A Guide to Kessingland

Kessingland is a little village just south of Lowestoft, just a 20 minute drive from Beccles, and half an hour’s drive from Halesworth. The population of Kessingland stands at just over 4,000 people, and attracts many visitors and tourists each year.

Kessingland is both a popular family holiday destination and also an area of the highest historical importance. It has been an area of intense interest to archaeologists as Palaeolithic and Neolithic tools and implements have been found here and the remains of an ancient forest lie buried on the seabed. Kessingland was also famously the richest village in England in medieval times and was once two villages – Kessingland and Kessingland Beach Village. The latter has a small area of Victorian fishermen’s cottages and eccentric architecture. It’s also the UK’s most easterly village.

A huge, unspoilt beach attracts many visitors – but even on the hottest, busiest Summer day there is still plenty of space for everyone.

Kessingland is known as one of the very few areas along the East Anglian coast where the beach is growing and the sea receding. Kessingland also has a wide stretch of sand and sand hills. The beach has grown for a century, and this is supposedly as a result of the famous writer Rider Haggard spotting the erosion problem in the late 19th Century and planting marram grass which saved the beach – where he had his beach house for writing, now demolished.

The beach also runs into Benacre nature reserve – famous for bird sightings every spring as migrating birds hit British land fall.

Kessingland offers a restaurant called The Waterfront, which, as it’s name implies, is right on the beach. There’s also a very friendly pub called The Sailors Home. In addition to a large and welcoming bar (which allows dogs), the pub has a restaurant (no dogs!). Fish and Chips are their speciality!

Nearby is Africa Alive and the village is only 15 minutes from Lowestoft. You can read more about Lowestoft here.

Put Kessingland on your beach itinerary and you’ll be in for a very pleasant surprise.