Durham Coast SSSI

Durham Coast
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Blackhall Rocks on the Durham coast
Country	England
Region	North East
District	Hartlepool, County Durham, Tyne and Wear
Location	NZ381685 to NZ495362
Area	765.41 ha (1,891.37 acres)
Notification	1960
Management	Natural England
Area of Search	Cleveland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear
Interest	Biological Geological
Website: Map of site

The Durham Coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. Starting just south of Crimdon Dene, north of Hartlepool, it extends, with a few interruptions, northward to the mouth of the River Tyne at South Shields.

The area included in the SSSI includes six Geological Conservation Review sites, including Marsden Bay, a classic study area for coastal geomorphology since the 1950s.

The SSSI is important both for its flora and fauna. It includes most of the paramaritime Magnesian Limestone vegetation found in Britain, a vegetation type that is unique to the Durham coast and that differs markedly from the grassland developed on similar strata elsewhere in lowland Durham.

The Durham coast also supports a variety of birds, including nationally important populations of sanderling, wintering purple sandpiper and breeding little tern. There is also a rich variety of invertebrates, including colonies of the Durham Argus butterfly, Aricia artaxerxes salmacis, and the least minor moth, Photedes captiuncula.