Crimdon Dene to Hartlepool Golf Club to Horden

Inclement weather had led us to take yesterday off from walking, but it dawned fine this morning, even though we were expecting more rain during the afternoon. It was a pity that we hadn't managed to get any walking in while Eileen had been staying, but we'd had a lovely time with her, and after she left this morning we headed back to the Coast Path. We'd originally planned to park in the residential area close to where we'd caught the bus on Monday, and walk back under the railway and then on the path that the golf club want you to use across their land rather than accessing through the locked gate from their car park. However, we'd spotted a car park about a mile further on at Crimdon Dene Beach, and Eileen had told us of the new visitor centre here (NZ483373) so that we where we went. It's definitely a better place to start and end legs of the path, with free parking, cafe and toilets, and not too far to a bus route - and we could easily have walked on to here on Monday and then walked on to the far side of Horden today.  The car park is marked on the OS map, but we hadn't realised how good it would be. Ah well!

We set off walking towards the south, with good views down to the long beach and to Steetley Pier. There is a good long parking area, and the path is tarmacked for a distance beyond, so the area was busy with dog walkers and others, including some with limited mobility; nice to see. The area is now known as a place to see Little Terns, and we passed a couple of sculptures which are evocative of a bird in flight.  The path eventually swept away from the coast and the tarmac ended; we weren't initially clear of our route; paradoxically it is the one that doesn't turn down to the beach but instead climbs up towards the railway line. After turning back towards the south, we descended steeply down a set of steps, then climbed back up. This was our first introduction of the downs and ups we became familiar with in the next couple of days as we walked around and into a series of denes, deep valleys cut into the limestone cliffs.

We could see golfers up on the greens ahead of us, and the path took us across a couple of fairways. We were soon back at the Golf Clubhouse where we said "hello" to some nearby golfers, then promptly turned around to iritate them again by walking - albeit carefully, and on the route of a National Trail! - across their fairways again as we retraced our steps. We also said hello to other walkers who were just negotiating the descent and ascent and, slightly further on, noticed a horse and rider who had been picturesquely exercising on the beach, picking their way up the path back up from the beach. As we passed our car we collected my walking poles; we were definitely in the sort of walking territory where I find them useful. 

To the north of the car park, we were initially walking along the top of the low cliffs in front of Crimdon Dene Holiday Park. As regular readers will know, I'm not a great fan of caravan parks, but this one looked OK, with modern but not over-fussy caravans and a good view (at least from the front row of caravans!) out to sea - and our path went right along the front with no obstructions. Ahead of us, the view was to a distinctive yellow-coloured cliff (Magnesian limestone apparently) with a cave in it. However, we soon reached the next delightfully wooded dene. We didn't have to descend too much on this occasion, but we did head away from the coast almost to the railway line and back again then, almost immediately, repeat the process.

After another mile of coastal walking brought us to the next dene, Blue House Gill, which we walked around . After returning to the coast we weren't sure which of a number of paths to take, but a couple of dogwalkers assured us that it didn't really matter. And so to Castle Eden Dene. Here we descended right down into the valley, with good views inland to the viaduct which carries the railway. A train headed across it, just in time to be photographed. The path didn't immediately climb back up the cliff, but rather rounded Hartlepool Point. 

There was another long stretch of beach ahead of us and, because I knew we were getting towards the end of today's walk, I suggested a short diversion onto the beach. It's not a pretty, pretty landscape and half way down towards the sea we found ourselves standing on top of a ledge, with another drop at our feet. I sat down on the crusty ledge and we decided that this feature may be as a result of the last of the remains from the extensive dumping of coal waste on the beach, here from the Horton Colliery. However, even if we were right in this, the cleaning of this area of coast in the Turning the Tide project between 1997 and 2002 and by natural processes since, has done a remarkable job.

Turning away from the beach, we headed into Limekiln Gill. We'd decided to leave the coast  here because it shouldn't be too long a walk to a bus stop that would take us back to Crimdon Dene, and if we didn't leave here (and with our lack of local knowledge) we'd have to walk along another couple of miles of up and down coast to the next access point - and rain was forecast. Just above the beach there was a little car park (good for tomorrow) then we followed the road up Limekiln Gill, passed under the railway, and meandered our way through the backstreets of Horden to a bus stop from which the number 24 bus took us to the Crimdon Dene bus stop, at the top of the access road to the car park. We stopped for a cup of tea at the Dunes Cafe before driving back to our cottage, and we managed it all before the rain started.

Following leg