Hickling Broad and Marshes

Blue cloudy skies, swaying reeds and water at Hickling.

Reedbed at Hickling (credit: Richard Osbourne)

A stretch of blue broad water surrounded by yellow reeds, under a clear blue sky

Hickling Broad and Marshes (credit: Richard Osbourne)

A marsh harrier hunting over the reedbeds at Hickling Broad and Marshes. You can see one of the hides blurred in the background.

Marsh harrier at Hickling (credit: Jon Kelf)

Hickling Broad and Marshes

Throughout the seasons, this reserve reveals a stunning landscape and presents a wealth of spectacular wildlife to discover.

Location

NWT Hickling Broad is approximately 4km south of Stalham off the A149 Stalham to Caister-on-Sea road. It is clearly signposted - from Hickling village follow the ‘brown badger’ tourist signs into Stubb Road and on to the nature reserve.
Stalham
Norfolk
NR12 0BW

OS Map Reference

TG 427 221

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A static map of Hickling Broad and Marshes

Know before you go

Size
600 hectares
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Entry fee

Members and children: Free Non members £5 (with Gift Aid) Standard price: £4.50
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Parking information

Car park at entrance
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Grazing animals

You may come across cattle and ponies grazing this site during your visit. Please follow the signage.
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Walking trails

There are signposted footpaths around the reserve, including a raised grass bank. A number of viewing points look across the broad. See map below for more details. For further information ask at the reserve visitor centre.

Reserve map

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Access

Paths on this site are access grade 2. Please visit our Accessibility page for more information.

Dogs

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No dogs permitted on reserve apart from assistance dogs. Dogs on a lead on all other paths.

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Facilities

Visitor centre
Bird hides
Toilets
Shop
Cafe/refreshments
Picnic area
Accessible toilet
Baby changing facilities
Disabled parking
Accessible trails

When to visit

Opening times

Reserve dawn till dusk, every day, all year round.

Visitor centre: Open every day. April - October, 10am -5pm, November - March, 10am - 4pm

Best time to visit

All year round

About the reserve

An important part of the wider Broadland landscape, Hickling is a haven for many of the UK’s rarest animals and plants.  

Home to Britain’s largest butterfly – the swallowtail – as well as birds such as bittern, common crane, and a wide variety of fenland plants. With its wide-open skies, reed-beds, woodland and un-spoilt landscape, it offers a perfect place for a walk any time of year.  

It’s easy to spend a day exploring Hickling's mix of boardwalk, grass, and gravel trails. Or gently while away a couple of hours taking in the Broad’s hidden corners on our guided wildlife boat tour. 

Viewing points allow fantastic vistas across the marshes and the open water of the broad itself, providing an opportunity to see marsh harriers, great crested grebe and flocks of winter wildfowl.  

Spring is alive with birdsong: cuckoo call from willow scrub, bittern boom in the reed-beds, and an array of warblers sing from dawn to dusk. The spring sees tumbling marsh harriers in azure skies, spoonbill feeding on the flooded pools, and egrets stalking along the dyke edges. If you’re lucky, you may find a pair of cranes leading a newly hatched chick through one of our marshes.  

In early summer, the beautiful swallowtail butterflies emerge, joined by Norfolk hawker dragonflies and a host of other colourful and fascinating insects. The fen mason wasp, once considered extinct in the UK, can be found along the paths. The reserve bursts with the vivid hues of fenland flowers and its bays and channels contain many types of aquatic plants, some of which are extremely scarce.  

In late summer and early autumn, Hickling is an important staging-post for migrating birds, with a variety of waders using Brendan’s Marsh on the eastern side of the reserve as a place to rest and feed. Birdwatchers can be delighted by the many rare vagrants that frequently drop in.  

Winter is just as vibrant. The marshes are brimming with wildfowl, flocks of bearded tits repeat their ‘pinging’ call through the reeds, and huge skeins of wild geese fill the leaden sky. At twilight, a trip to the lookout platform at Stubb Mill raptor roost may reward you with harrier, merlin and ‘bugling’ crane. 

Traditional reed cutting is still carried out at Hickling, both as a commercial harvest and as part of our wildlife conservation work to maintain the ancient Broadland landscape. Our work to conserve the reedbed makes the reserve an important site for the protection of many rare wetland species. 

Contact us

Contact number: 01692 598276
Illustrated map of Hickling

Seasonal highlights

All year round

Birds: common crane, marsh harrier, bearded tit. 

 

Spring

Birds: bittern, cuckoo, warblers. 

Summer

Birds: spoonbill. 

Invertebrates: swallowtail butterfly, Norfolk hawker dragonfly.  

Autumn

Birds: migrant waders.   

Winter

Birds: wildfowl. 

Upcoming events