Heacham South Beach slipway
A slipway on Heacham's South Promenade, on The Wash's eastern shore between Snettisham and Hunstanton. Norfolk County Council's rights-of-way data record it as a public right of way, and the beach here is sand mixed with shingle backed by low dunes.
The Wash is the largest multiple estuary system and the largest natural bay in Britain, fed by four rivers, the Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse. Heacham sits on its eastern shore, one of the few stretches of English coast that faces west; on a clear day the tower of St Botolph's church in Boston is visible across the bay in Lincolnshire, and the promenade north of the slipway runs about four kilometres to the cliffs at Hunstanton.
At low water The Wash exposes extensive sand and mud flats separated by deep-water channels offshore, and the inshore foreshore at Heacham turns from sand and shingle to soft estuary mud as the tide falls.
The Wash carries Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation and Ramsar designations, and is a National Nature Reserve. It holds the largest single colony of common seals in the UK, hauled out on the sandbanks the falling tide exposes offshore.
Nearby
OSM-tagged cafe on the coast road toward Hunstanton, a short walk from the slipway.
Cafe by the Heacham South Beach car park, about 650 metres south along the promenade from the slipway.
Family-run touring site for tents, caravans and motorhomes, plus glamping pods, on South Beach Road; open to the general public rather than groups or static owners only.
WebsiteConditions to check
The Wash has a very large tidal range and dries extensively at low water; the foreshore at Heacham turns from sand to soft estuary mud, and the bay's sandbanks and mudflats are what its SSSI, SPA and Ramsar designations protect.
SourceIn the offshore channels of The Wash, mean depth-averaged flood currents run roughly 0.5 to 0.7 metres per second at springs and 0.2 to 0.4 metres per second at neaps, with ebb currents around 0.4 to 0.6 metres per second; these figures are for the central deep-water channels, not the inshore Heacham foreshore.
A buoyed approach channel to the Port of King's Lynn crosses The Wash; King's Lynn Conservancy Board owns and maintains over 40 buoys and 12 beacons marking the channel.
SourceAmphibious seal-safari craft operate seasonally, May to October, from Hunstanton across the Wash sandbanks.
SourceQuestions
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