UK beach with surprising history only accessible by ferry | UK | Travel
A beautiful beach along the Suffolk coast may look ordinary, but it comes with a surprising history.
Orford Ness Beach in Suffolk is only accessible via boat and trips must be booked in advance. The beach is part of the Orford Ness Nature Reserve, which is currently run by the National Trust, and is located on a former military testing site.
Orford Ness was founded by King Henry II in the 12th century, as part of his attempts to consolidate power in the Suffolk and Norfolk areas.
Throughout its history, the shingle spit has been viewed as something of a “weak spot” along the British coastline, with its flat beach and many estuaries making it a prime location for invading forces to land, due to its land connection to the nearby Aldeburgh.
In 1792 a lighthouse was built on the beach, which was demolished over 200 years later in 2013 before being completely demolished in 2020, due to coastal erosion and storm damage
In the 1800s a number of Martello towers were built along the Suffolk coastline, including one at Slaughden, which has been turned into a holiday rental in recent years.
Orford Ness was purchased by the War Department in 1913, and was used as a military test site in both World Wars and in the years following. A Bomb Ballistics building was built on the land in 1933.
Three years after this a team of scientists arrived on the spit to launch a Ionospheric Research Station. This was later revealed to be a cover for research and development of an aerial defence system.
Between the years 1953 and 1966 six test cells were built in order to carry out environmental tests on the atomic bomb.
Although it’s believed that no nuclear material was actually involved in the tests at Orford Ness, the nature of the tests could still have caused a catastrophic explosion, with the sites being designed to absorb and dissipate an explosion by collapsing in on themselves.
Two of these sites, known as pagodas due to their shape, are still standing today.
The military use of Orford Ness continued into the late sixties and seventies, when a British and American collaborative radio project, named Cobra Mist, was launched with a number of long-range surveillance radars added to the site. In 1973, Cobra Mist was abruptly shut down.
In the years following this, the RAF Explosive Ordnance Disposal destroyed large amounts of ammunition on the site the last of which was disposed of in 1987.
The spit would remain abandoned for a number of years, during which it would be targeted by trespassers and vandals, before being purchased by the National Trust in 1993.
The National Trust now run the site as a nature reserve and protects the unique historical features on the split, although the radars used as part of Cobra Mist are now owned by a private company named Cobra Mist Limited.
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