Explore the Landscape Heritage

of the Cambridgeshire Fens

on a series of walks around the Fen Edge

The Fen Edge Trail takes you from the Lincolnshire border in the northwest of the county to the Suffolk border in the southeast, roughly following the ‘edge’ of the Fens (including the islands) where the land rises to 5 metres above sea level (the 5 m contour). We are gradually publishing a series of Walk Guides that take you on easy walks with an average distance of about 5 miles each, although some can be done in shorter sections or you can combine them to make a longer walk. The Walk Guides not only provide a map and directions but also describe the landscape, geology, history and wildlife along the route. Even if you do not wish to walk very far, you can read the Guides to find information on places of interest that can be visited in each area and the relevant webpage has links to organisations and sites that will help you discover more. The links between geology, ecology, history and present day life in the Fens reveal themselves and the more you look, the more you discover and the more fascinating it becomes!

Go to Walk Guides page

Landscape Heritage

of the Cambridgeshire Fens

The Cambridgeshire landscape has a unique and fascinating history, from floods and glaciers to deep seas, tropical lagoons and even volcanoes! The Fen Edge is where low-lying fenland meets the surrounding ‘highland’, roughly where the land lies 5 metres above current sea level. This is thought to be the approximate maximum extent of the once extensive wetland. Sea level has, however, changed greatly at various times and the amount of freshwater flooding, from rivers and meres, has changed even more frequently, often not only from season to season but from year to year. Although the draining of the Fens is well-known, the story of how and when this happened is far more complex than is generally thought. The Fen Edge, including the many fen islands, provided drier land that was often a refuge from the marshes and it is, therefore, here where much of the history of the fens can be discovered by looking at the clues that remain.

As well as a rich cultural history, the Fens also have a fascinating, and often dramatic, landscape heritage, which is far less well-known but that continues, even today, to affect the lives of its inhabitants. From volcanoes to ‘ice ages’, and salt marshes to raised bogs, from Jurassic sea ‘monsters‘ to mammoths, and hippos to bog ‘oaks’, the complex story of how the fens were formed and what and who lived here, can be discovered by exploring the Fen Edge.

Landscape and Geology  The sea in the Fens!  The Fen Edge