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  • Havergate Island

Havergate Island

Welcome! Access to this nature reserve is via boat, on pre-booked trips and events only. Please find opening times and events details below. Thank you.
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Address
RSPB Havergate Island, Quay St, Orford IP12 2NU, UK
Grid ref
TM425495
What3Words
oldest.marshes.gladiator

This small island in the River Ore is famous for its avocets, terns and spoonbills. In autumn and winter, the island provides a haven for large numbers of ducks and wading birds. Havergate is also a great place to see brown hares at close range. 

Plan your visit

Opening times

Access to this nature reserve is via boat on pre-booked trips and events only.

Boats leave Orford Quay at 10am on the first Saturday of every month (maximum 12 people) except May, June and July. Also selected weekends for special events. See our 'events and activities' section for details. 

 

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
No
Adults
£19 (RSPB members), £24 (non-members)
Children
£9.50 (RSPB members), £12 (non-members)
Car park cost
  • We dont' have an RSPB car park here. Pay and display car park at Orford Quay.
  • Blue Badge holders are exempt from car parking charges at Orford Quay.

Facilities

  • Toilets
  • Picnic area
  • Guided walks
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails

Accessibility

  • Full accessibility information (external website)

How to get here

By train

The nearest station is Wickham Market Station. From the station, follow the B1078 east through Tunstall to the B1084. Turn left and follow through to the village of Orford.

By bus

You can take Route 160: Ipswich - Bealings - Woodbridge - Orford. From the village centre, follow signs to Orford quay.

 

By bike

This reserve is close to Route 1 of the National Cycle Network.

By road

Access by boat from Orford Quay. The village of Orford is located 17 km (11 miles) to the north-east of Woodbridge; the village is signposted off the A12.

 

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Other ways to get there

Prior booking is essential.The boat leaves Orford quay at 10am and returning to Orford at about 3.20pm, on the first Saturday of each month only. 

The boat journey takes approximately 20 minutes. Bookings are made via the rspb website or search Havergate Island on Eventbrite.

Get directions from Google Maps
View on What3Words
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Group booking information

Group bookings accepted. Please contact the warden in advance on havergate.island@rspb.org.uk.

Contact Havergate Island

  • RSPB Havergate Island, Quay St, Orford IP12 2NU, UK
  • havergate.island@rspb.org.uk
  • 01728 688959
  • @RSPBSuffolk
  • Find us on facebook

What will you see?

Our star species

    Wading Avocet Illustration

    Avocet

    Watch avocets 'scooping up' microscopic, aquatic life in their sickle-shaped beaks. Or see mini colonies nesting.

    Barn owl

    Barn owl

    When the barn owls have young to feed, you could see them at any time of day.

    Common tern

    Common tern

    Watch common terns raising their young in spring and summer by visiting the hides.

    Male pintail

    Pintail

    Pintails flock to the estuary here in autumn and winter.

    Male wheatear

    Wheatear

    The arrival of wheatears from March is a sure sign that spring has arrived at Havergate.

Seasonal highlights

  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter

The hares on the island are most active in early spring. Wading birds and ducks display and nest on the islands in the lagoons. Flowering thrift turns the saltmarshes pink. Common terns, with a few Sandwich terns, return to breed.

Grassland butterflies - skippers, small coppers, wall and meadow browns and gatekeepers - are common in summer. Migrating wading birds stop off on the lagoons to feed and roost. In late summer, wheatears can be seen on the paths and shingle.

In autumn, sea aster comes into flower on the saltmarshes. The numbers of winter wildfowl also start to increase and wading birds such as spotted redshanks pass through on migration. Short-eared owls and barn owls hunt for mice and voles along the river walls.

Numbers of wigeon, pintail and teal peak in mid-winter. Birds of prey such as short-eared owls and marsh harriers hunt over the island. Common seals can occasionally be seen in the river at this time of year.

About Havergate Island

Habitat

Havergate Island is Suffolk’s only island and sits within the River Ore near Orford. The coastal habitat found include saline lagoons, saltmarshes, vegetated shingle and mudflats.

Conservation

Our conservation efforts at Havergate Island include managing saline lagoons, shingle, and saltmarsh.

  • We are managing the island's saline lagoons to suit many species of waders and ducks during the autumn and winter seasons. During the spring the island becomes one of the largest gull colonies in the East of England and nationally important for lesser black back and herring gull. We also have a small population of common terns and avocets that return every year to breed. Throughout the year we control the water and salinity levels in the lagoons by adjusting the sluices to let the water in or out.
  • We will manage our 4 ha of vegetated shingle for the benefit of its specialised invertebrates and plants, such as smooth yellow vetch, ensuring that it remains undisturbed.

The Alde-Ore estuary is important for many species of European importance. Because of this, we recently completed an EU Life project in partnership with the National Trust on Orford Ness in 2014. This work enabled us to make adaptions to the island to establish efficient and sustainable water management of the lagoons and it helped us create new and improved breeding islands. In 2018 we were awarded funding from the Environment Agency as part of DEFRAs natural flood management programme and by the landfill tax fund through a grant awarded by Viridor credits which we used to help alleviate the impact of future storm surges by creating a new 600m spillway along the rear of main lagoon.

Site information

Access via boat on pre-booked trips only. Boats leave Orford Quay at 10 am on the first Saturday of every month (maximum 12 people) except May, June and July. Also selected weekends for special events - see events section for details.

Latest forum posts

  • Tripping the Island Fantastic

    With no public trips to Havergate in the past two years, people have been understandably keen to get out to the Island to check out the wildlife & warden Lyndsey has tried to get a good range of opportunities into the diary. That has included two of ...

    Posted 16/03/2022 by Whistling Joe
  • For Those Missing Havergate

    It looks (from Lyndsey's recent blog) that most trips won't re-start in the short term, but Mrs WJ and I had the chance to pop over for a little while the other day (volunteer stuff) so I thought you might like a few images to keep you going. There a...

    Posted 04/06/2021 by Whistling Joe
  • Good News After 300 Years!

    Although there are no trips running at the moment to Havergate due to the ongoing pandemic fun & games, I had the opportunity to get across to the island a few weeks ago for a very specific reason involving the big lens - more on that in a bit.  Howe...

    Posted 07/09/2020 by Whistling Joe
  • Taking the Long Way Home

    It’s nice to get two trips to Havergate in a week.  The odd bit of drizzle and some far more sensible timings meant sunrise pictures were out of the question, but the inconvenience of the RSPB’s boat being unwell (it’s having an engine transplant) me...

    Posted 29/08/2019 by Whistling Joe
read our forum

Latest blog posts

  • It all worked out OK in the end!

    In recent years Havergate Island has become  home to the 2nd largest breeding Spoonbill colony in the UK. This year will be their 4th year nesting on the island and so we wanted to undertake some habitat works to make sure the island was in the best ...

    Posted 21/02/2022 by Lyndsey
  • 2022 Trips!

    It has been very quiet on Havergate Island with no visitors coming along to visit. However, the good news is we have been working towards getting our visitor trips and events up and running again! Our full events programme and booking information can...

    Posted 06/12/2021 by Lyndsey
  • Havergate update and looking forward

    First things first, I am sorry to say we have decided not to run the Havergate Adventure this year. With the decision made not relax the restrictions on the 21st June we thought it was the best and safest idea to postpone and work at getting all our ...

    Posted 13/07/2021 by Lyndsey
  • Visiting Havergate update

    Apologies for such a delayed update on our Havergate Reserves. I was hoping to be able to give some good news and say that our trips will be up and running again soon but, unfortunately, we have made the decision to postpone all our visitor trips thi...

    Posted 02/06/2021 by Lyndsey
read our blog

Activities and events

Activities for children and families

For more information on events and to book tickets, please visit events.rspb.org.uk/havergateisland

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