Covehithe Cliffs

Covehithe is the fastest-disappearing coastline in Britain, and it looks like it: sandy cliffs sliced clean as cake, whole oaks lying root-up on the beach, and a lane that simply stops at a fence with the sea beyond. Add the extraordinary ruin of St Andrew's — a vast medieval wreck with a small thatched church rebuilt inside its nave — and you have two of Suffolk's most arresting aerial subjects within 500 metres of each other. Top-downs of the fallen trees and the razor-straight cliff edge are the signature shots; the church works best low and orbiting in raking evening light. The cautions are real, though. The cliff edge overhangs and calves without warning — launch well back and never trust the last few metres. Benacre Broad, immediately south, is a National Nature Reserve where little terns nest on the shingle April to August: don't take the beach run in that direction in season. There are no facilities whatsoever, parking is a handful of verge spaces by the church, and the 'permissive' cliff path shifts inland as fields fall into the sea. Quiet, eerie, and worth the awkward access.