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  • Wallasea Island

Wallasea Island

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Address
RSPB Wallasea Island, Rochford, Essex, SS4 2HD
Grid ref
TQ945946
What3Words
polka.luckier.plenty

RSPB Wallasea Island is a magical landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea. 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

  • Nature reserve: open daily, 8am-dusk (or 8pm whichever is earlier).
  • Car park: open daily, 8am-dusk (or 8pm whichever is earlier).
  • Toilets: open daily in the summer months, 8am-dusk (or 8pm whichever is earlier).

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free
Children
Free
Car park cost

Parking is free but donations to support the work of the RSPB are welcome.

Facilities

  • Car park
  • Picnic area
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails

Accessibility

  • Full accessibility information (external website)

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 RSPB Wallasea Island.

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

By ferry: Contact Burnham Ferries on 07704060482 to request a ferry drop-off from Burnham-on-Crouch to Essex Marina, then walk 2km along the seawall to reach the reserve entrance.

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

Information for dog owners


Dogs are welcome on the public footpath only (Allfleets Trail). Please keep them to this designated right of way only.

Please keep your dog on a lead and under close, effective control at all times, due to the sensitive wildlife, habitats and livestock here. We know that the countryside is a dog walking paradise. It’s important to remember the special surroundings here are wonderful havens for rare wildlife. Even if dogs are very well behaved, wildlife and livestock can easily become startled by a loose dog they perceive as a predator.

Disturbing wildlife does more than simply causing it to move away; it uses up their energy, decreasing their chance of survival regardless of season. Thank you for protecting the special wildlife here by keeping your dog on a lead and under close, effective control.

  • Only Allfleets Marsh is a public footpath, so sorry, no dogs are permitted elsewhere on the nature reserve other than assistance dogs.
  • Dogs die in hot cars, please do not leave your dog in the car when visiting us.
  • There are no dog waste bins on the nature reserve, we ask that you please take dog waste home with you to dispose of.

Group booking information

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

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 62Kb

Wallasea Island trail guide

Contact Wallasea Island

  • RSPB Wallasea Island, Rochford, Essex, SS4 2HD
  • wallasea@rspb.org.uk
  • 07719996730

What will you see?

Our star species

    Wading Avocet Illustration

    Avocet

    Expect to see good numbers of this elegant bird in the spring and summer.

    Black-tailed godwit in breeding plumage

    Black-tailed godwit

    Watch out for migrant black-tailed godwits in spring and autumn.

    Dark-bellied brent goose

    Brent goose

    They can be seen here from October and linger well into the spring.

    Redshank, summer plumage

    Redshank

    Keep an eye out for the redshanks' towering display flights in spring.

    Adult spoonbill illustration

    Spoonbill

    They have become a regular visitor to Wallasea Island. It is hoped that they will start to breed here as the reserve continues to develop.

Seasonal highlights

  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter

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 Skylarks singing high in the sky all over the reserve, see hundreds of gulls packed into the islands and spot hares playing in the grassland.

During summer months, watch Common 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 to late summer is the best time to see butterflies on the seawalls including Marbled White, Common Blue, Small Heath and skippers, and bees such as Shrill Carder Bee and Brown-banded Carder Bee.

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 plover, Dunlin, Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank. 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 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

Habitat

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

To create this magical landscape of marshland, lagoons, ditches and sea, more than three million 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 a way that created a new 115-hectare 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 Wallasea Island is now a wildlife-rich habitat and a great place to visit.

Conservation

We 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, which provides habitat for the invertebrates and fish which the birds then feed on.

In the south of the reserve we have created a series of shallowly flooded saline lagoons to attract overwintering waders and wildfowl and, in the summer, nesting birds such as avocets, little ringed plovers and hopefully black-winged stilts.

Wallasea Island sits within a Special Protection Area 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 creating 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.

We have worked together with a number of partners on this project:

  • Crossrail - More than three million 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 can develop, from lagoons and islands to mudflats and saltmarsh.
  • Environment Agency - The Environment Agency provided significant funding, which helped ensure the project could proceed. This funding secured 155 hectares of saltmarsh and mudflat on Wallasea Island as replacement intertidal habitat that goes some way to offsetting that lost elsewhere on the Essex Coast.
  • Defra - One of the key aims of the project was 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 all of the arable farmland now transformed to saltmarsh, mudflats, lagoons and grazing marsh.

There are six walking trails – Jubilee Marsh, Allfleets Marsh, Marsh Flats, South Trail, New Pool Trail and Beagle Trail, making over 15km of trail on the reserve. At the ends of Allfleets Marsh trail and Jubilee Marsh trail are two shelters providing a comfortable place to sit overlooking the river. There is a temporary portaloo on site at the moment but we do hope that in time we will add permanent toilets and more viewing facilities.

Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project

More details on the making of Wallasea Island can be found here.

Activities and events

Activities for children and families

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

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, which was 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.
  • South trail: The South trail is a 3.2km (one way) permissive route which links the south end of Jubilee Marsh trail to Marsh Flats trail.
  • New Pool trail: This 2.4km (one way) seasonal permissive trail runs east to west across the middle of the reserve giving visitors excellent views of the southern lagoons. It is closed east of the hide during the breeding season to reduce disturbance to nesting birds
  • Beagle trail: This 2.5km (one way) trail leads you to the viewpoint over the River Roach and the final resting place of HMS Beagle.

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