Huttoft

Huttoft is a small village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, sitting on the A52 roughly four miles east of the market town of Alford and set back a little from the coast between Sutton-on-Sea and Ingoldmells. It is the sort of place many visitors pass through on the way to the beach rather than stop for long, but that quiet, unhurried character is exactly its appeal. The village appears three times in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Hotoft', and its parish church, St Margaret's, once caught the attention of the poet John Betjeman, who visited in the 1940s and wrote about it.

Today Huttoft is a working village rather than a resort, with a village shop and service station, a primary school, the Axe & Cleaver pub, and a scattering of caravan parks that make the most of its position close to the Lincolnshire coast. The surrounding landscape is flat, open farmland giving way to dunes, saltmarsh and big skies, with the sandy beaches of Sutton-on-Sea and Mablethorpe only a short drive away. It is a base for people who want the coast without the crowds, and countryside without being far from the sea.

Top things to do near Huttoft

Huttoft itself is tiny, but it sits within easy reach of some genuinely good days out along the Lincolnshire coast.

• Huttoft Bank Pit Nature Reserve — a Site of Special Scientific Interest run by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, this flooded former clay pit has open water and reedbeds that attract fifteen recorded species of duck plus nesting reed and sedge warblers, water rail and reed bunting, with rarer visitors such as spoonbill recorded over the years.
• Sutton-on-Sea and Sandilands beach — a wide, largely uncommercial stretch of sand and promenade lined with traditional beach huts, good for a long walk, a picnic or simply watching the sea; you can walk the beach north all the way to Mablethorpe.
• Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre — a well-known rescue centre and small zoo housing rescued seals alongside primates, birds of prey and reptiles, with daily seal and meerkat feeding sessions and a dinosaur-themed Time Walk for children.
• Mablethorpe seafront — the area's liveliest resort, with amusements, a promenade and a much busier beach than Sutton-on-Sea, useful for a change of pace on a family holiday.
• Alford — the nearest market town, with a five-sailed working windmill, a Tuesday market and a manor house, and the natural place to stock up or explore some Lincolnshire Wolds heritage inland.

Getting to Huttoft

Huttoft sits directly on the A52 coast road, which links Skegness and Ingoldmells to the south with Sutton-on-Sea, Mablethorpe and the coast road north towards Louth. The nearest mainline railway stations are at Skegness and, further afield, Grimsby, with onward bus or car needed to reach the village; most visitors arrive by car, and the A52 makes Huttoft an easy stop for anyone touring the Lincolnshire coast between Skegness and the Wolds.

Best time to visit Huttoft

Summer brings the warmest weather for the beaches at Sutton-on-Sea and Mablethorpe and the busiest roads through the resorts, though Huttoft itself stays quiet even in peak season. Spring and autumn are rewarding for birdwatching at Huttoft Bank Pit, when migrating waders and wildfowl pass through, while winter brings a bleaker, wilder beauty to the coast and reserve that suits a bracing walk more than a beach day.

Where to stay near Huttoft

Huttoft and its immediate surroundings have a number of static caravan and touring parks that take advantage of the coastal location, popular with regular visitors to this stretch of Lincolnshire. For more choice, Sutton-on-Sea and Mablethorpe a few minutes' drive away offer a wider range of self-catering cottages, guest houses and larger holiday parks, while Skegness to the south has the fullest range of hotels and family resorts on this part of the coast.

Food and drink near Huttoft

The village's own Axe & Cleaver pub is the local option for a meal in Huttoft itself. For more choice, Sutton-on-Sea has cafes and takeaways along its seafront, including the well-known Fat Seagull by the beach, while Mablethorpe offers a fuller run of fish and chip shops, cafes and restaurants geared towards holidaymakers.