Durham Coast

Durham Coast
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Blackhall Rocks on the Durham coast
Country England
Region North East
District Hartlepool,
County Durham,
Tyne and Wear
Location NZ381685
to
NZ495362
Area 765.41 ha (1,891.37 acres)
Notification 1960
Management Natural England
Area of Search Cleveland,
County Durham,
Tyne and Wear
Interest Biological
Geological
Website: Map of site

The Durham Coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. Starting just south of Crimdon Dene, north of Hartlepool, it extends, with a few interruptions, northward to the mouth of the River Tyne at South Shields.

The area included in the SSSI includes six Geological Conservation Review sites, including Marsden Bay, a classic study area for coastal geomorphology since the 1950s.[1]

The SSSI is important both for its flora and fauna. It includes most of the paramaritime Magnesian Limestone 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 elsewhere in lowland Durham.[1]

The Durham coast also supports a variety of birds, including nationally important populations of sanderling, wintering purple sandpiper and breeding little tern. 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.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Durham Coast" (PDF). English Nature. 1999. Retrieved 20 July 2010.


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