Is this Britain's deadliest path or most serene spot?

"It's the biggest sky in the world out here, it really is," says Kev Brown who guides walks across the Broomway

Tucked away on a remote southern tip of Essex, the wind whips across a vast expanse of flat, empty landscape. The scenery is almost otherworldly - no landmarks, very few signs of life, just endless horizon and sky.

This is the Broomway, which has been described by some as "the deadliest footpath in Britain" because it is thought 100 people have drowned trying to cross it.

In reality, it is a route across flat sands from the shore at Great Wakering, near Southend-on-Sea, to Foulness Island, which is home to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) firing range and about 200 people.

Until 1922, when a bridge was built to connect the two, the Broomway - named after the brooms in the sand that used to mark the route - was the only way on and off Foulness Island.

Back then everything had to be carried across the sands, including threshing engines for farming, and those who lived on the island had to navigate tides, sinking spots and weather conditions if they wanted to leave.

Those hoping to walk the Broomway, which has a reputation as being Britain's deadliest path, are strongly encouraged to do so with a guide

"This path was used 365 days a year, night and day, there's no shelter from anything, no lights to follow. It was a brutal environment," says Kev Brown, a former bait digger who now leads walks across the path when the tides and weather allow.

"There's 100 people mentioned in the parish records attributed to have drowned on the Broomway.

"The last person we know to have died was in 1919, he'd been to market for the day and stopped at the pub for a couple of pints and then came across here - he left it too late, I think, and washed up a couple of days later," Mr Brown says.

Foulness Island could only be accessed by using the Broomway path until the 1920s, when a bridge was built to connect it with the mainland

Qinetiq, the contractor that now manages the MoD base on the island, described the Broomway as "a unique public right of way which requires both caution and specialist knowledge to negotiate safely".

Those wanting to walk the Broomway are strongly advised to do so with a guide.

"You need to understand the tide conditions and the areas not to walk in. There's very soft clay, there might be unexploded ordnance, so on our walks we avoid those by some distance. We keep well out of the way," Mr Brown says.

Kev Brown, a former bait digger, has been running guided tours of the Broomway for the past three years

Mr Brown's tours remain in high demand thanks to widespread interest in the path and its reputation.

"I got it started three years ago, one or two people at a time, then three people, 10 people... and these days, it's really quite busy," he says.

"I think people read about the Broomway in various places. There's a book called The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane, and he wrote a very interesting version of his day walking across the Broomway.

"I've had some really interesting people come on my tours, a pilot who came from the US, a woman from Canada who'd read The Old Ways who fell in the mud straightaway and wouldn't wipe it off, then people who do day trips from places like Bristol," Mr Brown adds.

Guided walks of the route, which take several hours, have become increasingly popular in recent years

The walks Mr Brown runs are either four miles (6.4km) or six miles (9.7km) long and take between two and four hours.

"It's nice and peaceful. I don't want to say bleak, but it's such a vast expanse of nothing, it's just quite nice for a change," says Gemma Packman, 27, who lives in Southend and took part in one of Mr Brown's tours alongside her partner.

Another of those walking, 61-year-old Andy Gibson, who had travelled from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, says: "You wouldn't get that scenery anywhere else. I try not to have expectations, I try to find as much as I can in a place - and this has got it in bucket loads."

Mr Brown says the landscape, rather than the reputation for danger, is what makes the Broomway such a special place.

"It's the biggest sky in the world out here, it really is.

"As somebody who's lived on Foulness for many, many years said to me, for those of us who've walked on the Broomway by ourselves for many years, we invented mindfulness before mindfulness was invented," he says.

Julie-Ann Mason, Mr Brown's partner, says the Broomway is the couple's "happy place"

His partner, Julie-Ann Mason, joins him on the walks and has fallen in love with the landscape.

"I was blown away the first time I came here. When I came down the slipway, I felt I'd entered a new world, I'd left the world behind and all its cares and worries," she says.

"You just step out here and it's bliss. Serene, beautiful.

"It's just so empty, so quiet, there's so much space with absolutely nothing in it and just space as far as you can see," she adds.

Ms Mason says her favourite part of the Broomway is "the colours, depending on the sky".

"My favourite is the lovely big white fluffy clouds that reflect in the puddles. You just can't help feeling calm.

"My friends say, is he dragging you out there again? But they don't realise I love it. I never tired of it. It's our happy place. Being able to take people out here and share it, it just makes it for us," she says.

Warning signs are spread across the area, telling people of the dangers of the path