An updated version of this profile is online at nationalcharacterareas.co.uk. This pdf is retained for historical and completeness purposes.
Holderness is a rural, low-lying, undulating plain with the broad, shallow valley of the River Hull flowing southwards through the centre towards Hull. The river eventually joins the expansive Humber Estuary where it becomes tidal, enclosed by flood banks, and drains into the North Sea.
The National Character Area (NCA) is bounded by the dip slope of the Yorkshire Wolds to the north and west, while eastwards, beyond the coastline of soft boulder clay cliffs, lies the North Sea. Rapid erosion of these cliffs is a conspicuous feature of this NCA, and forms part of an important coastal process of sediment transfer. Holderness is the single most important source of sediment in the southern North Sea: the sediment is carried south to the Humber, the Lincolnshire coast and the Wash, where it feeds beaches and through accretion helps intertidal habitats to adjust to rising sea levels.
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