Snettisham Round via Woods, Beach and RSPB Reserve

Joy Boldero

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Snettisham Round via Ken Hill Woods, Snettisham Beach and RSPB Reserve

The walk passes through a variety of landscapes and has the advantage of being over mainly flat terrain and paths, which are fine in all but the wettest weather.

Starting in Snettisham, with its houses built in a traditional style using the local carrstone, you will pass through Ken Hill Estate with its mature trees. As you reach the edge of the woods, The Wash and the shingle beach at Snettisham will come into view. You will pass through arable farmland into the coastal nature reserve with its lagoons and reedbeds. Walking along the sea defences, there are views across The Wash with its thousands of wading birds, which congregate in the ponds as the tide comes in.

In every season there is interest as the landscape changes. The middle part of the walk, between Lodge Farm and the hide on the beach is walked in both directions, with two loops at beginning and end. Most of the walk is on good firm paths. Some may get a little boggy after heavy rain, particularly in Ken Hill Woods, where your feet may get wet when crossing the fields.

There are only two minor ascents and the rest of the walk is on flat terrain, but there are several stiles and flights of steps. There are several excellent places to take refreshment, either before or after the walk in the village of Snettisham.

England - East England - Norfolk - Coast

Features

Public Transport

7/6/2021 - Phil Burrows

We did this walk on 5th July 2021. It was very enjoyable and easy to follow. A fairly flat walk with little climbing required. Plenty to see on route.

2/25/2019 - Sarah Green

Lovely walk on a crisp winter day - route now waymarked at 5 & 6 with clear signage all the way to the beach (signposted Snettisham circular walk off to the right and no kissing gate now)

4/7/2014 - Angie Baxter

We did this walk (and like the other comments the hide was missing)but it was easy to follow. However instead of turning back on ourselves, we continued on around the RSPB fences and up on farm tracks to get to Dersingham. From there we followed the old railway track path through woodlands and back in to Snettisham. Ended up being a bit longer, but was lovely walking through the woodland path. It did involve some walking on pavements for the last mile in to Snettisham :)

6/18/2013 - Gerald Pepper

A good and varied walk. The hide referred to at (11) no longer exists however if you climb the embankment and turn left there is a well used path to the beach. Birders will probably prefer to walk through the scrub, especially at this time of year when there are plenty of Warblers to be heard and seen. At Shepherds Port I would simply retrace the walk but this time follow the path along side the lagoons where again birders are unlikely to be disappointed. Reduces the walk to around 6.5 miles

11/24/2012 - Paul Gething

We did this walk last week (mid November 2012) and found a couple of issues worth bearing in mind: 1. the walk length appears to be significantly understated - our gps said we had walked 10.1 miles (instead of 7.5), and that was without actually reaching the RSPB hide. This was backed up by our timing which ran to 3.75 hours (instead of 3 hrs 1 min). 2. At waypoint 16 on the return leg, directions say something like 'when you are level with the hide turn off right...'. This hide appears to be missing or hidden, so you need to take care. One final point to mention - some of the fields leading up to the coast were flooded, making things difficult after heavy rain.