|
HOLKHAM is the most extensive, diverse and dramatic nature reserve on a coastline famous for nature reserves. Windswept tidelines, a maze of creeks and saltings, miles of dunes and sandspits, shady pinewoods, green pastures and grazing marshes: the mix of habitats and the blend of wildlife confirm Holkham's National Nature Reserve as a unique place, somewhere to catch your breath in a busy world.
Won from the Wilderness
As with so much of the English countryside the look of the Norfolk coast is an intimate blend, part wilderness and part working landscape. From Burnham Overy to Wells the low-lying grazing marshes north of the coast road used to be tidal saltmarshes, separating offshore shingle and dune ridges from the main coastline. The tidal creeks were large enough to allow ships to load cargo from a staithe at Holkham village. From 1639 onwards a series of embankments were constructed by local landowners, including the Cokes of Holkham. By the time the Wells embankment was completed in 1859 by the 2nd Earl of Leicester about 800 hectares of saltmarsh had been converted to agricultural use.
In the late 19th century the 3rd Earl of Leicester planted pine trees on the dunes, creating a shelter-belt to protect the reclaimed farmland from wind-blown sand. Today the ribbon of mature woodland still separates seascape from farmscape. The fields and dykes, ridges and trackways have become part of the landscape. Nature moves on; Thomas Coke, the great agricultural pioneer whose memorial can be seen above the treeline in nearby Holkham Park, would hardly recognise the place.
Holkham National Nature Reserve is owned by the Earl of Leicester and the Crown Estates and is managed by Holkham Estate.
Guided walks throughout the year are an ideal way to discover the diversity of wildlife on the Nature Reserve, click here for more information.
Special things to see...
...in Winter
- The tideline after a gale - lots of sculpted driftwood, stones etc.
- Dew on spiders' webs in October.
- Migrant birds, landing exhausted in the seablite bushes in late October.
- Thousands of Pink-footed geese leaving their roost on Bob Halls Sand at Wells.
- Flocks of larks, finches and pipits in Holkham Bay.
- A peregrine or harrier being buzzed by a cheeky blue tit or pipit.
- Dawn sunlight over Stiffkey Marshes.
- Hordes of wildfowl (pink-footed geese, white-fronted geese, brent geese, wigeon) in the fields on either side of Lady Ann's Drive.
...and in Summer
- An evening panorama from Gun Hill.
- Orchids in the Wells Dell in late June or early July.
- Dashing flight of a dark green fritillary over the dune flowers.
- Little and common terns fishing in Wells Harbour.
- Dancing of male ghost swift moths at twilight.
- Purple haze of sea lavender across the saltings
|
