Ensiklopedia Dunia

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Durham Coast
Blackhall Rocks on the Durham coast
Location	MAGiC MaP
Nearest city	Sunderland
Area	765.41 ha (1,891.4 acres)
Established	1960
Governing body	Natural England
Website	Durham Coast SSSI

The Durham Coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. Starting just North of the River Tees estuary it extends, with a few interruptions, northward to the mouth of the River Tyne at South Shields. Notable locations on the Durham Coast include Hartlepool Headland^{[citation needed]}, Seaham, Sunderland Docks and Whitburn Beach.^[1]

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. ^[2]

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 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.^[2]

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. The different habitats have varying flora; the open heathland supports red fescue, 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.^[2]

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.^[2]

References

^ Philip's (1994). Atlas of the World. Reed International. p. 16. ISBN 0-540-05831-9.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Durham Coast : Reasons for SSSI status" (PDF). Natural England. Retrieved 1 April 2022.

v t e 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

v t e 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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