Cocklawburn Beach & Thereabouts

Looking south from the access road

You'll be happy to learn that my wife and I's North-East coastal walk (Staithes to Scottish Border) is approaching its conclusion. We've only a couple of stretches to go now, up near the Border; and three weeks ago we knocked off a fair chunk betwixt Waren Mill and Spittal - and very interesting it was, too. Blessed with two gorgeous winter days, we covered twenty-odd miles of this incredible stretch of English coastline. Stunning, stunning, stunning.

Of the many beautiful and interesting items on offer, I should like to point you in the direction of one spot in particular: Cocklawburn Beach. I had never been there before - hadn't even heard of it, in fact - and thought it a lovely little place, with, it transpires, an interesting history.

We approached from the south. Having stuck rigidly to the official coastal path for several miles, we ventured a few yards off the same when we clocked this little beauty on a hillock overlooking the coast: 

Gun emplacement

View from inside gun emplacement, looking south

This is no pillbox, as evidenced by the rather large 'pillar-box'-type slot! Turns out (with reference to the info panel, below), that it was home to a rather large piece of WWII ordnance. It really is a belter of a spot, and you can freely access and wander within its still near perfect interior.

Info panel (click to expand)

The information board gives you a pretty good oversight of the area, with its old lime kilns, geology, natural history, as well as the obvious military stuff. As we moved on fairly swiftly, I didn't get a chance to properly explore the immediate environs via the little tour suggested on the board, but its an interesting story, and will hopefully prompt you to spend some time there. The panel can be found in one of the bay's car parks, and afterwards we spied an opportunity to angle down from the official path and onto Cocklawburn Beach for a delightful couple of hundred yards walk north, until a rocky outcrop (Saltpan Rocks - more industry!) forced us back onto the waymarked route. Nice, though.

Looking south again, after we'd clambered off the beach

If you're taking your car, the dead-end access road leads into the bay from the village of Scremerston to the NW. It was busy when we were there in mid January, so can only imagine what it'd be like at the height of summer! There are, though, a few car parks to be found along the said road, as can be discerned from the info panel above. 

And there's far more to the story of Cocklawburn Beach/Bay then I've hinted at here, so do check out the links below - especially prior to your visit, so that, unlike me, you don't miss out on any interesting bits.

More info can be found here. And an especially interesting look at the area's history can be found here (with a further link near the foot of the page, too, for even more info).

P.S. For anyone who's interested, we parked our car at Spittal, walked half a mile to Tweedmouth to catch a 477 bus (Wed & Sat only), then alighted at the start of the Holy Island Causeway and walked the 9 miles north back to our car. Highly recommended.