Sunderland to Tynemouth

We'd slept well at the Sunderland Premier Inn and, as usual when on a walking holiday and carrying our stuff, we padded down to breakfast in our stocking feet. We don't want to carry spare shoes and we don't think they'd thank us for our (potentially muddy) walking boots. We thought that the waiter who welcomed us was just making conversation when he pointed out our lack of shoes, but no, he didn't like it; he told us that he couldn't show us to our table in case we then walked on broken glass, got injured, and blamed him for it. He relented to the extent of letting us find our own table (and breakfast is self-service in any case); needless to say none of those eventualities happened. Breakfast was pleasant enough and friendly waitress took over as we were eating. We packed up and left about 9am.  We had a most enjoyable day of walking, and no rain, though it was quite windy. 

The Sunderland Premier Inn is modern, as are many other buildings in the surrounding area, but it is also close to the historic Minster and Empire Theatre. We walked past both of these then continued back to the Wearmouth Bridge.  We re-joined the England Coast Path at the point at which we'd climbed up yesterday from the south bank of the River Wear; today we were heading for the north bank i.e. across the river. There were excellent views from the bridge towards the mouth of the river. On the adjacent Metro bridge, a metro train was about to cross. 

After crossing the bridge, we turned right and took a road which descended to the waterfront. There is an attractively redeveloped walk- and cycle-way here, with a sculpture trail. "Shadows in another light" is the largest sculpture, depicting a tree, positioned on top of the concrete plinth of a former shipyard crane. Other scuptures include a giant nut and, outside the library of the University's St Peter's campus, an illuminated manuscript. We continued on towards the coast, passing the National Glass Centre (which is free to enter and has a cafe, but doesn't open until 10am,).  At the marina, there's another sculpture,  a depiction of open and shut doors, "Passing through".

As we walked around the marina, we passed a lifeboat station with a couple of lifeboats, and there were good views to various parts of the harbour including the fisheries research vessel, and we could now see the actual harbour entrance between Roker Pier, with the red and white Roker Lighthouse on the top, and the New South Pier.  As we reached the coast proper, there were more good views to Roker Pier and Lighthouse, though the sun was in the wrong direction for good photographs. One of the long distance trails shown on the OS map follows Roker Pier to the lighthouse, but this didn't appear to be the route taken by the England Coast Path, so after looking at the entrance to the tunnel that leads below the pier to the lighthouse, we carried on up the coast. 

We had absolutely no idea before this holiday that Sunderland is somewhere one might go to find a sandy beach, but there is a lovely expanse of sand here.  We mostly stayed on the promenade, passing Roker Park i.e. the old-fashioned park of that name. The former football stadium with the same name, which was slightly inland, was demolished in 1997 and replaced by the Stadium of Light. Houses were built on the former site of the football stadium, with road names such as "Midfield Drive" and "Goalmouth Close" giving a clue as to the land's former use.  Roker became Seaburn and we reached Cliffe Park, a grassy area on the cliff top, now home to the "White Lighthouse", a cast iron structure which was originally on Sunderland's South Pier.  Today the lighthouse was surrounded by stalls associated with Sunderland's Summer Streets Festival, with flags flapping in the wind - but at least there weren't torrential thunderstorms like yesterday.

Beyond Seaburn we passed South Bents and then Newburn, now on a path some distance away from the village, though we were able to photograph a windmill amongst the modern houses. The landscape became increasingly less urban and the Souter lighthouse came into view ahead of us. On the coast there were attractive caves and stacks. The approach to the lighthouse is by way of an area of scrubby grassland, criss-crossed by footpaths, and we weren't entirely sure which to take; the coast path passes between Souter Lighthouse and the coast but we wanted to go to the café at the lighthouse for lunch.  We stayed on the coast path until we were quite close to the lighthouse then cut up to what looked like a visitor centre, but it wasn't open yet. It didn't really matter, we cut through a garden to the various buildings that surround the lighthouse and discovered that one of these was the café; just what we wanted!

We've visited Souter Lighthouse a couple of times before; it's an attractive place and we would recommend it (though the last time we were here, with our friends Jenny and Penny, the lighthouse was surrounded by scaffolding). In the usual course of events we'd have explored a little more today and hopefully have climbed to the top of the tower, but this wouldn't have been a realistic proposition with rucksacks on our backs and we knew we needed to catch the ferry across the Tyne - and by now we were walking rather slowly because I had blisters, and Richard's foot was hurting, so we continued, passing the foghorn and taking a path down to the cliff top, where there were good views of stacks with sea birds on top of them, then slightly inland again to the England Coast Path. 

The National Trust describe the attraction as "Souter Lighthouse and the Leas"; leaving the lighthouse behind it was time to explore the Leas. This name refers to the scrubby grassland and cliffs that we had first encountered to the south of the lighthouse, and it continues to the north.  The limestone cliffs and associated coastal scenery is very attractive, but it is also an area of active erosion. Indeed, it appears that there was once a mining village, Marsden, here, but by the 1950s, erosion had damaged the cliffs to such an extent that the village was in danger of slipping into the sea, so residents moved out and the village was demolished after the closure of the mine closed in 1968. We walked towards the Marsden limekilns, a reminder of the area's industrial past, then we had to contend with a more recent impact of erosion: the road here is being "realigned" (moved away from the coast) and there is currently just a rather narrow footpath in use between the roadworks and the cliffs. All along here there are signs that the footpath was once closer to the cliffs, but the former route is now unsafe.

We left the roadworks behind and stopped at an enormous toilet block close to the lift access to "The Grotto",  a restaurant in a cave which was blasted into the rock face below in the 18th Century. As we continued north, the grassy area became much wider and we were able to get right away from the road. This section is again criss-crossed by a number of paths, with the route of the England Coast Path meandering its way around close but usually not right alongside the cliff.  We continued for a couple of miles, stopping for a snack above an attractive little cove. The whole area is part of the town of South Shields, which we had never expected to contain such an expanse of undeveloped coastal walking, and - another surprise - we could see an expanse of beach ahead. There was a choice of routes and, anxious that the one closer to the coast would descend to the foot of the cliff without an onward route, we took the more inland one. Either path would actually have been fine, with the more coastal one being the more direct route, through a little "valley" presumably created by cliff erosion all around. 

The area around South Shields beach was something of a culture shock, as you'd maybe expect on a sunny Sunday afternoon near a sandy beach, with major centres of population nearby. The attractions behind the beach were busy with families out enjoying themselves. The beach itself, complete with life guard flags and vehicles, could have been in Australia, though the views beyond to the mouth of the River Tyne, and Tynemouth Castle on the other side rather gave the game away. We stopped for a break, sitting on one of the long benches beside the promenade, then continued along it, being troubled slightly by sand blowing into our faces; it was really quite windy.  An area of land has built up behind the South Pier and we headed out across it, past the Ocean Beach Pleasure Park, before turning back inland along the South Pier itself. 

We need to cross the River Tyne and we were heading for the Shields Ferry in order to do so, hoping that the ferry would be running despite the wind. However, first, we had a fair bit of meandering to do on this side of the river.  Although we had reached the South Pier, there was still an area of land before we got to the main river channel, so we continued in this direction, behind the much quieter Littlehaven Beach. The route from here wasn't entirely clear, but I think we probably got it right, heading past 'Conversation Piece' (a sculpture comprising 22 large bronze figures, apparently in conversation) then out through the dunes with good views to the attractive Herd Groyne Lighthouse, built before the north and south piers with their lighthouses, and still apparently operational. 

Still not entirely sure of the route, we headed around the Little Haven Hotel, then around a little inlet and up to the B1344.  We were now heading inland, approximately parallel with the river, but the England Coast Path's meanderings continued. Somewhat to our horror, we headed away from the river and uphill (up steps) to the Lawe Beacon.  This was built as an aid to navigation in 1832, but the much older Arbeia Roman Fort is nearby (but not on our route and we were wanted to get to the ferry, so kept going).  The climb had led us to a more minor and rather attractive road which we followed as it gradually descended back to the B1344, which we continued alongside for a while. We then descended steeply down steps towards the river. Initially this led to an area of disused land by the river but soon we were walking past upmarket flats.

Now, where was that ferry?  Was it running? The river seemed very quiet and it was very windy. We knew that we had options if the ferry wasnt't available  e.g. heading into Newcastle and out again by Metro, or perhaps there would be a bus through the Tyne Tunnel. However, these options would presumably require us to climb back up those steps to the B1344 and my feet were hurting. It was a relief to see a substantial ferry terminal ahead of us, with other people waiting; even better,  diagonally across the river, we could see a substantial ferry. Meanwhile, looking upstream we had a good view of the docks though the direction of the Sun made photography difficult.  The Shields Ferry "The Pride of the Tyne"  crossed to us and we had a pleasant crossing. 

From the ferry terminal in North Shields, we headed back towards the coast, passing historic buildings. There was a road closed sign on the road we were following, but fortunately there was still pedestrian access. We were amused by cars driving right up to the closed section (where it looks as if they are having to stabilise the land on the slope above) before they realised that they really couldn't get through. We cut down to the fish quay and from here a low promenade hugged the coast all the way to Tynemouth, passing beneath a building that had looked impressive from the other side of the river but we now realised was simply a block of flats: these are the Sir James Knott Memorial Flats, opened in 1939. Later we passed beneath the Collingwood Memorial, dedicated to Vice Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood, Nelson's second in command in the Battle of Trafalgar (assuming command from him following Nelson's death).  Richard stopped to ring his mother, but just as he was doing so, I noted that the large DFDS Ferry, which (with the benefit of hindsight) we had seen in the docks from the Shields Ferry, heading down the river out to sea, so I raced after it in an attempt to get some photos as it passed the lighthouses at the end of the north and south piers. It was a good job that Richard didn't attempt his phone call from the bench I sat on to wait for him because the strong wind was blowing through the promenade's safety rail, creating a cacophony.

Eventually we reached the end of the promenade and climbed up into Tynemouth, passing the sailing club and the castle entrance. Our B&B "No. 61" (also known as "Tynemouth 61") was easy to find on Front Street and we were warmly welcomed by a woman who wasn't one of the listed owners (Stephen and Neil); we're not quite sure how she fits in, but she was helpful, efficient and friendly. She showed us to our delightful room "Dickens", with breathtaking views to the Collingwood Memorial, the mouth of the River Tyne, and - in the distance - the Souter Lighthouse. I could have just sat and watched the view for hours. However there was the important business of an evening meal to think about. My feet were causing problems so we pottered around Tynemouth very slowly, and ended up at Iztuzi, a new Turkish and Mediterranean restaurant, which was superb. I had lamb shank and Richard had moussaka.  It was a good end to a lovely day.

Following leg