Sunday, 9 February 2014

Coastwalk

Bamburgh → Holy Island Causeway

harkess-rocks.jpg Distance: 13.30 miles
Ascent: 270 metres
Duration: 4 hours 9 minutes

Not the Northumberland Coast Path
« Craster | Berwick-upon-Tweed »

bamburgh-silhouette.jpgFor most of the way between Bamburgh and the causeway to Holy Island there are no coastal footpaths. The Northumberland Coast Path resolves this by heading about three miles inland.

elwick.jpgWe ended up walking many miles on minor roads, crossed the mainline railway twice, and took to the verge of the A1 for half a mile. With an ever-present threat of rain, a howling wind and biting cold it wasn't the best of days.

lindisfarne-causeway.jpgJust north-west of Bamburgh, at Blackrocks Point where there's a white stag painted on the rocks, we saw a couple of groups of people with telephoto lenses trained on the sea. We stopped and looked, then excitedly nodded as we saw twenty or so seals swimming close to the lighthouse. It's a good job we didn't enter into conversation with our friends: after examining at the photographs we took we see now that all of the "seals" were in fact ducks.

Notes for future walkers:

  • hidden-path.jpgDiverge from the Coast Path at NU 161 358: instead of turning south on the footpath, continue south-west on the bridleway to Heather Cottages, then turn right on the footpath from the phone box at NU 160 356 to Budle.
  • Follow the road west from Budle to Waren Mill, then Easington, Easington Grange and Elwick.
  • At NU 100 377 take the bridleway north then north-west to Fenham-le-Moor, then turn south-west on the road over the railway at Lowmoor Crossing to the A1 just south of Buckton.
  • east-coast-mainline.jpgFollow north-west to NU 082 386 where a poorly-signed footpath runs north to Fenwick Stead, crossing the railway before reaching Fenham.
  • From Fenham, pick up the footpath towards Granary point; after turning west-north-west and crossing scrubland this eventually rejoins the Northumberland Coast Path about half a mile shy of the Holy Island causeway at NU 078 419.

Posted by pab at 18:30 | Comments will be back one day. Please email me instead!