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

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland
Boulby Quarries Briarcroft Pasture Cowpen Marsh Durham Coast Hart Bog Hartlepool Submerged Forest Langbaurgh Ridge Lovell Hill Pools North York Moors Pinkney and Gerrick Woods Redcar Rocks Roseberry Topping Saltburn Gill Seal Sands Seaton Dunes and Common South Gare & Coatham Sands Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands Whitton Bridge Pasture
Neighbouring areas County Durham North Yorkshire

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham

Neighbouring areas: Cleveland; Northumberland; Tyne and Wear

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Tyne and Wear
City of Sunderland	Claxheugh Rock and Ford Limestone Quarry Dawson's Plantation Quarry Durham Coast Fulwell and Carley Hill Quarries Gilley Law Quarry Hastings Hill Herrington Hill Hetton Bogs High Haining Hill High Moorsley Humbledon Hill Quarry Hylton Castle Cutting Joe's Pond Moorsley Banks South Hylton Pasture Tunstall Hills and Ryhope Cutting Wear River Bank
Gateshead	Gibside Lower Derwent Meadows Pockerley Farm Pond Ridley Gill Ryton Willows Shibdon Pond Strother Hills Thornley Wood
Newcastle upon Tyne	Big Waters Brenkley Meadows Gosforth Park Hallow Hill Prestwick Carr
North Tyneside	Northumberland Shore Tynemouth to Seaton Sluice
South Tyneside	Boldon Pastures Cleadon Hill Harton Down Hill West Farm Meadow, Boldon

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