Cley and Salthouse Area

Cley & Salthouse Marshes Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) Reserve

This covers the area north of the A149 between Cley Beach Road and Kelling. It consists of fresh water scrapes, brackish lagoons and grazing meadows. There is an east-west channel across the length of the area which enables water to run off the reserve into Blakeney Harbour. The area south of this is freshwater and to the north is brackish with lagoons which are partially tidal. At the northern edge is a wide shingle beach which used to be maintained as a high tidal bank by bulldozing it but since 2007 this has been left to self-profile.

To the south of the A149 you will find the NWT Visitor Centre where you can purchase tickets to the reserve, get information about what is being seen and have elevated views across the reserve while drinking coffee and eating snacks or meals from the excellent café. The centre opens from 10am to 5pm in the summer months and 10am to 4pm in the winter. Various events and guided walks are held in, and from, the Simon Aspinal Education Centre and details about these and more information on the reserve can be found on the NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes website

For convenience we have split the area into three parts:

1. Cley Beach Road to East Bank

This area was the original NWT Cley reserve purchased in 1926. It comprises reedbed, fresh-water scrapes, dykes and grazing meadows in the southern half with brackish lagoons and shingle in the north. Read More

2. East Bank to Iron Road

Much of this area was purchased by the NWT in 2012 to join the Cley and Salthouse Marshes reserves and make a single coastal reserve of more than 300 hectares. It is made up of wet grazing marshes and reedbed. Read More

3. Salthouse Marshes

The area north of the A149 forms an eastward continuation of the grazing marshes of Cley and much of it is owned or managed by the NWT. Unfortunately, following the tidal surge of December 2013 the Beach car park no longer exists but there is limited parking on Beach Rd. South of the A149 there are arable fields stretching up to the ridge between Walsey Hills, Sarbury Hill and Salthouse village. Read More

Cley Village

Away from the reserve there are still other spots where birds can be found. The fields rising above the NWT Visitor Centre, gardens in the village and the northern end of the Glaven Valley have all been known to have good birds. Read More

Salthouse Heath

An area of heath and scrub on the ridge to the south of Salthouse. Read More

Walsey Hills

This site, owned by the Norfolk Ornithologists’ Association is situated south of the A149 just east of Cley East Bank. It is an area of gorse, mixed scrub and woodland. Read more