The Durham Coast is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Starting just North of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...

estuary it extends, with a few interruptions, northward to the mouth of the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...

. Notable locations on the Durham Coast include Hartlepool Headland,

Seaham Seaham ( ) is a seaside town in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham, England, Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as ...

, Sunderland Docks and Whitburn Beach. The area included in the SSSI includes six

Geological Conservation Review The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee. It is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...

sites, including Marsden Bay, a classic study area for coastal

geomorphology Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand wh ...

since the 1950s. The geology of the area is characterised by the exposure on the cliffs and beaches of the dolomite and limestone formed in the late

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

period. The sea cliffs between Trow Pint and Whitburn Bay provide evidence of the changes in sea levels that have occurred in the intervening period. The SSSI is important both for its flora and fauna. It includes most of the paramaritime

Magnesian Limestone The Magnesian Limestone is a suite of carbonate rocks in north-east England dating from the Permian period. The outcrop stretches from Nottingham northwards through Yorkshire and into County Durham where it is exposed along the coast between Ha ...

vegetation found in Britain, a vegetation type that is unique to the Durham coast and that differs markedly from the grassland developed on similar

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of Rock (geology), rock or sediment characterized by certain Lithology, lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by v ...

elsewhere in lowland Durham. The different habitats have varying flora; the open heathland supports

red fescue ''Festuca rubra'' is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue, creeping red fescue or the rush-leaf fescue. It is widespread across much of the Northern Hemisphere and can tolerate many habitats and climates. It is best adapted to w ...

, sea plantain and thrift. In more sheltered places, the calcareous grasslands, support a biodiverse range of flowering plants including pyramidal orchid and such specialities as marsh helleborine, grass-of-Parnassus, round-leaved wintergreen and bird’s-eye primrose. Another habitat is the dune system and golf course which supports a different assemblage of plants. In some of the dune slacks there are populations of marsh orchid and common twayblade. The Durham coast also supports a variety of birds, including nationally important populations of sanderling, wintering

purple sandpiper The purple sandpiper (''Calidris maritima'') is a small shorebird in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. This is a hardy sandpiper that breeds in the arctic and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America and winters further south on the Atlan ...

and breeding

little tern The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was first described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name ''Sterna albifrons''. It was moved to the genus '' Sternula'' whe ...

. There is also a rich variety of invertebrates, including colonies of the Durham Argus butterfly, '' Aricia artaxerxes salmacis'', and the least minor moth, '' Photedes captiuncula''.

References

{{SSSIs Tyne and Wear Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland, England Sites of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Tyne and Wear Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1960 Coasts of England