Suffolk Coast and Heath Walks. Laurence Mitchell
reedbeds, pools and woodland, has long been considered one of the best birding locations in the country. Breeding specialities here include avocets, bitterns and bearded tits, and each year a number of rarities turn up on migration, along with vast numbers of waders and wildfowl. Marsh harriers are relatively easy to spot as they quarter the reedbeds for prey. Lapwings breed on the wet grazing marshes, sand martins nest in holes in seaside cliffs, and little terns and ringed plovers lay their eggs in the open on stretches of shingle. Elsewhere, stonechats and rare Dartford warblers find a refuge in extensive gorse-covered areas such as Dunwich Heath.
On the shingle beaches, specialist maritime plants such as sea campion, sea holly, sea pea, yellow-horned poppy and sea kale all manage to find a toe-hold, while flowering sea lavender creates a pleasing purple carpet alongside the estuaries. Pockets of broad-leaved woodland with oak, ash and hazel, remnants of the ancient wild wood that once covered the county, provide another haven for wildlife, with shade-loving flowers such as bluebells, wood anemone, red campion and early purple orchid all thriving. In addition, the woodland offers a home to relatively scarce birds including warblers, woodlark and nightingales and woodland butterfly species such as white admiral, purple hairstreak and speckled wood.
The large conifer forests, such as those at Tunstall and Rendlesham, have a more limited flora, but still provide an important habitat for some species of bird and animal, notably muntjac and fallow deer. Since 1987, when the great October storm destroyed large areas of conifer plantation, tree planting has generally been carried out in a more environmentally sensitive manner, with more variety as well as the provision of grassy rides and open glades for wildlife.
Farmland within the AONB is less rich in wildlife than other habitats, but nevertheless provides a home for plant species such as poppy, common mallow and alexanders, as well as bird species including skylark, corn bunting and yellow hammer, and mammals such as brown hare.
The Royal Hospital School, with its impressively tall clock tower (S&O, Stage 5)
The heathland habitat of the Sandlings is home to many birds, as well as interesting butterflies such as grayling and silver-studded blue, reptiles including the common lizard and adder, and plants such as bell heather, ling (common heather), heath bed-straw, heath speedwell and harebell. One species, the antlion, a scarce and rather strange insect, is found in the UK only in the Sandlings region – most known colonies lie within a restricted area of the Minsmere RSPB reserve. The European antlion (Euroleon nostras) is actually the larval stage of a species of lacewing. It earns its name by digging pit traps in sandy soil and lying in wait at the bottom for other insects, ants or spiders to fall in. It then grabs its prey and sucks the fluid from it through its hollow jaw projections.
Culture and Heritage
The slow pace of life and clean air of the Suffolk coast has long attracted writers, artists and musicians. JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan (1904), was a regular visitor to Thorpeness, and its artificial boating lake, The Meare, has many landings named after places in the story. The small former fishing village of Walberswick became the adopted home of Philip Wilson Steer and a circle of English Impressionists in the 1890s, and the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh came to live and paint watercolours here in 1914. The writer George Orwell, of Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) fame, once lived and taught in nearby Southwold.
A little further south, Aldeburgh was famously the adopted home of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears; the Aldeburgh Festival, instigated by Britten in 1948, remains an important event in the cultural calendar. The Suffolk coast informed much of Britten’s work – the opera Peter Grimes, with its libretto based upon the poems of the Aldeburgh poet George Crabbe, tells the tragic tale of a local fisherman. ‘The Scallop’, a large steel sculpture in the form of a shell by the Suffolk artist Maggi Hambling, stands on the beach at Aldeburgh and bears a quote from Peter Grimes – ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’ – as a tribute to the composer.
Woodbridge, too, has had artistic connections – Edward Fitzgerald, the eccentric translator of Omar Khayyam, befriended local fishermen here and spent much of his spare time on sailing expeditions in the area. Arthur Ransome, of Swallows and Amazons fame, was another famous author who came to live locally, at Broke Hall Farm at Levington on the Orwell estuary, where he wrote We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, about an accidental sailing voyage on the North Sea.
Getting There and Back
The main towns at the start and end points of these walks – Lowestoft, Ipswich, Woodbridge and Felixstowe – are all well connected to London and the rest of the country by train and bus services, as is Manningtree, close to Cattawade, on the Stour and Orwell Walk. For information on train times call National Rail Enquiries on 03457 484950 or look on the internet – www.nationalrail.co.uk. For coach and rail transport to Suffolk from London and elsewhere, contact National Express (08717 818181) or visit their website – www.nationalexpress.com. The East Suffolk Railway Line (www.eastsuffolkline.com) has regular rail services between Lowestoft and Ipswich that stop at stations fairly close to the coast, such as Saxmundham, Darsham and Woodbridge, and there is also a useful branch line between Ipswich and Felixstowe. Of the 12 stations between Lowestoft and Ipswich, and the five between Ipswich and Felixstowe, only Ipswich and Lowestoft are staffed, but tickets may be bought on board the train. There is adequate car parking at all the stations.
Lowestoft, at the northern end of the Suffolk Coast Path, is Britain’s most easterly town (SCP, Stage 1)
Small towns such as Southwold and Aldeburgh on the Suffolk Coast Path have reasonable bus connections to the walks’ start and end points, but smaller places such as Dunwich, Chillesford, Snape and Chelmondiston have only infrequent bus services, and timetables need to be studied carefully in order to make the most of connections at the beginning and end of each stage.
Connecting Communites (0345 606 6171) is a transport service to help people travel around Suffolk who might not have access to a regular bus service. Some local bus services, including the Suffolk Links Wilford Coastal Accessible Transport Service (www.cats-paws.co.uk; 0845 604 1802) between Woodbridge and the coast, are demand responsive services that need to be booked in advance the day before. The website www.suffolkonboard.com is a helpful tool for finding rural bus services in Suffolk. Another very useful facility for planning purposes is Traveline East Anglia (www.travelineeastanglia.org.uk; 0871 200 2233), which has links to timetables and route maps on its website.
By car, the Suffolk coast is easily reached from the rest of the country by taking the A12 between Ipswich and Lowestoft and turning off for the coast at the appropriate point. There are generally adequate car-parking facilities along the Suffolk coast, although the town car parks at Southwold and Aldeburgh can sometimes be full in high season.
Ferries
Several stages of the walks involve the use of ferries – timetables should be checked beforehand, as the ferries are seasonal and do not run year-round.
On the Suffolk Coast Path the extension to the alternative Orford Loop (see Stage 6) makes use of the Butley rowing-boat ferry, which runs from Easter Saturday to the end of October. Stage 8 of the Suffolk Coast Path requires the use of the Deben ferry across the river from Bawdsey Quay to Felixstowe Ferry. It carries foot passengers and bicycles and usually operates daily between May and September from 10am to 6pm, and at weekends from Easter weekend to May and also in October from 10am to 5pm (£2 single and £3 return at the time of writing). At other times there may be a river taxi service (07709 411511 – ferryman, or 01394 282173 – boatyard).
The Landguard Fort to Harwich