It meanders east past Aldeburgh, before being turned south and running parallel to the coastline behind a narrow shingle spit.

Though it once entered the sea near Orford, the mouth of the river has now been pushed some five miles further south as shingle has accumulated over hundreds of years.

During Tudor times, the river served as a port from which four ships were launched to fight against the Spanish Armada.

Before the National Trust took ownership of this land, it was the site of a secret military base where Cobra Mist trials of over-the-horizon radar were carried out during the Cold War.

[6] The shingle spit that blocks the river, Orford Ness, is now some 10 miles in length and is owned by the National Trust,[7] The main area through which the Rivers Alde and Ore flow is open countryside in private ownership, much of it arable farmland.