Coast & countryside highlights

Bedfordshire

Voted one of the seven natural wonders in the East of England, with outstanding views and steep slopes rich in flora and fauna, this open space offers plenty of scope for enjoying the great outdoors.

Sharpenhoe Clappers

Reputedly haunted, Sharpenhoe Clappers is a classic chalk escarpment and part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is crowned with traces of an Iron Age hill-fort and an impressive beech wood.

Whipsnade Tree Cathedral

Created following the First World War in 'faith, hope and reconciliation', the Tree Cathedral is a tranquil haven. Grass avenues form chancel, nave, transepts, chapels and cloisters.

Cambridgeshire

Wicken Fen

A unique fragment of the wilderness that once covered East Anglia, the Fen is a haven for a huge variety of flora and fauna. It can be explored by the traditional wide droves and lush green paths.

Essex

Copt Hall Marshes

Copt Hall Marshes in Essex
© National Trust
OS grid reference - TL981146

Copt Hall Marshes on the remote and beautiful Blackwater Estuary is a noted site for overwintering birds, and can be viewed from a waymarked circular route.

Northey Island

Northey Island in the Blackwater Estuary is part of an ancient landscape and is connected to the shore by a tidal causeway. Site of the Battle of Malden in 991AD, this now peaceful haven offers some superb birdwatching opportunities.

Norfolk

Blakeney National Nature Reserve

This is a place of dramatic skies and wild beauty; a magnet to botanists and bird watchers with its mudflats and salt-marshes, sandy hillocks and spreading lawns of sea lavender.

Brancaster

This unique saltwater common supports a huge range of birdlife including little terns, Brent geese, shelduck, oystercatchers, redshank, sedge warblers and bearded tits and is the site of internationally important populations of rare coastal plants.

Horsey

Horsey on the edge of the Norfolk Broads is internationally important for wintering wildfowl. The five storey windpump affords striking views across the Mere.

Sheringham Park

The large woodland garden at this Repton designed park is famous for its spectacular show of rhododendrons and azaleas. There are stunning views of the coast and countryside from the viewing towers and waymarked walks.

Suffolk

Dunwich Heath

This is a remote and beautiful stretch of Suffolk coastline with wonderful heathland and shore-side walks, shady woods and sandy cliffs. It is home to rare wildlife, like the Dartford warbler and ant-lion.

Flatford / Dedham Vale

This quintessential English landscape was made famous by the works of John Constable in his idyllic pastoral paintings. You can follow in his footsteps with a walk along the banks of the River Stour.

Orford Ness

A wild and remote extremity of eastern England, this is Europe's largest vegetated shingle spit. A variety of habitats support a range of rare flora and fauna but it was once the site of secret Cold War military testing.

A little girl peers into a butterfly net to assess her finds, on the `Bug Safari' at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

The National Trust

Coast & countryside highlights