Holkam National Nature Reserve

On a coastline famous for nature reserves, Holkham is the most extensive, diverse and dramatic of these.

Windswept tidelines, a maze of creeks and saltings, miles of dunes and sandspits, shady pinewoods, green pastures and marshes: the mix of habitats and the blend of wildlife unite Holkham's National Nature Reserve- 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 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, local landowners, including the Cokes of Holkham, constructed a series of embankments. By the time the Wells embankment was completed in 1859 by the second Earl of Leicester, about 800 hectares of saltmarsh had been converted to agricultural use.


A few facts about Holkham

Holkham Fort, near Bone's Drove, dates back to around AD47 and is the remains of an Iceni settlement. Warriors of this tribe fought with Queen Boadica against the Romans.

Saltmarsh reclamation began on this coast at Burnham Overy in 1639 and was completed in 1859 with the construction of the Wells sea wall.

The Vikings sailed up a creek through the saltmarshes during the first millennium and built a fort at a bleak place they called Holkham ('ship town' in Danish).

As recently as 1986 Wells Harbour handled up to 200 large vessels and 100,000 tons of cargo (mostly animal feeds) annually. Nowadays, a few crab boats and pleasure craft are all that remain.

Lord Nelson spent many of his boyhood days exploring this stretch of coast.

Special sights 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
• Mixed flocks of larks, finches and pipits in Holkham Bay
• Hordes of wildfowl (pink-footed geese, white-fronted geese, Brent geese, wigeon) in the fields on either side of Lady Anne's Drive

Special sights in summer:

• An evening panorama from Gunhill
• 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

Click to view the full Holkham Nature Reserve website