Breydon Water

Breydon Water is a large, sheltered estuary on the eastern edge of Halvergate Marshes in Norfolk. It forms part of the Berney Marshes and Breydon Water nature reserve managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The site covers 514.4 hectares and is one of the UK’s largest protected wetlands. It sits at the gateway to the Broads river system and stretches five kilometres long with sections more than one and a half kilometres wide. The southern end overlooks the remains of a Roman Saxon Shore fort at Burgh Castle. The water begins where the River Yare and River Waveney meet, with smaller streams like The Fleet feeding in from surrounding marshes. The estuary supports vast mudflats and saltings that teem with birds, especially at low tide. Since the mid-1980s it has been an RSPB nature reserve after centuries as a shooting area. In winter, tens of thousands of wading birds and wildfowl overwinter here, including 12,000 golden plovers, 12,000 wigeons and 32,000 lapwings. Other visitors include Bewick’s swans, dunlin, sanderling and even occasional flamingos. A bird observation hide on the north shore overlooks a breeding platform used mainly by common terns. The estuary also hosts breeding common shelducks, northern shovelers, Eurasian oystercatchers and yellow wagtails. Naturalist Arthur Henry Patterson, who wrote as John Knowlittle, documented the wildlife and disappearing ways of life here. Sections of the Wherryman’s Way and Weavers’ Way long-distance paths run along the northern bank from Yarmouth to Berney Arms. The estuary appears in Arthur Ransome’s book Coot Club from the Swallows and Amazons series. Safe boat passage is marked by red and green posts, and unlike most Broads waterways, there is no speed limit. The river narrows at the east end, passing under Breydon Bridge before joining the River Bure and flowing into the North Sea.