Norfolk Broads

The Broads were assumed to be natural lakes until Joyce Lambert's research in the 1950s showed vertical peat faces and rectangular outlines: they are medieval peat diggings, cut for fuel from the twelfth century, that flooded when sea levels rose and the pits could no longer be kept dry. About two hundred kilometres of lock-free navigable water link some sixty broads, which is why the network is boated rather than walked; hire cruisers run from Wroxham and Potter Heigham, and the low bridge at Potter Heigham is famously difficult and takes a pilot. The area holds species found almost nowhere else in Britain, including the swallowtail butterfly and the Norfolk hawker dragonfly, and drainage windpumps, brick towers now mostly without sails, stand along the rivers.

What you actually see

• The flooded peat pits - artificial broads recognised as such only in the 1950s.
• The lock-free navigation - about two hundred kilometres of connected water.
• The windpumps - brick drainage mills along the river walls.
• The swallowtails - Britain's only population, flying in early summer.

When to go

May to September for boating and wildlife, with swallowtails from late May to early July. Peak school holidays crowd the moorings; spring and September are far easier for finding a berth.

Honest expectations

The landscape is flat and repetitive from the water, and the busiest stretches near Wroxham are heavy with hire traffic. Tidal reaches have real current and mooring takes practice. Some broads are closed to navigation for conservation.

Nearby

Norwich lies west; the Norfolk coast at Winterton and Horsey is a short drive east.