Northumberland Coast Path

We love the Northumberland coast.It has stunningly beautiful beaches, outcrops of dolerite Whin Sill and photogenic villages and castles. I can't be absolutely certain when we first visited, but I have very happy memories of visiting Craster on a day trip from Newcastle (where we used to live) with my Mum and Dad around 1980. That's special because I was still Richard's girlfriend then (we got married in 1981) and my parents were still getting to know him; and Dad died in 1984. Then, in 1995, now with two children and living in Norfolk, we had a holiday cottage at Dunston Square, half a mile behind the coast between Craster and Dunstanburgh Castle. It was on this holiday that we first visited Warkworth Castle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Lindisfarne; I also remember kite flying on Alnmouth Beach on my 38th birthday, evening walks from the cottage, and a circular walk down to Howick - not a huge distance by JordanWalks standards, but quite impressive for Helen's 7-year old legs. We returned to Dunstan on a short but memorable holiday to celebrate Helen's 10th Birthday and Mum's 80th birthday in 1998. 

We have been back several times more recently, including when walking St Cuthbert's Way in 2011, and we also get a "quick fix" of the scenery when travelling to on the East Coast Main Line; the views from the train around Alnmouth and around Berwick-upon-Tweed are stunning. 

Much of the Northumberland coast has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the coast path follows the coastline for 62 miles from Cresswell on Druridge Bay to the south to Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north. Actually 'follows the coastline' is not really accurate. There is a large diversion inland to the south of Lindisfarne, and some sections (e.g. from Seahouses to Bamburgh) which go slightly inland, presumably because the only option is to walk along a busy road. Both of those diversions were enjoyable; I'm not a purist who insists on being as close to the sea as possible, and it is nice to have a change of scenery. I was less happy when on paths just behind the dunes when we could have been on the beach. As we got more confident, we started walking on the beach when the tide was sufficiently low to give us hard sand to walk on, and where there were no obvious obstacles to block this route. On one occasion, on the fantastic Beadnell Bay, when the obstacle was a river, we took off our walking boots and paddled through. [Note added 2023: as part of the establishment of the England Coast Path, a route to the south of Lindisfarne which goes closer to the coast has been created- that's one for the future!]

Our serious adventures on the Northumberland Coast Path were in 2016, but at that time we omitted the section from Cresswell to Warkworth, which includes the stunning seven mile beach at Druridge Bay and the town of Amble at the mouth of the River Coquet. We corrected this omission in July 2023, when on a longer section of the England Coast Path between Seaham (to the south of Sunderland) to Warkworth, 

In 2016, we  reached the Northumberland Coast Path by way of St Oswald's Way which we had followed from Hadrian's Wall Path on a loop to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne. St Oswald's Way reaches the coast, and therefore the Northumberland Coast Path, in Warkworth. On the first of two walking holidays in Northumberland that year, having completed the South Tyne Trail and advanced along St Oswald's Way, we just walked up the coast to Alnmouth Station. On the second holiday, just over a week later, we returned to Alnmouth and walked up the coast by way of Craster, Seahouses and Beadnell, then inland to Belford before returning to the coast and crossing to Lindisfarne (which the Northumberland Coast Path does not technically visit, but where St Oswald's Way ends). Finally, back on the mainland, we walked up the coast to Berwick-upon-Tweed. 

When planning our 2016 holidays, we thought that the leg to Berwick-upon-Tweed would complete our walk from Land's End to the Scottish border via our home in Norfolk. However we later discovered that the Scottish border is now 2.5 miles north of Berwick, so that will have to wait too. However, our daughter, who has also walked St Cuthbert's Way, pointed out that our walk along St Oswald's Way and the Northumberland Coastal Path was also coincident with St Cuthbert's Way, from north of Belford to the Lindisfarne causeway. Thus it was that a seemingly rather ordinary junction near Shiellow Wood was actually the point at which we celebrated having walked every step of the way between Lands End, Denver in Norfolk, and the Scottish Border, though not always in a consistent direction and most certainly not in one continuous walk!

The Northumberland Coast Path has its own website here, but the "Your Northumberland" site gives more information here. There are various guidebooks available; to be honest I thought I'd bought one but I can't find it, and it really isn't necessary, certainly not for route finding. The route is well signposted, with blue signs of a design that varies depending on whether you are in the section that is shared with St Oswald's Way or not. Well that's the theory - in the section just north of Alnmouth we were first confused when the route just had an ordinary footpath sign, and then by a Northumberland Coast Path signs with no mention of St Oswald's Way. Then, just as suddenly as they had disappeared, the combined signs reappeared. As  always, we carried a full set of Ordnance Survey 1: 25000 maps, though in fact the route is covered by just three maps, sheets 332, 340 and a short distance on sheet 346 (with an additional one, Sheet 325, to cover the leg from Cresswell). 

The combination of our holidays on Hadrian's Wall, St Oswald's Way and the Northumberland Coast Path led to frequent trips up the East Coast Main Line, which I compounded with a trip to Newcastle for a conference just a couple of weeks later. Fortunately I like train travel and am particularly fond of the East Coast Main line.

Click here for more photographs of our walk on the Northumberland Coast Path.

First leg walked (Warkworth to Alnmouth Station)