Marshall Meadows to Berwick-upon-Tweed

For the second time this holiday, we were perhaps unfortunate in the room we had been allocated at the Marshall Meadows Country House Hotel – it was on the small side and had been in the full sun through yesterday evening, with the added complication being that we were right on top of “the event”. However, that made our stay memorable and we thoroughly enjoyed the kippers we ordered for breakfast.

The weather was overcast and it was not so warm as yesterday. However we had a very enjoyable short walk this morning followed by an afternoon of interesting activity in and around Berwick-upon-Tweed. We left the hotel by way of the side gate and walked back to the Marshall Meadows Caravan Park. Our route through the caravan park was not too clear, but from here to Berwick we essentially followed the cliff edge. As yesterday, we had views to the railway line for most of the walk, but the walking was glorious, with some short sections which ascended and descended over rough ground; it was definitely more than a gentle stroll.

We were back on red sandstone, with attractive coastal structures including the “Needles Eye”. There were also caves, and plenty of bird activity.

North of Fisherman’s Haven there is a large caravan park. Whatever else you might think about these “holiday villages” in general or this one in particular, you can’t argue with the fact that it has a lovely location, and we walked around to the seaward side of it, past the old harbour wall at Fisherman’s Haven and round to a (closed) toilet block, ice cream van and car park. The Harvey Map describes the Berwickshire Coastal Path as finishing here (which would be bonkers); we continued along the path as shown on the Ordnance Survey Map and the leaflet, passing the Berwick Coastwatch Station which had an open day today and walking around the edge of the Magdalane Fields Golf Club, with good views to Berwick’s (long) main harbour wall.

The Ordnance Survey Map has the Berwickshire Coast Path ending before you reach the harbour wall and turn west at the mouth of the River Tweed, but we decided that the JordanWalks route would end in the vicinity of The Walls, the B&B where we were staying tonight which is situated on the town walls right above the quayside and, perhaps more significantly, where we had ended the Northumberland Coastal Path. First of all we walked out along the harbour wall almost to the lighthouse at the end, seeing a seal swimming in the estuary before it was scared off by jet skis.

We continued on into Berwick-upon-Tweed, ending the walk at The Walls as planned, then descending to The Quayside immediately below for the boat trip which we had booked for midday. It wasn’t a wildly exciting boat trip, but it did make a fitting end to our walk and we were able to see Berwick from the water and to watch more seals, this time swimming off Fisherman’s Haven.

After the boat trip we had lunch at Costa in the centre of Berwick (chosen because we had a £20 Costa voucher to spend, but it was a pleasant enough lunch) then we went back to the Quayside for some more photographs, having discovered that the sign marking the end of the Berwickshire Coastal Path also seems to think that this is here! We also looked around some of Berwick’s fortifications.

The best part of the afternoon however was our walk upstream alongside the River Tweed. The sun came out and it was quite warm, so we took things gently, but the walk, under the three bridges to Berwick Castle and then up the estuary past a family of swans and lots of other wildlife, was absolutely delightful. After about a mile we had to climb up slightly through woodland (I had to be persuaded) but another path from within the woodland led back down to an absolutely beautiful section of estuary.

We retraced our steps then checked in at The Walls, being shown to the “Tweed” room, still as delightful as when we were here nearly two years ago. However we did better in the evening than on previous visits – today we had a delicious and not over-priced meal at Audela before returning to our room at The Walls to watch the river.