Wallasea Island

Address: RSPB Wallasea Island, Creeksea Ferry Rd, Rochford SS4 2HD

Grid ref: TQ945946

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

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

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 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.

Get directions from Google Maps

RSPB reserves on Google Earth

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

14 degrees, Sunny day

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 62Kb

Wallasea Island trail guide

Contact Wallasea Island

RSPB Wallasea Island, Creeksea Ferry Rd, Rochford SS4 2HD
wallasea@rspb.org.uk
01268 498620
@RSPBEssex
Find us on facebook

What will you see?

Our star species

Avocet

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

Black-tailed godwit

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

Brent goose

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

Redshank

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

Spoonbill

Given increased numbers of spoonbills being seen in the UK, we hope that the site will attract spoonbills.

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 to 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 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 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.

To the south of the island 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 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 we have added a further 7km of trail to the reserve, 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.

Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project

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

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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, 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.

Events

February
March

Saturday 22 February

Raptor Ramble
Essex

Saturday 14 March

Rolling back Winter
Essex

More events

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Wallasea Island