Happisburgh Owls

The lighthouse at Happisburgh is one of those Norfolk landmarks that stops you dead. Red and white stripes, 85 feet high, and it's been warning ships off this treacherous coast since 1790. The thing is, the sea doesn't care much for sentimentality - the cliffs here are collapsing at roughly a metre per year, and the lighthouse has already been moved inland twice. It's an oddly moving place to visit, actually. You can walk right up to it from the village, and the whole scene feels properly vulnerable in a way that makes you think about impermanence. The access is free and straightforward, just a short stroll from the car park through Happisburgh village itself - allow 45 minutes if you want to look around properly and take photos from a few angles. Best visited when the light's good, so early morning or late afternoon beats the midday glare bouncing off those stripes. As for timing, go on a weekday if you can; weekends draw the crowds who've read about it online. This works well if you're basing yourself at one of the nearby parks - Manor Caravan Park is barely half a mile away - and combining it with a walk along the beach itself, which is excellent for fossil hunting on the right tides. The cliffs have yielded Pleistocene bones before now. Families with older kids will find it interesting; younger ones might get bored after ten minutes unless they're into geology or maritime history. It's not a long attraction, but it's worth the detour if you're in Norfolk already.