About Blakeney
Wander along lovely Blakeney Quay. It’s a haven of tranquillity today, busy with sailing boats when the tide is right, but still peaceful compared to its medieval heyday as a commercial harbour when ships from across the Europe unloaded goods here. For centuries the village was infamous for the pirates who sailed from the Quay to strip ships of their valuable cargo.
The Norfolk coast is one of the best places in the country for bird watching as there are many nature reserves with lots of salt marshes and reed beds. It sits on the migration path of many species of birds and is a haven for bird watchers. The landscape is full of big open skies, and you can see up and down the coast for several miles in both directions, while looking straight out to the North Sea.
Blakeney National Nature Reserve is an internationally important nature reserve bequest to the National Trust in 1912. The area is home to a varied range of flora and fauna with Blakeney Point home to a breeding seal and tern colony. This unspoilt stretch of Norfolk coastline offers uninterrupted wide-open spaces and breathtaking views.
Blakeney is famous for the terns which nest on remote Blakeney Point, and all kinds of rarities which regularly blow in. Wheatears, redstarts, pied flycatchers, and whinchats are seen frequently, with stork, crane and ibis also visiting.
At certain times of year, you can spot marsh harrier, bittern, red shank, avocet, bluethroats, wrynecks, trumpeter finch, short-toed lark, red-backed shrike, nightingale, nightjar, little owl, nightingales, and black guillemot.
Take a boat trip to see the seals. Blakeney Point is home to the largest colony of grey seals in the country with around 4,000 pups born here every year. Some of the trips include time on the remote Point itself.
“Still salty, the former port is a lovely tangle of flinty houses, with children crabbing off the quay, old boys with accents you can chew on, and Morston Marsh stretching to infinity.”
The tang of salty sea air and the clinking of boats add to the sensory atmosphere as you gaze out over saltmarsh and tidal creeks at those famously big North Norfolk skies, the deep orange sun sinking slowly over the horizon.
Once upon a time the village of Blakeney was the most important along the north Norfolk coast.”
Beautiful Blakeney is famous for its seals, boats, birds, history and stories of pirates and secret tunnels too.
James Stewart, award-winning travel journalist.
