Suffolk Coast NNR

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About Suffolk Coast NNR

The Suffolk Coast National Nature Reserve is a composite of three classic East Anglian reserves — Minsmere, Walberswick and Hen Reedbeds — protecting reedbeds, grazing marsh, heath and saline lagoons along the Suffolk Heritage Coast. It is one of the most important wetland complexes in lowland Britain, famed for its bitterns, marsh harriers and avocets.

The story of Suffolk Coast NNR

Minsmere was drained for arable farming in the Second World War but reflooded in the 1960s and 1970s to recreate the lost reedbeds, becoming a flagship RSPB reserve and the core of what is now the NNR. The Walberswick reserve was notified as an SSSI in 1954 and together with Minsmere was declared a National Nature Reserve in 2004 by Natural England, uniting land managed by the RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Natural England. The Hen Reedbeds, created in the 1990s by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust on former grazing marsh, were added to extend the wetland mosaic, and the whole complex now supports one of the largest bittern populations in Britain.

Visiting with care

Start at the RSPB Minsmere visitor centre for waymarked trails, the famous Bittern Hide and the canopy viewing platform over the heath. Walberswick's marshes and shingle beach can be combined with the reserve on a day's walking, and dogs are not permitted on the core reserve trails to protect ground-nesting birds.

Interesting facts

• The reserve combines Minsmere, Walberswick and Hen Reedbeds into one of the largest lowland wetland complexes in Britain.
• Minsmere was reflooded from wartime farmland in the 1960s and 1970s and is the RSPB's flagship Suffolk reserve.
• It holds one of the largest breeding populations of bitterns and marsh harriers in the United Kingdom.
• Avocets recolonised Britain at Minsmere in 1947 after more than a century's absence.