Qualla: Cley Marshes

Cley Marshes: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stavros1, CC BY 3.0. In 1926, a Norfolk birdwatcher named Dr Sydney Long paid £5,100 for a stretch of marsh, reed bed and coastal lagoon just outside the village of Cley next the Sea. He bought it to be held 'in perpetuity as a bird breeding sanctuary.' That act of purchase created what became Britain's oldest nature reserve, and it established the Norfolk Wildlife Trust — itself the oldest county wildlife trust in the United Kingdom. Nearly a century later, the birds are still arriving.

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Image: Stavros1 | CC BY 3.0

Cley Marshes: A Reserve Since the Beginning

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0. The 176-hectare reserve sits just east of Cley next the Sea on the North Norfolk coast, sheltered behind a ridge of shingle that runs west from Weybourne and extends into the sea at Blakeney Point. Before the 17th century, much of what is now the reserve was part of a vast tidal ...

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Image: Stephen McKay | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cley Marshes: A Mecca for Birdwatchers

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matt Lavin, CC BY-SA 2.0. The reserve has been called 'a Mecca for birdwatchers' — a phrase that understates its reputation in birding circles. It is one of the premier migration watching sites in Britain. The reed beds hold marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings year-round. Avocets nest ...

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Image: Matt Lavin | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cley Marshes: The Long Argument with the Sea

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. The mathematics of Cley Marshes are uncomfortable. The shingle spit at Blakeney Point that shelters the reserve has sometimes been breached by storms and turned temporarily into an island. A chapel at Blakeney, just west of the reserve, stood 400 metres from the sea in 1817; by t...

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Image: N Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0