Hickling put-in (North Norfolk)

Hickling Broad is the largest of the Norfolk Broads by surface area, about 1.4 square kilometres of open, shallow water formed by medieval peat digging and a later rise in sea levels. The marked navigation channel runs about 1.5m deep, with much of the rest of the broad shallower still, and the water is slightly brackish from its proximity to the sea. Chara Bay, a reedbed built from dredged channel sediment packed into geotextile tubes, is a visible feature on the broad.

The broad is a National Nature Reserve carrying several overlapping conservation designations: part of the Upper Thurne Broads and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest, the Broadland Ramsar site and Special Protection Area, and The Broads Special Area of Conservation, within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It holds the largest reedbed in England, with rare waterweeds including the holly-leaved naiad and three species of stonewort, and its waters and reedbeds support swallowtail butterflies, Norfolk hawker dragonflies, marsh harriers, bitterns and wintering cranes.

Dykes lead off the broad in several directions: Candle Dyke connects east to the River Thurne, Deep-Go Dyke and Meadow Dyke lead north to Horsey Mere, and Heigham Sound opens to the south.