Discover our wildlife in a mosaic of coastal habitats - shingle, saltmarsh, saline lagoons, coastal grazing marsh, freshwater gravel pits and reedbeds. Explore its changing coastline and military history, or simply enjoy a walk beside the sea.
Rye Harbour Discovery Centre
Find out more about the plans for Rye Harbour Discovery Centre
You can enjoy our amazing wildlife all day and every day along many miles of path with five birdwatching hides accessible to wheelchairs and mobility scooters.
We were voted Britain’s favourite nature reserve in 2016 in the third annual LandLove Magazine Awards. One of the most important conservation sites in Britain, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve has been recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area for birds under the EU Birds Directive, a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive and a Ramsar site that takes account of its importance as a wetland on an international scale.
Explore Rye Harbour
- Try visiting us using public transport and perhaps bring a bike to explore the whole reserve and wider area. Rye is only 68 minutes from London and 100 minutes from Brighton by train.
- Please use the local food outlets to support our local businesses.
- Plan a stay in the area and discover other wildlife sites
USEFUL DOWNLOADS
- Introductory Leaflet with map
- Events and Guided Walks - download our What's On 2019 leaflet
- Coastal Flowers at Rye Harbour
- Common Summer Birds at Rye Harbour Leaflet
- Common Winter Birds at Rye Harbour Leaflet
- For more downloads see out section Publications and Reports.
A WINTER FILM
Our two minute film is being shown at Rye's excellent cinema, the Kino just before some of the feature films. It's showing the nature reserve to a new audience and we are getting good feedback from it. Thanks to Matt Breckon, of Kino Digital and Neal Whittle, of Kino Rye. Here's the film in a smaller format, but best viewed as full screen - use the little [ ] icon bottom right when it starts.