The Countryside - The Coast - Norfolk

The Norfolk Broads are England’s newest National Park offering over 200 miles of reed-fringed, lock-free, navigable waterways, surrounded by grazing marshes, windmills and busy market towns and villages including Wroxham/Hoveton (the Broads boating capital), Potter Heigham and its medieval hump-backed bridge, the thatched picturebook village of Woodbastwick, and Horning, the holiday village which stretches a mile along the river. To the northwest of the county is the royal estate of Sandringham, and its villages of Wolferton and Dersingham. Close by are the historic Castle Rising and Castle Acre, where the remains of their castles still stand. To the south of the county, is Breckland, a mixture of farmland, wild heaths, pine belts and conifer plantations. The 50,000 acres of the Thetford Forest Park (Britain’s largest lowland pine forest) are well provided with picnic sites, circular walks and nature trails. Many of the villages of Norfolk display the local building stone of flint and are linked by peaceful country lanes. The group of villages known as the Burnhams were the birthplace and inspiration for Lord Nelson. While the village of Little Walsingham has became a famous pilgrimage centre.

The coastline of Norfolk offers a variety of contrasts from the flat tidal marshes of the Wash, the famous striped cliffs of Hunstanton and the saltmarshes, lonely beaches and tiny fishing villages of the north coast, to the bustling seaside resorts of Great Yarmouth and Hunstanton, or quieter more sedate towns such as Cromer and Sheringham. The North Norfolk coastline provides an outstanding area of natural beauty. Here the coast road winds through rolling, well-wooded countryside with glimpses of the coast with its saltmarshes and nature reserves, and through picturesque fishing villages such as Blakeney with its narrow lanes of flint cottages and trips to the seal colony, Brancaster with its creeks, saltmarshes and dunes and Cley with its famous windmill. Further along the coast is Mundesley, a quiet holiday village in an area known as ‘Poppyland’ and Happisburgh where a famous red and white lighthouse dominates the skyline.