YHA Wells-Next-the-Sea, West Sands and Holkham Park

By car: Wells-next-the-Sea is on the North Norfolk coast and is on the A149 and B1105 roads. 

[1] Leave Wells-next-the-Sea Youth Hostel, turning left, North,  towards the coast, along Church Plain which becomes the High Street. At the T junction with Station Road, turn left then first right along Staithe Street. At the end of Staithe Street, with the Harbour in front of you, turn left and follow the quayside round to the right towards the Harbour Office. Follow the Norfolk Coast Path, with the narrow gauge Wells Harbour Railway and Beach Road on your left and the navigation channel on the right. Pass the camp site on your left, then a car park and a café on the left.

[2] The main route continues along the beach involving about 2 miles walking across sand. Pass the coastguard station, walk along the raised wooden walkway to the beach. Follow the beach West, taking your own path across West Sands – beside the trees or paddling in the sea (but watch the tide!). When the edge of the belt of trees falls away to your left, follow it to Holkham Gap, passing a seat with a good view across Holkham Bay, and pick up a board-walk through the trees to join up with the alternative route along the official coastal path.

Alternative Route avoiding the beach walk. (1¾ miles). Follow the Norfolk Coast Path which runs between the car park and the adjacent belt of trees to Waypoint [3]. Alternatively, there are many paths within the belt of trees (useful shelter on a windy day).

[3] Walk South along the tree-lined Lady Ann’s Drive, which doubles as a car park for the beach, towards the A149. Carefully cross the main road and proceed towards the ornate main gate flanked by almshouses.

 [4] The main routes continues ahead along the main drive towards the car park. Turn sharp left at the first junction. Very soon take the left fork and head across the parkland. Cross a cattle grid and take the next right fork. Enter the woods ahead and turn left. The path leaves this wood, circles round the end of the next wood, crosses open ground and re-enters the woods again.

Alternative route (short cut) to Waypoint [5] (0.4 miles) Enter the estate and turn left following the waymarked path through the woods.

[5]  The main route turns right and the alternative route turns left to join up with the main route.  Walk along the permitted path and head towards East Gate. Exit the park and walk along a splendid avenue of trees to meet the A149. Turn right at this junction with the road (photo 14) and walk South along a footpath skirting round a house then between two fields.Take the next left turn onto a bridleway which comes out onto the B1105.

[6] Turn left, North, along the B1105. Turn first right onto Burnt Street (A149)

Alternative Route. Cross the B1105 and follow the field edge on your left to Market Lane. Turn left and walk North to Burnt Street where you turn right and rejoin the main route.

Walk along Burnt Street until you come to the end of Church Plain and St Nicholas's Church. Turn left and return to the YHA.

 (A) Wells-next-the Sea is a traditional fishing port on the North-Norfolk coast.  It is named after the many springs and wells in the town that supplied fresh water from the underlying chalk.  The town was recorded in the Doomsday Book.  Industries have included shipbuilding, shipping, fishing and malting.  These have declined, but there is still fishing and a lifeboat station.  Today tourism is the major industry. The town used to have a main line railway connection but this is now a narrow gauge steam line run by the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway.  A second steam railway, the Wells Harbour Railway, also 10¼” gauge,  runs to the beach from near the town centre.  Other tourist attractions include the vast beach, the salt marches with their wildlife, and sailing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells-next-the-Sea
http://www.wellsnextthesea.info
http://www.wellswalsinghamrailway.co.uk/
   

(B) Holkham National Nature Reserve The reserve lies to the north of A149 coast road, starting just west of Burnham Overy Staithe and extending west past Holkham to Beach Road, Wells-next-the-Sea. It also includes the tidal salt marshes continuing further east to Blakeney. Its total area of about 3,900 ha (9,600 acres) makes it the largest NNR in England. The reserve can be accessed by footpaths from Wells and the local villages including the Peddars Way/Norfolk Coast long-distance trail that traverses the main part of the reserve, and National Cycle Route 1 loops through the core of the NNR between Holkham and Wells. There is a car park near Holkham village at the north end of Lady Anne's Drive that gives access to two bird hides, and another parking area at the end of Beach Road in Wells. To the east of the Wells channel, the reserve is mainly salt marshes and mud flats, and is difficult and potentially dangerous to access, although a public footpath runs along the southern edge of these tidal areas.

(C) Holkham Hall is an eighteenth-century country house located adjacent to the village of Holkham, on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. The hall was constructed in the Palladian style for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester by the architect William Kent, aided by the architect and aristocrat Lord Burlington.Holkham Hall is one of England's finest examples of the Palladian revival style of architecture, and severity of its design is closer to Palladio's ideals than many of the other numerous Palladian style houses of the period. The Holkham estate, formerly known as Neals, had been purchased in 1609 by Sir Edward Coke, the founder of his family fortune. It is the ancestral home of the Coke family, the Earls of Leicester of Holkham. See also:  http://www.holkham.co.uk/

The walk may be shortened to about 6.8 miles by taking the alternative route from Waypoint [4] to Waypoint [5] within the Holkham estate.

This walk was developed in conjunction with the YHA who generously provided a night's accommodation.