Happisburgh Lighthouse & Crumbling Coast

Happisburgh gives you two stories in one flight: the handsome red-and-white banded lighthouse — the oldest working light in East Anglia, run independently by a local trust — and some of the most dramatic coastal erosion in Britain. Beach Road famously now ends in mid-air, wrecked sea defences litter the sand, and each winter the cliff line retreats a little more. Top-down shots of the collapsed revetments and the amputated road are genuinely powerful, and the lighthouse sits far enough inland (for now) to frame against ripening barley in July. Practicalities: the cliffs are soft, undercut and actively failing, so never stand near the edge and don't trust the grass margin — launch from the car park or the beach via the ramp at Cart Gap. Onshore northeasterlies hit this coast hard with nothing to slow them. The village is small and generally quiet outside summer weekends; the caravan park sits close to the cliff, so plan lines that don't overfly the vans. Straightforward, legal, and one of the most photogenic half-miles in Norfolk.