Lindisfarne Wander

A couple of Sundays ago my wife and I decided to visit the Holy Island of Lindisfarne for the first time in years. If you are a regular reader of this blog you will recall that we had, over the course of several years, finally completed our coastal walk of the North-East from the Scottish border down to Staithes. We've since added a bit more onto that to the south, but I was always bothered about the fact that we'd never actually walked the Holy Island Causeway. So we finally decided to have a go. 

First of all here's a rough map of ours travels:

(click on image to enlarge)

In all, about 10 miles in 4 hours. Quite easy, really.

As you can probably make out, we began at The Snook Car Park in (roughly) the middle of the picture. That way we avoided any car parking charges, and it was a nice central spot for our planned route.

First up was a short walk to the NW to see Snook Tower and Snook House:

Snook House is, of course, the fictional home of TV's Vera. 

Then we angled over the dunes to hit the expansive beach to the north, and then curved around to meet the island end of the causeway. Then it was a walk along the causeway to the mainland, followed by a prompt about-turn across the sand, eastwards, towards Lindisfarne village some three miles distant. We, of course, followed the line of posts which marks the so-called "Pilgrims' Way":

We should really have removed our boots for this part of the walk, but once you get to certain stage of wetness, well, there seems little point! So on we plodded...

We had a scare about three-quarters of the way over when my wife, Angie, sunk up to her knees in the mud. Naturally, she blamed me instantly, and I was then lambasted for not immediately rushing to her aid. Well, there wasn't much point in us BOTH getting mucky, was there?

Anyway, we finally made it to the village ... and it was rammed with visitors. We did a cursory tour of the usual touristy spots - the priory, St.Mary's Church, and the famous 'Petting Stone' (over which newly-wed brides are obliged to clamber after their wedding ceremony!):

After a quick visit to the viewing tower at the SW extremity of the island, we moved on to the remains of another very early chapel on the southern shore ...

... Before about-turning and heading for the castle:

And you've just GOT to get that classic shot of the castle fronted by those wonderful lime kilns:

And, on the eastern shore, this seems to be a thing nowadays. Nice:

We then followed the circular path around the eastern and northern sides of the island, before cutting once more over the dunes and onto that HUGE beach on the northern side of the island. Wow!:

And so back to the car. What a day! And I didn't forget to pick up a couple of obligatory bottles:

And that was, at last, the whole of the North-East coast done properly, then!

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.