There is a shingle beach with good stretches of clean sand at low water. Part of the coast road does not directly adjoin the sea but instead the long and narrow Widewater, a rare brackish lagoon, and the only known location of the probably extinct Ivell's sea anemone. Immediately north of the developed area is Lancing Ring, a Nature Reserve in the South Downs National Park. To the north of that is farmed agricultural downland connected to Lancing College Farm. On its eastern side is Shoreham Airport, the world's oldest continually operated airport, which served as an RAF base during World War II.