A walk in the park.( Or on the beach) (Northumberland) Dec7th
 The weather forecast is not too bright for the north east so seven of us are repeating another favourite walk in Northumberland; Hulne Park, the back garden of the Duke. (Not the Alnwick Garden which is in the front).
Today's team; John H., John C., Brian, Dave, Ben, Harry and me. The start is easy to find, A1 north, turn off and drive carefully through Alnwick, turn left at the castle gate and after a few hundred yards turn left to the entrance to his Grace's park. It is not permitted to take cars in but there is some parking on the side of the road.
A map is not necessary but the walk is covered by OS Explorer 332 Alnwick and Amble. It is also possible to download a map of the park using the magic of Google.
Before the walk we met in Barter Books, one of the largest second hand book shops in the UK, situated in the old Alnwick station. Apart from books, CDs and DVDs it sells food.
The bookshop does not usually buy books but values your offerings and gives you credit. You can't use credit to buy breakfast.
Bacon eaten, coffee and tea consumed we headed for the entrance to the park, only to find that for some reason it was closed. As we arrived a large truck carrying a full load arrived so the Duke must have been up to something.
Unfazed we headed for the coast, the  village of High Newton by the Sea. As you enter the village, opposite the Joiners Arms, there is a large and free car park.
For this walk you don't need a map, just keep the sea on the right but it is covered by OS Explorer 340 Holy Island and Bamburgh.

Large and free car park at High Newton by the Sea

I have no idea as to why this is here

Well wrapped against the south east chilly wind that was to follow us most of the way we set off down the narrow road to Newton Links House. Just beyond the house walkers may turn left and follow the Northumberland Coast Path/ St. Oswald's Way or do as we did and continue the short distance to the beach and head north.

We walked the gentle curve of another of Northumberland's glorious sandy beaches, this one being Beadnell Bay.

About half way up the beach the stream with the delightful name of Long Nanny enters the North Sea. Usually the water is shallow enough to walk across the stream but there has been a lot of rain recently and sensibly, as we are getting on a bit, we headed the short distance inland to cross Long Nanny by the footbridge.

Beadnell Bay on a cold but bright December day

Footbridge over Long Nanny

Long nanny heads towards the sea.

We continued along the sands until we reached the village of Beadnell, fishing village, holiday home centre and home to some fine lime kilns which, on previous occasions have been used for a Herbie, but not today.

Beadnell Lime Kilns, used as warehouses by local fishermen.

We walked on through the village but not too far beyond the houses we hit the beach again, settled down in the shelter of the sand dunes and declared a Herbie.

Herbie time. I had some delicious home made soup which included Quinoa and Bulgar wheat and was thus declared very middle class and hipsterish. We shared ginger biscuits made by Ben, mince pies, Kipling cakes, flapjacks and cheese and spinach scones from Mrs A. Harry is watching the birds and it was a good day for the ornithologists in the team. A wealth of waders and a glut of gulls, including redshanks, turnstones, sanderlings, eider ducks, stone ducks(ask) cormorants, ringed plovers and a variety of gulls.

Having feasted we continued along the beach towards Seahouses where we joined the road for a short time before  crossing the golf course, wandering through the town and  hitting the beach again as we headed for Bamburgh.

Seahouses harbour, very quiet today. Boats take tourists out to the Farne Islands from here. The islands are a nature reserve run by the National Trust. You can land for an extra payment or by flashing your NT card.

The Rescuer in Seahouses. He is holding a lifebuoy.

As we approached Bamburgh we had to climb off the beach and follow a footpath on the dunes,a bit like walking on Lauder Grass, you need to watch the view and your feet. At one point we walked on the road too before taking a footpath back down to the shore. We walked past the imposing castle and turned inland to the village cricket field. What a backdrop for playing!

Bamburgh from the beach

Castle from the cricket field. The dog is at silly mid on.

There is a bus stop by the field and a careful perusal of the timetable told us we had an hour to wait for transport back to High Newton. There was little else to do but retire to The Lord Crew hotel and bar. The pub offered two ales, Anarchy Blonde and Game Bird. Most of us chose Anarchy as it had a picture of Marilyn Monroe on the handle. Very nice too. Re hydrated we caught the bus, wandered through the dark to the car park and went home.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2018

Matrix MMXVIII 12a
                                                                                steps                               miles
NAK                                                                       28927                               10.71
Dave's NAK2                                                          22015                               10.42
"" USB                                                                    22038                                10.43
""NAK2                                                                  21947                                10.39
SM                                                                          22859                                10.46
etrex        3h 11min walk   49min talk                                                              10.71
iPhone                                                                     23145                                 10.5
Brian                                                                                                                  10.2
OUTDOORGPS                                                                                                 10.48
And some pictures