Durham
Progress towards the opening of many of the missing sections of the England Coast Path is hideously slow, leaving a rather limited number of entire county legs that, at the time we were planning our holidays for 2023, could be walked in their entirety. The stretch along the Durham coastline, from Middlesbrough to Sunderland, is one of the exceptions. We were interested in this section because we were both undergraduates at Durham University and we later lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, not that far away. We were also interested to see the regeneration of this section of coast, following the cessation of coal mining in the area. Parts of the coast were once a dumping ground for the nearby collieries but the Turning the Tides project made a phenomenal difference, as you can read here.
The "Durham Heritage Coast" usually seems to refer just to the section of coastline from the north of Hartlepool to Sunderland, but I have included the whole route from the River Tees at Port Clarence to the River Wear at Sunderland. This section could easily be walked within a week, indeed it could be done in 5 days of walking and 4 days wouldn't be too great a stretch. However, while on holiday in March 2023, staying in the comfortable Hazel Cottage, less than 10 miles from the coast, we also wanted to spend some time with my niece Joanna and we lost some time because of rain, though the weather was generally much better than the weather forecast had implied. The worst day coincided with the day that we had hoped to walk with our friend Eileen, who stayed with us in the cottage for a couple of nights, but we had a lovely time with her visiting various museums in Durham; we particularly enjoyed the Durham Cathedral Museum.
It did all mean that we only progressed as far as Seaham on this holiday, but we really enjoyed the walking we did do. We returned for a short break in July 2023, completing the Durham section of the coast path to Sunderland and then walking on along the coast path through Tyne and Wear and into Northumberland.
