The Sluice the dene and the Lighthouse

 The sluice the dene and the lighthouse. February17th

The met office has predicted that storm Otto will hit northern Britain for most of the morning so the planned walk from the seaside village of Craster has been postponed and a more local walk will replace it.

Starting and finishing at Seaton Sluice a village on the coast a few miles north of Tynemouth, walking in what is hopefully the sheltered Holywell Dene and calling in at St. Mary's Lighthouse.

OS Explorer 316 Newcastle upon Tyne covers the walk.

We parked in a layby opposite the Waterford Arms pub, famous for its fish and chip lunches. (across the road is the Harbour View Fish and Chip shop, also famous for its lunches and takeaways) The pub overlooks the small Seaton Sluice harbour.

In 1676 the local landowner  Sir Ralph Delaval had sluice gates built on the Seaton Burn to help remove silt from the harbour. To make access to the harbour easier Sir John Delaval had the cut excavated in the 18th century to make life easier for ships captains. The sluice has gone, the cut remains.

The Delavals lived in nearby Seaton Delaval Hall. an early 18th century hall designed by Vanbrugh.

Car parking and harbour view at Seaton Sluice. The harbour exported coal, salt and glassware.

Ready to go and prepared to battle storm Otto we headed down some steps and carried on under the fairly modern road bridge on the east side of Seaton Burn. Flat and grassy tom start with, an easy introduction to the day's walk. At the first footbridge we crossed the stream and followed the slowly rising path up Holywell Dene.

In the dene, stream and bird feeders. A few daffodils had bravely emerged too.

Approaching an old railway bridge, left from the days of mining in the area, we left the dene, walked the old railway for a short distance before turning off left on a footpath that took us to Holywell Pond Nature Reserve.

                All quiet on the Holywell Pond

                 In the hide. We had planned to make the hide a Herbie but Otto was blowing straight in through the observation slits so we moved on to make use of a comfortable bus shelter in the village of Holywell. We shared cherry tarts, cookies, savoury tarts and fruit cake from Mrs A.

     Strother Farm opposite our lunch spot, also known as the Manor House. Dates from 1654.

Lunch over we headed down the road to the burn, down steps, under the bridge and back into the dene.

(Original plan on the map below is a continuous line. Because we changed dining arrangements we followed the dotted line.)

This part of the dene has several flights of steps, good for the muscles. At the point whee the path meets the dismantled railway we left the dene and walked the old line as far as Briar Dene Farm.

Having walked round the farm buildings we took the footpath (slightly muddy) crossed another dismantled railway and emerged on Blyth Road, next to a cemetery.

From here we went down the road and along a stretch of promenade towards St. Mary's Lighthouse.

                   St.Mary's. A sign points out the dangers of crossing the causeway when the tide is coming in. There is a colony of seals on the island but we didn't feel brave enough to plodge across.

From the lighthouse we followed the England Coast Path round Collywell Bay and Charley's Garden back to the sluice.

For an after walk rest and drink we went to the King's Arms pub which is next to the cut. Lovely pub, several hand pulled beers including Abbott and one from the Lancaster Brewery named Lancaster Blonde which I felt I must try having lived in the city for about 15 years. Very quaffable too.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2023.

The walk is about 7 miles, easy going with a few short climbs.