Spurn Point Low Light

Spurn Point is a narrow sand tidal island at the mouth of the Humber Estuary in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It stretches over five kilometres into the North Sea and is owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as a national nature reserve. The southern tip, Spurn Head, covers 113 hectares above high water and 181 hectares of foreshore. A storm in 2013 cut the road off at high tide, making the end accessible only on foot. The island has been shaped by erosion and deposition, shifting westward over centuries. It forms part of the Humber Flats, Marshes and Coast Special Protection Area. Spurn Head has a long history tied to navigation and conflict. Classical writers knew it as Ocelum Promontorium, and in 1399 Henry of Bolingbroke landed here to depose Richard II. The port of Ravenspurn once stood nearby but was lost to the sea. The first recorded lighthouse was built in 1427 by Richard Reedbarrow, and by the 17th century a pair of leading lights guided ships. During the First World War, artillery batteries were installed along the peninsula, their remains still visible today. Visitors walk along the shifting sands and shingle ridges formed by longshore drift. The bird observatory monitors migrating birds, with thousands passing through in autumn. Military emplacements from the First World War lie exposed by erosion. The peninsula’s cycle of destruction and rebuilding continues, with the spit moving west at about two metres each year. The landscape is shaped by marram grass and shifting tides, offering a remote and wild experience.