Havergate Island

Havergate Island can be found 2 miles south of Orford. To get there, we take you from Orford on our boat 'October Storm.' The boat trip down the River Ore to Havergate Island will take around 20 minutes. The island, spanning around 500 acres, sits within the estuary and is home to six large shallow salty lagoons, along with other habitats including saltmarshes, vegetated shingles, and mudflats.

Havergate Island is nationally important all year round, supporting thousands of passage, wintering, and coastal breeding birds. During the colder months, it becomes a site for hundreds of wintering waders and ducks. Notably, it hosts one of Suffolk's most important large gull breeding colonies during spring. Remarkably, in recent years, it has become an established site for breeding Spoonbills, with their numbers growing stronger every year. Additionally, the island is home to our well-known and much-loved brown hares all year round.

Booking Information

If you would like to visit Havergate Island you must pre book onto one of our trips which can be found on our booking page (link below).

We offer a variety of different trips to suit everyone from guided, non guided and specialised photography trips. We can also organise private trips for up to 12 people. For this please contact a team member on Havergate.island@rspb.org.uk.

Trips run all year except from May, June and July when we close the Island to visitors throughout the breeding season.

More information can be found on our events booking page or contact us on Havergate.island@rspb.org.uk

⚠ Please note before booking that the island is accessed by a narrow jetty (0.75m wide) with no handrails. A reasonable level of fitness is required for embarking and disembarking the boat and we recommend wearing stout footwear/wellies. The jetty can be wet and slippery at times depending on the state of the tide. There is a single 2km long linear track connecting all of the hides and paths can be wet, muddy and uneven in places.