Welcome to NCI Mundesley lookout station
On 19th May 1995 the country’s second NCI station at Mundesley was launched. The station had a humble beginning with just a few volunteers and very basic equipment, but despite the sparse resources available to them, the National Coastwatch volunteers at Mundesley were on watch 365 days a year.
Mundesley may have been the second National Coastwatch Institution station to open but in 2009 it was the first NCI station to receive the Queens Award for Voluntary Service, a very proud moment in its history.
The original building was probably a wooden construction, replaced in time by more permanent structures. The present brick building, now rendered white, was erected in 1928 by HM Coastguard, the organisation formed by the amalgamation of the Preventative Water Guard and Riding Officers, and manned by them until the 1980s. Mundesley Parish Council leased the now redundant Watch House from North Norfolk District Council, and were planning to re-open it as a museum. The use of the upstairs room was offered for the purpose for which it was originally built. Today, the tower is owned by the parish council and the watch room is still manned by unpaid volunteers and equipped with VHF radios, a shore station radio for Channel 65, computer, automatic identification system and radar. This of course is underpinned by that most valuable tool of all - the eyes of a trained watchkeeper!
The lookout station overlooks the famous “Devils Throat”, a term attributed to Daniel Defoe for this notorious area of the North Sea. Owing to the treacherous sandbanks there are at least 53 marked wreck sites where vessels have come to grief. This busy seaway holds many dangers for shipping: sand banks, oil rigs, gas platforms and wind farms. All the traffic from the North East and Eastern Ports on transit to Europe and beyond pass our station.
This North Norfolk coastline is also a busy tourist location. From our position above Mundesley beach, towering thirty metres above the North Sea, the watch room has a visual scope of 180 square miles over the beach and the sea. We watch out for those getting into difficulties on the beach and in the water as well as the far reaching watch towards the Haisborough Sands.
We are supported entirely by voluntary contributions. Please scan the QR code or click here if you wish to make a donation to our station - any amount is very gratefully received! 
The station operates from the Old Coastguard Lookout, now the Mundesley Maritime Museum, located on the cliff top along Beach Road. The watch room is accessed by a narrow spiral staircase and sensible footwear must be worn.