Nature Reserves

One of England’s top birdwatching spot and a great place for a gentle stroll or time out in abundantly nature-rich coast-side landscapes, just a short distance north of Aldeburgh. Home to everything from avocet to otter and booming bittern and Silver-studded Blue butterflies to Great Green Bush crickets, the range of habitats here include woods, reeds, lagoons, grass- and heathlands and vegetated shingle coast.

Snape Marshes, Snape Warren and the reedbeds and mudflats flanking the Sailors’ Path on its final furlong before Snape Maltings, rank amongst Suffolk’s most inspirational riverside scenery. Experience Sir Benjamin Britten’s ‘Curlew River’, painted in his musical masterpieces and pictured in John Piper’s stained glass window in Aldeburgh Church.

Brilliant for birdwatching and experiencing the hauntingly fragile and ever-changing world of the River Alde. Transformed by a tidal surge in 2013 from fresh water grazing marsh to salt marsh, Hazlewood Marshes are home to salt-blasted skeleton trees, marsh samphire, wading birds, a truly remote hide and history in spadefuls. Ideal for visiting from the Sailors’ Path between Aldeburgh to Snape.

Originally the site of a Tudor port, RSPB North Warren Aldeburgh is an oasis of calm right on the town’s doorstep. Located just across Thorpe Road from Aldeburgh’s famous ‘Scallop’, its watery marshlands make it a firm flightpath favourite with migrating geese, but varied habitats also attract warblers, yellowhammers and marsh harriers. There are a number of viewing platforms.