Holkham to Burnham Overy Staithe and return

The stretch of the Norfolk Coast Path between Burnham Overy Staithe and Holkham has become one of our favourites, with a pretty little village, a walk across the salt marshes, sand dunes and the wonderful expanse of sand at Holkham. Burnham Overy Staithe (the photograph was taken on a more recent visit) is another former commercial port that now only sees leisure craft. Although we've been visiting Holkham Bay from time to time since the children were small, we only discovered Burnham Overy Staithe when we walked the previous leg of the Norfolk Coast Path in September 2006, and we walked between Holkham and Burnham Overy Staithe for the first time on a beautifully sunny day in February 2007.

We parked at Lady Ann's Road at Holkham (£3 to pay for parking in February seemed a bit steep). We had lunch then walked through the dunes and along the beach (beautiful). At Gun Hill we crossed the dunes again then followed a boardwalk and the coastal defence bank alongside Overy Creek to Burnham Overy Staithe. In September we'd had an ice-cream here, but there was no ice-cream van today (not surprising really) so we had water and biscuits before retracing our steps.

There were fewer people about on our return walk to the car, and the coastal views were even more beautiful. We stayed on the beach for most of the way, and got back to the car about 4.15pm.

Following leg of path