Military Road

Street guide, Lee-on-the-Solent

Military Road runs along the Browndown area to the south-east of Lee-on-the-Solent, taking its name from the military installations that have occupied this stretch of coast since the nineteenth century. Browndown Battery, a scheduled ancient monument, was built in the 1850s as part of the coastal defence system designed to protect Portsmouth Harbour and the Solent from potential invasion. The battery was later used for weapons testing and military training. Browndown itself is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), designated for its rare vegetated shingle habitat, which supports plant species found in very few other locations in Britain. The area is managed to balance its ecological importance with continued military use, and parts of Browndown remain Ministry of Defence land with restricted access, marked by red flags when live firing is taking place. For visitors, Military Road provides access to a stretch of coast with a wild, undeveloped character quite different from the manicured promenade in central Lee. The shingle beach here is backed by scrubby grassland and the distinctive low vegetation of the shingle habitat. Walking along the shore from Military Road connects to the coastal path towards Stokes Bay in one direction and back towards Lee's main seafront in the other. The area is popular with dog walkers, anglers, and anyone seeking a quieter stretch of Solent coastline away from the busier sections.