The three villages form a more or less continuous settlement along the A149 at the edge of the Brancaster Manor marshland and the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve.

It is about three-quarters of a mile west of the golf clubhouse and consists of material similar to compacted peat or brown coal (lignite).

The Saxon Shore fort (and the related civilian settlement, much of which was destroyed during the construction of a locally opposed housing development in the 1970s) is visible only as grass-covered mounds and remains mainly unexcavated.

The wreck that used to be visible at low tide but has now been almost completely covered by the westerly drifting sand was the 1021grt coaster SS Vina which was used for target practice by the RAF before accidentally sinking in 1944.

With Great Yarmouth being a strategic port on the east coast, the ultimate fate for the ship would have been to have had her hold filled with concrete and explosives and she would have been sunk at the harbour mouth, blocking entry in the event of a Nazi invasion.

Once this threat passed, she was taken out of blockship service and towed up the east coast towards Brancaster where she was used as a target for the RAF before the planned invasion of Normandy in 1944.

Numerous efforts have been made to remove the wreck from the sandbank as the ship is not only a danger to navigation but also attracts holiday makers who walk out to the vessel's remains at low tide.

It lists the following names for the First World War: And: David Fernie, George Lake, Cyril Thompson-Large, Charles Purer and John Ramsay.