Wallasea Island Wild Coast project

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County
Essex
Nearest town
Rochford, Essex
Lat/Lng
51.617045, 0.808777
Grid ref
TQ945946

The Wallasea Island Wild Coast project is a landmark conservation and engineering scheme - the largest of its type in Europe. Walk along the seawalls to see the saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons, where terns dive into the water in summer and huge flocks of waders and wildfowl arrive in winter.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Open at all times between 8am and 8pm or dusk, whichever is earlier.

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free
Children
Free

Facilities

  • No visitor centre
  • Car park
  • Toilets off-site
  • Accessible toilets off-site
  • No Refreshments
  • Picnic area
  • Guided walks
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails
  • Shop off-site

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

The nearest station is Rochford, 6.6 miles (10.5 km) away from the reserve.

By bus

Loftman's Corner, Canewdon, about 2.5 km from reserve entrance - Stephensons Bus Route 60 runs from Southend on Sea. From Loftman's Corner head east away from Canewdon onto Creeksea Ferry Road. Continue along this road onto Island and to reserve entrance.

By road

From Rochford, Essex, take the Ashingdon road until you see the brown tourism signs at Bray's Lane and follow these to the RSPB Wallasea Island Wild Coast.

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.

Get directions from Google Maps
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Group booking information

Group bookings are accepted. Guided tours are avilable for groups of 10 or more.  

What will the weather be like?

12 degrees, Heavy rain

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 62Kb

Wallasea Island trail guide

Contact Wallasea Island Wild Coast project

What will you see?

Our star species

Recent sightings

Brent goose Branta bernicla, flock flying low over wetland, Wallasea Island RSPB reserve, Essex, England

Find out about recent wildlife sightings at Wallasea Island.

Read more

Seasonal highlights

Passage migrants in spring include whimbrels and green sandpiper whilst the islands in the lagoons provide plenty of nesting space for avocets and common terns. Listen to the hundreds of skylarks singing high in the sky, see hundreds of gulls packed into the islands and spot hares playing in the grassland. 

During summer months, watch terns diving for fish to feed their young and watch elegant avocets search for food in the shallow lagoon waters. Marsh harriers will be out hunting in the reserve for small mammals. Mid-late summer is the best time to see butterflies and bees on the seawalls including marbled white, common blue, small heath and skippers. 

Stand quietly to spot a water vole in one of the ditches. Look over the river Roach for common seals hauled out on the banks. Autumn brings further passage birds including ringed plovers, dunlins, greenshanks, black-tailed godwits and redshanks. Numbers of wildfowl such as teal and wigeon start to climb and Brent geese make an arrival to spend winter on the Essex coast.

For sheer numbers of birds visit in winter to see the flocks of waders and wildfowl together on the lagoons and mudflats. Look out for their panic when a peregrine passes through. Short-eared owls and hen harriers also hunt the grassland for small mammals. Stand quietly to spot a kingfisher hunting the ditches and channels.

About Wallasea Island Wild Coast project

Habitat

Walk along seawalls to see the newly created saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons. Take a stroll around the grassland to catch a glimpse of the short-eared owls or marsh harriers and watch over the river to see the common seals haul themselves out.

The Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project is in the middle of transforming this island into a magical landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea. More than 3m tonnes of earth was brought by boat from the tunnels and shafts created by the Crossrail scheme in London.  This allowed us to raise the land above sea level and place the soil in way that created a new 115ha intertidal area of saltmarsh, islands and mudflats (known as Jubilee Marsh). In addition Crossrail helped us create saline lagoons, a creek network and grazing marsh.  All of which means two-thirds of the arable farmland has been transformed into wildlife-rich habitat and a great place to visit.

Conservation

We can manage the saline lagoons using sluices to control water levels and we aim to create a variety of depths of water to suit different species. Our wet grassland is grazed by cattle to manage the grass length for wading birds and raptors. Jubilee Marsh needs minimal management as the tide comes in and out bringing with it sediment, seeds and other bits of plants plus the invertebrates and fish which the birds then feed on.

In the near future we are planning on making a series of shallowly flooded saline lagoons in the southern part of the island to attract over wintering waders and wildfowl and in the summer nesting birds such as avocets, little ringed plovers and hopefully black-winged stilts.

Wallasea Island sits within an SPA which covers the Crouch and Roach estuaries and which is special for overwintering waders and wildfowl including Brent geese. Our work here increases the habitat for these birds both whilst roosting and feeding as well as create new grassland areas (wet and dry). The intertidal areas have been designed with climate change in mind, with long shallow slopes from the new seawall providing space for the saltmarsh to creep up as sea levels rise.

  • Crossrail - Over 3million tonnes of soil was brought here by sea. By raising the land we reduced the amount of water that came in when we breached the seawall. We were able to place the soil so that a range of habitats will develop from lagoons and islands to mudflats and saltmarsh. 
  • Environment Agency - The Environment Agency are providing significant funding, helping to ensure the project can proceed. This funding will secure 155 hectares of saltmarsh and mudflat on Wallasea Island as replacement intertidal habitat that will go some way to offsetting this loss.
  • Defra - One of the key aims of the project is to build on the success of the 110-hectare Allfleets Marsh on Wallasea Island. This area of saltmarsh and mudflats was created by Defra in 2006 as part of a managed realignment scheme, with holes made in the old sea wall in order to create intertidal habitat behind a new sea wall.
  • Natural England - Natural England now manages Allfleets Marsh on behalf of Defra, and RSPB are the managing agents for Natural England. Natural England and Defra are key partners in the project.

Site information

The reserve covers more than 740ha, with two thirds of the reserve now transformed from arable farmland to saltmarsh, mudflats, lagoons and grazing marsh.

There are three walking trails – Jubilee Marsh, Allfleets Marsh and Marsh Flat. So far the reserve has added a further 7km of trail to the reserve in its creation and more will be created in the future.  At the ends of Allfleets Marsh trail and Jubilee Marsh trail are two shelters providing a comfortable place to sit overlooking the river. There are no facilities on site at the moment but we do hope that in time we will add a reception hide to welcome visitors.

Latest blog posts

read our blog

Activities and events

Leisure activities

  • Jubilee Marsh trail: Jubilee Marsh and the sea embankment are formed of the soil that Crossrail brought in from its tunnel excavations in London. Sea water entered the marsh for the first time in July 2015. The 2.4km (one way) permissive trail leads to the south of the Island and at the end Half Moon viewpoint overlooks the River Roach where you may see seals.
  • Allfleets Marsh trail: Enjoy the large skies and landscape of the Essex coast as you walk along this 3.2km (one way) trail. South of the footpath you will see lagoons, whilst to the north you will see Allfleets Marsh created in 2006. Halfway along the trail you can climb a footbridge over the conveyor belt used to take soil from the Crossrail project from the boats to form Jubilee Marsh. This is a public footpath where dogs are allowed on a lead. 
  • Marsh Flat trail: This permissive circular trail takes you past both Grass Farm lagoon and Acresfleet Lagoons and then on around the grazing marsh and wet grassland. The lagoons were filled with water entering via the sluice in Allfleets Marsh in autumn 2016. The longer circular route is 4.4km. The shorter one is 1.5km.

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