Durham Coast
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
- ^ a b c "Durham Coast" (PDF). English Nature. 1999. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
- 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
- English coast
- English Site of Special Scientific Interest stubs
- County Durham geography stubs