There’s no landscape like Thompson Common anywhere else in Britain. And it’s because of pingos. ‘Pingo’ is the Inuit word for a hill with an ice cone core. Here on the eastern edge of Norfolk’s Brecks, these hillocks formed 20,000 years ago in the Ice Age, when water below the surface froze, pushing the soil upwards. As our planet warmed the icy hillocks collapsed leaving shallow craters filled with fluctuating levels of water. So today, a pingo is a natural pool. And there are about 400 of them on Thompson Common.
These ancient organic ponds are a biodiversity hotspot, where ethereal water violets dance in late spring. The rare northern pool frog has returned, having become extinct in England at the end of the 20th century, as the Norfolk Wildlife Trust works with partners to recover lost species. Some beetles, such as the tiny water beetle Hydroporus glabriusculus, are more typically found in Scandinavia, suggesting they may be a relict population dating back to the last Ice Age. If so, the Common may have continuously provided habitat for over 10,000 years!
Visit in summer and you might see scarce Emerald damselflies flirting over the water. Otters might be easier to spot on a winter walk, playing undisturbed at Thompson Water.
The Great Eastern Pingo Trail is 8 miles (12.9km) long, easy and flat. Dogs may be walked on the railway line and Peddars Way, but not on Thompson Common Nature Reserve which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
