You’ll probably know Skegness as Nottingham’s nearest beach. Whatever your thoughts on the seaside town, I imagine you don’t think, ‘stunning nature reserve with 5km of wild coastline’, right?
Gibraltar Point seems to be a lesser-known beauty with the Notts locals I’ve spoken to about my trip. It’s a bird-watcher and nature lover’s paradise, worth visiting in all seasons to witness a variety of species you’d struggle to see elsewhere.
Travel
Each price includes Trainline’s fee and was booked at least a day in advance (2025 prices):
- £30.79 return via specific trains (£20.49 with railcard) – both prices vary depending on chosen train
- £42.89 off-peak return (£28.49 with railcard)
- £55.99 anytime return (£37.29 with railcard)
I caught the 08:47 train and got to Skegness at 10:55. With the walk to and from the nature reserve, I had roughly three hours to wander around. I could’ve caught a later train home but wanted to be back for dinner to reduce cost, so booked the 16:14 and got back to Nottingham for 18:22.
The train ride itself was lovely and scenic, so it flew by – lots of beautiful waterways, as well as rabbits and deer walking through fields of crops and yellow flowers, like their version of the veg aisle in Tesco.
- Average travel time: 2hr 10 mins
- 40-1hr walk from Skegness station to the reserve.
Google reckons it takes 1hr 12mins to walk from Skegness station to Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve, but there’s a public walkway that cuts across the golf course and leads directly into the nature reserve! This becomes more like a 40 minute walk. I was very thankful to cut short the long walk down the one road (some interesting and big houses down there though!).
Food and drink
I took lunch with me, but Gibraltar Point Visitor Centre had a lovely café with both hot and cold offerings and an irresistible cake counter. On the walk to the reserve, you’ll also pass a big Lidl and Tesco, or you could visit Skegness proper if you wanted fish and chips or a pub lunch or something.
The trail
I didn’t follow one! Once I reached the sanctuary, I walked where my feet took me. But you can follow in my footsteps via my AllTrails profile (you may need to sign up to see it).
Turn right out of Skegness station (don’t follow the crowd – most will cross the road towards the town and seafront), and keep walking past the Lidl and the Tesco (or pop in for some walking fuel).
Continue down Richmond Drive a little longer, until you reach Haven Skegness. A public footpath appears on the left side of the road. This part immediately improved my impression of Skegness – the Vine Walk is a lovely pathway enclosed by trees and birdsong. It made the otherwise quite boring walk to the reserve a lot nicer.
Exit the walk beside the pretty looking Vine Hotel, and continue beyond it down a back alley-looking thing that’s still beautifully surrounded by trees and people’s back gardens. After that, turn left, and walk until you reach the golf course.
Turn right just before it and follow the loooooong road parallel to the golf course. If you followed this all the way, you’d end up at the more official Gibraltar Point entrance and car park, but look out for a public footpath that cuts across the golf course (just after Frederica Road), and you’ll be in the reserve much quicker.
It was through doing this that I spotted two oystercatchers and heard my very first cuckoo. This part of the reserve is lesser explored – I saw literally no-one here, but some beautiful coastline and species I’d have otherwise missed.
Toilets and water refill stops
- Skegness train station
- Nature Centre
Follow the footpaths and King Charles III signposts to delve further into the nature reserve, but really you can choose your own route from here. I made it a point to visit the Nature Centre first so I could get my bearings, a map, and a coffee.
There are several areas you may want to visit:
Points of interest
- quiet beaches and sweeping sand dunes
- lakes and salt marshes
- protected coastline bird sanctuary
- nature centre with cafe and little shop
- bird hides and more birds than you’ve ever seen in one place before
- HUGE anti-tank defence ruins from the Second World War.
I was in awe the entire day. Every turn provided a new landscape, new habitats and new birds. In the Fenella Hope and North Hides, I must have seen over a hundred birds chilling in the lakes, with some new to me nestled among the geese.
Species I saw or heard (April):
As the Gibraltar Point website says, it’s worth visiting throughout the year to see the sheer variety of species that come to this magical place. The Wildlife Trust signs around the reserve suggest you could spot grey and common seals, ringed plovers, and a whole host of other uncommon birds – over 300,000 water birds flock here to survive the winter.
The Nature Centre sells birdwatching guides specific to the area, with a checklist for all the species you come across. Great to bring back for your next four visits!
Here’s what I saw or heard with the Merlin app on my spring trip:
- Cuckoo
- Pied avocet
- Little Grebe
- Oystercatchers
- Lesser whitethroat
- Greater whitethroat
- Swifts
- Common reed warbler
- Black-tailed godwit
- Eurasian skylark
- Canada Goose
- Unidentified red-winged butterfly
- Bunnies on the beach!
- Possibly dunlins?
Ecoetry 