周辺のスポット/アトラクション・トップ20

Take time to go off the trail to the bird hides and vantage points around the water. The route is best in spring before the nettles take over the path in summer!

Get ready to drift in the summer sand

The pub in Thomson (The Chequers) on Griston Road is worth a visit...old with lots of character.

Just enjoy being out n about

Not so good spot for lunch, move on and find a better place

Thompson Water and the common form an SSSI managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. It's a particularly important area for dragonflies and damselflies.

The Pingo Trail is an 8 mile hike around Thompson Common which takes in the delights of the ice age pools known as pingos. As the ground froze, water underneath froze to create little hills. When the ice melted the earth dropped back down and created the pingos. They are usually found in places such as Greenland and Alaska so it is an interesting and unique place to visit.

Watch out for the cattle grids at each end of the heath road, they really rattle you if you hit them at speed!

Knettishall Heath nature reserve covers about 430 acres (174 hectares) and also includes woodland and riverside meadows, as well as large areas of heath. In season, there is a visitor welcome and cafe van in the car park every Wed-Sun plus bank holidays 10am-4pm. If you go early in the morning, you're likely to find the ponies grazing much closer to the road.

If you plan on having a dog with you, then double check where you can take it around Thompson Water. The main footpath that runs beside Thompson Water is Peddar's Way, so dogs are allowed there, but the rest of the reserve is owned by Norfolk Wildlife Trust and some areas are dog free zones at some points of the year.

Thompson Common is famous for its pingos, a series of around 400 post-glacial depressions. Here, you can see more than 400 different species of plants. It is also one of the most important sites in the county for dragonflies and damselflies; 19 species have been recorded as breeding here. There have been 25 species of butterfly and more than 600 species of beetle recorded here, too.

This small patch of lowland heath makes a dramatic change to the nearby Waveney Valley and its water meadows. Just south-west of the market town of Diss, rambling around this beautiful open access land is extremely pleasant and the Angles Way long-distance footpath cuts right through it. Keep an eye out for the heath’s resident wildlife, from its green woodpeckers and large rabbit population to the secretive adder which can sometimes be seen sunbathing in a coil. Yellow hammers also forage here and the plantlife, from lichens to sorrel, is just as varied.

This is the start of the Peddars Way, a 46 mile (74 km) long distance hiking and cycling trail from near Thetford close to the Norfolk/Suffolk border, to the North Norfolk coast at Hunstanton. Mostly following ancient Roman routes, the trail has the characteristic straight trajectory that’s associated with this era. The Peddars Way is for you if you love wildlife, history and the great British Countryside, which it has all three in spades. Explore ancient castles and ruins, look out for wildlife among glacial wetlands and coastal marshes and enjoy the expansive arable landscape that’s so typical of this county.

Thompson Common is famous for its pingos; a series of around 400 post-glacial depressions. Here, you can see more than 400 different species of plants. It’s also one of the most important sites in the county for dragonflies and damselflies; 19 species have been recorded as breeding here. There have been 25 species of butterfly and more than 600 species of beetle recorded here, too.