How A Hurricane Created A Saltmarsh In Porlock

By Luke Knight

For the first time, I visited the Porlock Marshes in 2026. If you've ever been you'll know how beautiful and 'other-worldly' it feels. I remember watching an episode of Top Gear, when they drove across the African salt-flats...and Porlock reminded me of that. But not as extreme, obviously.

Unlike the African salt-flats though, which were created tens of thousands of years ago, the Porlock saltmarsh only became what it is today 30 years ago, in October 1996. It was a night that allowed nature to take control...

For centuries, Porlock Bay was protected by a long shingle ridge, a natural gravel and pebble barrier, running 5 km (3 mile). It's considered the longest continuous structure of its kind on the western coast of Britain. But during Hurricane Lili in 1996, the Atlantic surged in with such force that the ridge gave way, smashing open a breach and flooding the low‑lying farmland behind it - sadly taking the lives of some sheep too. What happened next though, was something no one had seen in Britain for generations...

Instead of rebuilding the barrier, coastal managers chose a bold new approach: let nature take the lead. As the tides swept in and out through the breach, the landscape began to transform. Saltwater pooled, channels formed, and within months the first salt‑tolerant plants began to take hold. What many feared would remain a muddy wasteland instead evolved into a thriving intertidal lagoon and salt marsh — a habitat that had existed naturally in Porlock Bay thousands of years before humans tried to hold the sea back.

Today, Porlock Marsh is one of Somerset’s most precious coastal environments; rich with birdlife and rare plants. It’s also become a national test case for how we might manage coastlines in a world of rising sea levels and stronger storms.

Next time you’re out on the boardwalk or watching the tide creep across the flats, you’re standing in a landscape shaped not by centuries, but by a single storm — and by a decision to let the land do it's own thing.