Our coastlines have been ploughed, grazed, quarried, mined, visited, settled on, fished off and sailed from for thousands of years. Evidence for the close human relationship between land and sea can be found across the Trust's 700 miles (approx. 1,100 km) of coastal ownership.

The variety...
Our coastal heritage is immense, embracing landscapes as diverse as the shrunken medieval port of Winchelsea in East Sussex and the alum works on the Ravenscar cliffs in North Yorkshire. It encompasses a multitude of smallscale industries (like salt pans, pilchard sheds and quarries), communications systems (such as lighthouses and radio controls), as well as ships and shipwrecks.

The challenges...
National Trust archaeologists have the complicated task of researching, monitoring and preserving all these sites and monuments against the constantly evolving, but ususally destructive processes of coastal weathering and erosion. Climate change is likely to accelerate these processes still further.

The future...
In consultation with other heritage organisations, the Trust has been reviewing the management of its coastal properties. A broad range of approaches are in place to deal with the character, needs and problems of specific sites. These do not always involve high-maintenance preservative operations - much of the fascination at Orford Ness, for instance, is how the former MOD buildings are left to battle against the elements.