About

The pretty village of Holme-next-the-Sea is located within the North Norfolk Heritage Coast and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and its beach is expansive and sandy, lined with salt marsh and dunes. It is accessed by a path that travels through the Hunstanton Links golf course. The town of Hunstanton is nearby, about 3 miles to the south-west.

Its position on the North Sea coast makes it a prime site for migratory birds in autumn.

On the Holme-next-the-Sea beach in the spring of 2050 BCE, a very large oak tree was felled and its stump was half-buried with the roots uppermost. About a year later, some smaller oaks were felled and from these 56 posts were cut. These were arranged in a circle around the upturned, central stump. This Bronze-Age monument, described by some archaeologists as being one of the most significant ever discovered, may have formed a type of ceremonial site - possibly with astronomical overtones. An alternative suggestion is that it may have been a site of 'excarnation' where, after death, bodies would be exposed to the elements to hasten the process of decomposition and help the spirit on its way to the afterlife.

Eventually the sea claimed the land where the Bronze-Age circle stood and the people who built it were long forgotten. There were no records that it ever existed until, almost 4,000 years after it was built, the ever shifting sands off the East Anglian coast reformed and revealed the structure once again to the eyes of man. The amazing structure was soon christened 'Seahenge' and became famous as Druids and modern-day pagans objected, including sit-in protests, against the decision by English Heritage to dig up the whole structure, remove it from the beach and preserve it. You can see some of the display at the Lynn Museum.