Beadnell to Belford
Walked by Sally and Richard, Monday 15th August 2016.
13.5 miles of walking, about 13 miles on route of St Oswald's Way and Northumberland Coast Path.
Click here for all our photos of this walk.
Today got off to a rather unexpected start. We had been disturbed in the early part of night by revellers outside our window and by what was probably staff going to bed, but once we went got to sleep we slept very well. Therefore waiting for 8.30am for breakfast didn't seem a hardship and since one of the staff at the Craster Arms had told us yesterday that breakfast started at 8am, while another said 8.30am - and we felt a bit sorry for them after the excessive busy-ness of the bar last night - we headed into the bar at 8.30am...to be told that breakfast was being served across the road at the Salt Water Cafe. The Salt Water Cafe doesn't open until 8.30 am (which perhaps explains the confusion over start time) and it actually took 10 mins or so for them to get going. So we felt a little let down by the Craster Arms. Having said that, the breakfast itself was superb (granola with fruit compote followed by eggs benedict) so we ended up happy. Apparently they send guests to the Salt Water Cafe for breakfast when they only have a few guests in; advance warning of this is all I'd really ask for.
We left the Craster Arms around 9.30am and headed along the road towards Seahouses. It may be possible to walk along the beach here, especially at low tide, which it wasn't, but with the dual obstacles of Annstead Burn and Seahouses Golf Club to pass we didn't take the chance! On the outskirts of Seahouses we followed the signed route (just after Annstead Burn) which took us back to the coast, with good views out to the Farne Islands and to the harbour ahead, with frequent boats full of visitors heading to the Farne Islands. We have been on - and enjoyed - one of these trips. However, when viewed from afar, on a sunny day in August, the boats looked far too touristy for our liking.
From the centre of Seahouses we took a former railway line up to North Sunderland. We caught occasional glimpses of houses to our left and caravans to our right, but the railway line itself was pleasant enough, and after a brief walk along a road we found ourselves on one of several surprisingly nice sections of the day. The path between Seahouses and Bamburgh runs about half a mile inland, so if you're a purist coastal walker you'd want to walk along the beach (assuming this is possible) or to follow the B1340 along the coast. However we could see how busy the coast road was, whilst we were walking through glorious crop fields, with views out to the Farne Islands and ahead of us to Bamburgh Castle.
We reached a minor road (and it was a VERY minor road) and continued in the same general direction, then we left the road again and passed some inquisitive cows, now (us not the cows!) heading directly towards the little settlement of Redbarns just to the south of Bamburgh. We crossed another crop field and another field with cows, and emerged onto the road, and turned left to walk into Bamburgh, past the main car park and the castle entrance.
Bamburgh Castle has an imposing location on a dolerite outcrop, and there was a fort here, then an Anglo Saxon castle, home of the ancient kings of Northumbria. This castle was destroyed by the Vikings, and it is a Norman structure which forms the basis of the Victorian industrialist Lord Armstrong's reconstruction. We visited the castle when the children were small and the galleries of "artefacts" (armour etc) didn't fit with their model of what a castle should be like, leading to the family ditty "Boring, boring Bamburgh Castle", which comes into my head every time I see the castle or even write about it.
We stopped for lunch at The Copper Kettle, and from there we were able to watch the green, with the other thing I remember from Bamburgh (from an even earlier visit, before the children were born): very short signposts! Enough of the Jordan family anecdotes; Bamburgh's other real claim to fame is as the birthplace of Grace Darling, who was the daughter of the keeper of the Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands, who assisted in the rescue of people from the shipwrecked paddlesteamer Forfarshire in 1838. There is a Grace Darling museum (which we didn't visit) and she is buried in the churchyard. We walked up towards the church and sat on a nearby bench to sort my feet out; there was a funeral taking place at the Church so we couldn't really visit her grave or the memorial in the churchyard.
We walked back towards the Castle and after some frustrating wanderings looking for the correct official route, found ourselves on a minor road heading along the coast to the north of the village. The little car parks that we passed were full and the beach, stretching back to the castle (and beyond) was busy. We passed a lighthouse, and the road ended at the point at which yet another Golf course (the Bamburgh Castle) began. We hadn't had great expectations of this section of the walk, essentially a big loop around to the north of Bamburgh, above Budle Bay, a large inlet. However it was lovely, with superb views across a glorious expanse of sand and good views towards Lindisfarne Castle, perched on another dolerite outcrop across the sands in the distance.
There are a few caravans here (what a view!) and we climbed back towards Bamburgh across the golf course and past some holiday cottages. Bamburgh Castle came into view again, and somewhat frustratingly, when we reached the B1342, we turned left and walked back towards Bamburgh, such that by the time we turned off the road we were less than a mile from where we had been siting near Bamburgh Church. It had been worth it for the delightful views over Budle Bay.
We climbed across a field, still with good views back to the castle, up to a corner of the Shada Plantation, then continued straight ahead to a road where we turned left and then right, theoretically on a more minor road. I say "theoretically" because this road led to a caravan site, and there were people coming and going. They were advertising ice creams at the caravan site's reception, but I favoured a J20 and there were signs to the "Laidley Worm Inn". We turned right and then right again, around the edge of the caravan site, close to Laidley Worm Trough, but we never found the Laidley Worm or its Inn. However, research tells me that the Laidly (Northumbrian for loathsome) Worm was once a beautiful princess named Margaret, who lived in Bamburgh Castle. Her stepmother was a jealous witch who turned the princess into a huge worm. The worm’s breath caused vegetation to shrivel, and it demanded the milk of seven cows every day. Depending on which of the two versions you hear, the hero was either Margaret’s brother Child Wynd or a man named Kemp Owen. Not knowing that the worm was, in fact, the princess he set out to slay it. When he confronted the worm it told him to put down his sword and kiss it three times on its ugly head; amazingly the hero co-operated and the worm transformed back into Margaret; whilst the witch was transformed into a toad.
Meanwhile, in the absence of J2O, we stopped for a break then descended through the attractive wooded Spindlestone Heughs. We came out onto a minor road, crossed Waren Burn and climbed again. We had another very brief section of walking along the B1342 in which two buses passed us: advantage - you can get to this bit of the country by public transport; disadvantage - the buses had some difficulty passing each other on the narrow twisty road, so caused a mini traffic jam. We were soon on a more minor road again, then we turned left onto a path which climbed quite steeply. We were just to the south of Easington Quarry, but we couldn't see it; from our point of view this was just a pleasant tree topped hill, with grazing sheep.
Further west on the path there were more signs of industry in this beautiful area. We emerged onto a disused railway line (still with tracks) leading to/from Easington Quarry, then we had to cross the East Coast Main Line. On these pedestrian crossings you have to ring to get permission to cross the line, which we did. There were some silos right by the railway line, then we walked right past a larger group of silos - grain storage on an industrial scale. We cross the A1, no bridge or underpass here, and no signalman to help you cross the road - though the A1 is only a single carriageway road here. We walked alongside Belford Burn past yet another golf course, then turned right onto the B6349 to the town centre.
I thought I'd been to Belford before, but when we got to the town centre I didn't recognise it at all. It seems a lovely little place (and it is so close to the A1 that there is no excuse not to visit when heading north). We could see the Church just behind the Blue Bell Hotel, and we knew that The Old Vicarage, where we were staying, was right next to the Churchyard, but it still took us a little while to find it. The official route is probably to head around the corner from the market square, onto North Brink, and then take the cobbled drive, but we just walked through the Churchyard. Keith welcomed us and took us to a lovely twin room, "The Armoury" with a private bathroom with a vintage roll topped bath. It was a peaceful and quickly little room, with antique furniture and views over the churchyard. The other guests they were expecting were also walkers (booked through one of the walking holiday companies) but they hadn't arrived yet.
Richard had almost booked us into The Blue Bell Inn, but I think he made the right decision in booking us into the The Old Vicarage - it would be hard to do better. By having a meal at The Blue Bell in the evening we had the best of both worlds.