the harbour, then west along the seafront. That works, it is flat, and it takes considerably longer, which matters more on the way back than on the way out.

An interpretation board reading The Zig Zag Path mounted on a boulder beside a tarmac path, with a family walking downhill
The interpretation board at the top of the path, where the tarmac starts its first turn downhill. Photo by @sergiomendes

From Folkestone Central station to the top of the path

If you arrive by train, the walk is short. As @sergiomendes measured it in 2024, it is a 10 to 15 minute walk from the station to the top of the Zig Zag Path, and from there "you are a couple of minutes away to arrive the beach." That is the whole journey: roughly 20 minutes, station platform to shingle.

He makes the case plainly for anyone weighing it against the long way round the harbour: this is the quickest route, and going down is the easy part.

What the Zig Zag Path is actually like

It is not a staircase. The main run is a smooth tarmac ramp wide enough for two, with low rocky walls on the seaward side and cliff planting above. Steps appear only where the path detours into the caves.

Those caves are the point. The path was built in 1921 by out-of-work men in the years after the First World War, and the council describes the result as built mostly from waste material and coated in a special cement called Pulhamite, after the firm of James Pulham and Son that made it. The council rates the path among the country's finest surviving examples of that firm's work, and the Pulham family's own archive of the business dates the Leas commission to 1920 and 1921. What that means underfoot is that the boulders, grottoes and tunnels you walk through are fake rock, moulded on site over rubble, and convincing enough that most people never question it.

A cave mouth in artificial rock with stone steps leading up into it, planted with cordylines, beside a tarmac path
One of the Pulhamite grottoes off the main ramp. The rock is moulded cement over rubble, not natural cliff. Photo by @sergiomendes

There are benches at the turns. @sergiomendes suggests noting where they are on the way down, on the theory that you may want them on the way up, which is the most quietly useful piece of advice in his post.

A tarmac path curving along a cliff face between low walls of pale artificial rock, with a woman walking a dog
The surface is tarmac most of the way, with the Pulhamite walls doing the decorative work. Photo by @sergiomendes

Why the Leas Lift still is not an option

The Leas Lift opened in 1885. It is a water-balanced funicular, the kind where one car fills with water until its weight hauls the other up the slope; KentOnline describes it as one of only three left in the UK. Its own trust lists it as Grade II* and records that it went onto Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register in 2019, two years after the lift stopped running.

The restoration is a £6.7 million project that began in November 2023, backed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, the Wolfson Foundation and others. It goes well beyond getting the cars moving: the plans include a new lower station with a visitor centre, exhibition space, and a hospitality room seating 32 inside and 18 on an outdoor deck.

The date has moved more than once. Time Out was writing about a 2025 reopening; the current target, given to KentOnline in August 2026 by the charity's interim chief executive Jo Streeter, is spring 2027, with the delay put down to the size and complexity of the job. The lift's own website says only "reopening soon" and gives no date at all, which is its own kind of answer. Plan around the walk.

What is at the bottom

The Zig Zag Path lands you in the Lower Leas Coastal Park, a long strip of green between the cliff and the Channel, split into three zones: a Fun Zone, formal Victorian gardens, and a wild zone left for birds and wildlife. There is a 350-seat amphitheatre in the Fun Zone with a free events programme every summer.

A sloping lawn running down towards the sea, with a metal frame structure on a paved area and the English Channel on the horizon
What the bottom of the path opens onto: lawns, then the Channel. Photo by @sergiomendes

The park's adventure playground reopened on 31 July 2026 after a £750,000 rebuild. The old wooden towers, slides and ziplines had been there 25 years and were taken out entirely; the council calls the replacement the largest free play area in the south east and says it is wheelchair accessible and designed for inclusive play. If you remember the old timber towers, they are gone.

Walk west along the promenade and you get the beach huts, which are worth the detour on their own. @sergiomendes photographed the full row in 2024 and noted how well kept they are; they belong to people, and in spring and summer you will find them open with families sitting out front.

A long row of beach huts with white pitched roofs painted in pastel green, yellow, orange and coral, beside a wide promenade
The hut row along the promenade, in the flat winter light of a March morning. Photo by @sergiomendes

Mermaid Beach: shingle, groynes, and a dog rule

The beach itself is shingle, not sand, divided by timber groynes. Set expectations accordingly. @sergiomendes, who grew up on Portuguese sand, is honest about it: he likes these beaches, but says he will never love them the way he loves soft sand. Walking on the pebbles down to the water takes attention.

One practical detail is legible in his photographs. The beach's own signboard marks Mermaid Beach as a dog control zone from 1 May to 30 September, with a dog-free stretch and an arrow pointing to where dogs are allowed. That was the sign in March 2024, so check it on the day, but summer visitors with a dog should assume restrictions apply. Elsewhere in the coastal park the council asks for dogs on leads in designated areas, and barbecues are no longer permitted anywhere in the park.

His visit also turned up something odd: a lot of dead fish stranded well up the shingle, a long way from the water at low tide. He identified them at home as small-spotted catshark and found there had been news reports about dead fish in Kent around that time. He adds that he has never seen it in summer. One cold March morning, then, rather than something to plan around, but it is the kind of detail no tourist board page will give you.

The climb back up

Here is the part to think about before you go down. @sergiomendes is blunt that coming back up the Zig Zag Path takes some endurance, and that the flat alternative, walking the length of the beach to the pier and back up through the town, is easier but takes three or four times longer.

Both of those are real options and neither is wrong. If you have a pushchair, a bad knee, or shopping, the long flat route is the one. If you are travelling light, the ramp is fine at a slow pace, and the benches at the turns exist for a reason. What you cannot do in 2026 is take the lift.

Coffee and dinner nearby, and the 7pm problem

Folkestone's town centre closes earlier than visitors expect. @sergiomendes went looking for a coffee at around 7pm in March and found the place he wanted shutting up, along with everything else in the area. He ended up at Luben's Pizza, near the centre on the way down towards the pier, which was open, quiet, cooking on a traditional fire oven, and staffed that shift by two waiters he rated highly. On price he judged it about average for restaurants now.

For daytime coffee, two places come up in his write-ups. Picklebacks is his outright favourite: a small room on a quiet street with big front windows, a painted upright piano you are allowed to play, and walls hung with work by local artists that is actually for sale. He has been enough times that the staff start his white americano without being asked.

Interior of a small cafe with a yellow upright piano painted with cocktail glasses, beneath a green wall sign shaped like a pickle reading Picklebacks
The piano at Picklebacks, under the sign. It is there to be played. Photo by @sergiomendes

Django's Cafe Bar gets a more mixed verdict, which is what makes it useful. He liked the central corner site with its outdoor tables on the pedestrianised street, the cosy interior and the helpful staff, and rated the coffee pretty good in comparison with many others, but not the best he has had in Folkestone. He said he would go back. That reads like a solid town-centre cafe rather than somewhere to make a journey for.

Practical notes

Folkestone Central is the nearest station to the Leas end of the walk, 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the top of the Zig Zag Path. Driving, the Coastal Park car park is at the bottom on Lower Sandgate Road, signed for the pleasure beach towards the harbour; the council warns it can close on very busy days once full, and it shuts overnight between 8pm and 7am. Overflow options the council names are Lower Sandgate Road West, Harbour Street and Tram Road.

The path is exposed in places and the coastline here is geologically busy. Folkestone has had repeated landslips in recent years, and the Zig Zag Path has closed briefly before for tree removal and safety work, so a quick look at the council's website is sensible if you are making a special trip. For the wider area, see our England destination guide.

FAQ

Is the Zig Zag Path in Folkestone open?

Yes, it is open and free to walk. It has closed for short periods in the past for tree removal and safety work on the cliff, and Folkestone and Hythe District Council posts notices when that happens, so check before a long journey.

Has the Leas Lift reopened?

No. It closed in 2017 and is under a £6.7 million restoration. The charity running the project told KentOnline in August 2026 that it is now targeting spring 2027, having previously aimed at earlier dates. Its own website gives no reopening date.

How do you get from Folkestone Central station to the beach?

Walk 10 to 15 minutes to the top of the Zig Zag Path on the Leas, then a few minutes down the path into the Lower Leas Coastal Park and the seafront. Around 20 minutes in total.

Is Folkestone beach sandy?

Mermaid Beach and the seafront below the coastal park are shingle, with timber groynes dividing the beach. Sand appears at low tide in places along this coast, but pebbles are what you should expect underfoot.

Can you take a dog on Mermaid Beach?

Signage photographed at the beach in 2024 marks it a dog control zone from 1 May to 30 September, with a dog-free section and a direction to where dogs are permitted. Outside those dates restrictions are looser, and in the coastal park itself dogs are asked to be on leads in designated areas.