North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest

The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha of the county’s north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling. Habitats within the SSSI include reed beds, salt marshes, freshwater lagoons and sand or shingle beaches.

About North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest in brief

The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha of the county’s north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling. Habitats within the SSSI include reed beds, salt marshes, freshwater lagoons and sand or shingle beaches. The wetlands are important for wildlife, including some scarce breeding birds such as pied avocets, western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings. Ducks and geese winter along this coast in considerable numbers, and several nature reserves provide suitable conditions for water voles, natterjack toads and several scarce plants and invertebrates. Norfolk has a long history of human occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic, and including significant archaeology. Both modern and Neanderthal people were present in the area between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago, before the last glaciation. The Environment Agency considers that managed retreat is likely to be the long-term solution, and is working with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust to create new reserves inland to compensate for the loss of scarce habitats at the coast. It is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The North Norfolk coast is also designated as a wetland of international importance on the Ramsar list and most of it is a Biosphere Reserve. The area is archaeologically significant, with artefacts dating from the Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic. The mound of an Iron Age fort is visible at Holkham, and the site of a 23 ha Roman naval port with a fort built on the castrum pattern is just outside Brancaster.

Remains of military use from both world wars include an armoured fighting vehicle gunnery range, a hospital and bombing ranges, as well as passive defences such as pillboxes, barbed wire and tank traps. The site of the medieval “chapel” at Blakeney is no longer accessible. Sand dunes occur at several places along the coast, but the best examples are at Holme Dunes, HolKham, Blakeny Point, and Scolt Head Island. The latter two sites are also important for geomorphology research purposes as structures consisting mainly of shingle ridges. The SSSi is economically important to the area because of the tourists it attracts for birdwatching and other outdoor activities, although sensitive wildlife sites are managed to avoid damage from the large numbers of visitors. The southern boundary runs roughly west to east except where it detours around towns and villages, and never crosses the A149 coast road. It has a wide variety of habitats, with bare mud, sand and shingle characterising the intertidal zone along the whole of the coast,. Although higher areas may have algae or eelgrass that are grazed by ducks, geese in winter. The salt marsches which form on sheltered coasts, in the lee of islands, or behind spits are described in the S SSI notification document as ‘among the best in Europe’ due to their exceptionally diverse flora.

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