This weekend we explored Horsey Beach to see Great Britain’s Grey Seals. During the winter months, we learned 40% of the global Grey Seal population comes to the UK shores between November and late January because of the mating season. Pups do not have waterproof fur; therefore, they can’t go in the water to swim during these months. So it’s a great time to view them on the sand from afar and to see the largest British mammal (fun fact). The Friends of Horsey Seals has a great website explaining more details about grey seals. If you want to learn more about them, check it out! And of course, you can never rule out BBC’s info on wildlife – where are my BBC Nature fans at?!
Why go to Horsey Beach
Consistently rated one of the best places to observe the grey seals in the East England area, we had to make a trip to Horsey Beach! The drive time for us is around two hours; therefore, we appreciated including a national trust stop to Horsey Windpump (side note: this IS different than a windmill) with the visit.
Here, you can see nature unfiltered while practicing safe ways to seal watch. You can watch the pups nursing and practice moving around. You can see seals move and shake as fast as they know how to across the beach. That cracks the kids up. We also saw a seal and bird play a game of tag (or maybe chicken) back and forth on the beach. Who won, we’ll never know as I’m sure it went on all day. And on top of all that joy, you can feel humbled by a little bit of heartache too. You will likely see dead pups on the beach. While sad, it allows you to explain to your kids the circle of life.
Our kids handled this pretty matter of factly and were most concerned that the mother might have killed the pup. We explained several other factors that likely resulted in the pup’s death. For example, a pup could have died due to a male seal crushing it while moving across the beach (as a volunteer explained can happen) or not getting enough mother’s milk. Once they understood mothers work hard to keep their babies alive, Lil Fox and Hedgehog tolerated pup death a little bit easier. How sweet their concern stemmed from familial love in the family rather than the unforgiving circle of life.
Kid Highlights in Addition to Seal Watching
We found Friends of Horsey Seals lift-the-flap trivia Q&A along the Norfolk Coast walking path between viewing areas. We stopped at every one and took guesses. Note to self: when you still pivot between metric and imperial units, make sure to clarify pounds v kg, ft v m, etc., before looking at the answer. Easier to avoid family smackdown if everyone knows what unit you intended ahead of time! Luckily, every country still uses years as a form of age 😉
Also, we thoroughly enjoyed climbing up the Horsey Windpump on our return walk from Horsey Beach. We got to hear a nice blurb about the history of the windpump and how it operates. Kids loved climbing the narrow and steep staircases.
Walking Routes to Horsey Beach
We parked at the Horsey Windpump (note: this is different than Horsey Gap car park). As National Trust members, parking was free. To complete the whole round trip to walk to Horsey Beach, the additional perusing of both lookout points at Horsey Beach, and back was just shy of five miles (according to my AllTrails). We followed this walking route from the National Trust. Trail instructions were pretty easy to follow.
Along the walking route, we went through wet cattle fields, a challenge without our wellies due to our missing air freight box, and on some gravel paths between fields. Regardless, we had fun Swashbuckling and enjoyed seeing cattle and sheep being right next to them in their environment. When I asked Lil Fox if we saw anything else, he said, “mud!”
At landmark 4, in the instructions, we did turn right to walk to the second horsey beach viewing platform. Because it’s wet season, our family played a game of who could straddle-walk over the biggest puddle. The kids’ confidence in how wide a puddle Kevin can straddle is confidence building, to say the least.
Tips for Seeing the Seals by Land
We only observed the seals from land, although there are some boat opportunities. You do you!
First Observation Area (Closest to Horsey Gap Car Park)
This viewing area felt a little crowded at times because it is right near the Horsey Gap car park and so crowds can form for those that don’t want to make a longer trek to the second lookout point to see the seals. When we’re going to see nature in action we generally like to avoid the crowds. What we did like is that the viewing points seemed to provide a closer visual of the grey seals than the second observation area farther away.
Second Observation Area (Farthest from Horsey Gap Car Park)
This area felt a little more primitive because not as many people seemed to walk all the way from the Horsey Gap car park to view the seals here. The dunes seem a bit higher here and so the seals weren’t as close, but you still had good visuals. Interestingly, a seal made it up all the way to the dunes and was blocking a path, so volunteers helped mark off safe walking paths to walk around it. I’d be tired too if I climbed a dune with flippers.
