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Day 5 (June 28th) – Fenwick to Berwick-upon-Tweed (12 miles)

After finding a lucky parking spot for our destination car on the quayside at Berwick, we headed back to start our walk from Fenwick. We were still sharing the route with St. Cuthbert’s Way at this point, so the first few miles seemed very familiar – including the phone call to the railway signalman so that we could cross back over the lines on our way down to the causeway at Lindisfarne. Unlike the last time we went this way, we had another beautiful day with plenty of sunshine.

From the causeway, we continued north through slightly marshy tide flats, which required a little careful foot placement to avoid soggy socks. We took a packed lunch break on a grassy verge outside a farm, and then it was off into the dunes again, eventually reaching a clifftop path with some beautiful views – especially toward the south, so we had to remember to turn around and admire the scenery from time to time! This stretch of the walk was long though, so despite the views it was with great relief that we finally turned a corner to see Berwick below us in the distance. After another mile or so, a stairway brought us down to the promenade at Spittal, and from there it was an easy walk along the shore and then up the estuary into Berwick. Finally crossing the Old Bridge, we were able to see the final route marker below on the query – an iron pole with an anchor design, and a sign marked “Cresswell 62” pointing back the way we had come from. We enlisted the help of a kind gentleman to take a photo of us all by the sign – the final proof that we had completed the Northumberland Coast Trail at last!

The remainder of the day was slightly anticlimactic, and a little sad in a way – we were thrilled at being done with the walk, but also sad that a really memorable week together was over. We had tea/coffee and cake at a cafe, which was a fairly quiet affair – at that point we were all quite exhausted and were ready to just relax quietly for a little. Finally we all limped to our little Renault on the quayside, and set off back to Fenwick. There we said goodbye to Gilli and Allan, who drove off back to their home in Coldingham — and Bethany, Phil and I drove back to the cottage in Embleton. The next morning, we drove Phil to the airport at Newcastle for his flight home, and our adventure was officially over.

Day 4 (June 27th) – Bamburgh to Fenwick (13 miles)

Even though our plan was to walk to Fenwick on our fourth day, we left our ‘destination car’ at Belford, 6 miles short of Fenwick – the reason being that Gilli had felt quite tired by the end of the previous day, and wasn’t sure that she would be able to make it the whole distance (since she lives relatively just over the Scottish border, she at least had the option of coming back later to complete any section of the path she didn’t complete during our week together). Then we headed back to Bamburgh to start the day’s walk.

The weather forecast was for sun, and we were not disappointed – the weather was beautiful as we started out. After passing the golf course, we were treated to some lovely views of Lindisfarne (a.k.a. Holy Island) in the distance. We had a nice rest on some well-situated benches near Budle Bay, then headed inland – the next sections of the hike would take us away from the shoreline for a time. We slightly misplaced the path for a little while, which resulted in a longer-than-ideal walk along a busy road, but then we were moving westward through fields and woods. We passed through some beautiful wooded areas as we approached Spindlestone Mill, and encountered some hungry and hopeful (but ultimately disappointed) horses. Beyond Spindlestone, we passed the “Ducket”, an old dovecot converted to a holiday cottage, which looked like an interesting if isolated spot for a vacation. Moving through gradually ascending fields, including one that warned of a bull in the field (he wasn’t obviously visible anywhere close to our path, to our relief – unlike the one we encountered during our 2016 walk of St. Cuthbert’s Way), we eventually reached the railway lines that run up to Berwick and on to Edinburgh. This is a very busy line, so we had to call the signalman to get the go-ahead to cross – Allan was our official designated caller. We did in fact have to wait a few minutes until two trains passed, and then we were clear to cross – we had to call again on the other side to indicate that we had made it across safely. After that it was a fairly straightforward stroll into Belford.

Gilli was doing well enough that she felt she would be able to complete the final 6 miles after a rest, so she and some of our party now got a long break in a lovely tea shop while Allan and I moved cars — first driving back to Bamburgh to pick up our car there, then to Fenwick to drop a car there, and finally back to Belford. This all took a while, so we got a rather late start on the final section of the day’s walk. Once more we found ourselves ascending through fields, before getting a little confused again by the directions in the guide – what exactly is an “escarpment” anyway, and when you have to go along “the woodland edge,” which woodland is being referred to, and which edge are we walking along? Luckily there was one clear instruction, which was to go toward a telecommunications mast in the distance, so once we located the mast we were fine. After another long ascent through woods, we finally came over the top of Fawcet Hill and joined the St. Cuthbert’s Way path, which runs together with the Northumberland Coast Path for the next stretch – so we would be on familiar territory for the rest of the day! The final few miles were beautiful and relatively easy, as we descended through woods and along “Dolly Gibson’s Lonnen” (which was far less muddy than the last time we walked that way!) before arriving into Fenwick via the road. At this point we have walked 50 miles, and have just one day to go!

Day 3 (June 26th) – Embleton to Bamburgh (12 miles)

Day 3 started out a little grey, but after numerous checks of different weather reports, we set out with the hope of seeing the sun for the first time later in the day. As we headed north along the dunes, we remarked that some of the best views are actually north-south, so we turned and took our photos back across Embleton beach to Dunstanburgh, and later from the fields above Low Newton we got some lovely shots of the whole bay. After a walk across a couple of fields and some dunes, we got some nice views of waterbirds around the Long Nanny River, including a cormorant, doing its cormorant wings-out thing (not a shag; I got some nice clear photos that clarified that question).

The guide gave us an option to continue to Beadnell through the caravan park, or via the beach – we opted for the scenic route and headed for the sands, where we saw some walkers and one brave windsurfer despite the coolness of the day. We had planned to stop for a coffee break in Beadnell, but were unable to find a cafe near the seafront (you would think a possibility for someone to make some money there, at least during the summer months, by setting up a little teashop!). So we plodded on without refreshment toward Seahouses, which we finally reached about 45 minutes later, feeling very worn. Phil in particular was not feeling at all well, but he – and the rest of us – livened up immensely after an excellent lunch at The Ship in Seahouses (there are many “Ship” inns in this part of Northumberland, we’ve noticed, and they all seem to have excellent food and beer/cider!). Contributing to the raised spirits was the fact that we were able to enjoy our lunch at the tables outside – the weather was definitely improving!

The day continued to brighten as we headed north out of Seahouses, and the sun broke through properly by the time we reached the beach for the final 3-1/2 mile stretch to Bamburgh. Suddenly the sea revealed itself it actually be BLUE – something we had not experienced before on this walk! We had a fine view first of the Farne Islands offshore, and then the looming mass of Bamburgh Castle to the north. The only trouble with this castle is that it is so massive, and sits so high on its rocky base, that you can see it clearly from very far away – so it seemed for a long time that we were “nearly there” while we still in fact had miles to walk. But finally we clambered over the dunes and around the bulk of the castle to the road below. There we found a Coxon’s ice cream van waiting for us – a very welcome sight, as we were now quite warm from the walk and from the sun! So we enjoyed a relaxed ice cream cone on a welcome bench, before walking the final quarter mile up into Bamburgh village to the car.

Day 2 – Warkworth to Embleton (15.5 / 16.5+ miles)

Since we would be ending Tuesday’s hike at Embleton, there was no need for the full “car shuffle” this day — we just drove in one car to Warkworth for the start (Allan and I would later have to drive down to pick that one up).

Tuesday was supposed to be a more pleasant day than Monday, weather-wise, which was one reason we had kept the Monday hike relatively short – unfortunately that’s not quite how it turned out. There was much more wind on Tuesday, which combined with a general dampness and light drizzle on and off during the day, it was a less enjoyable hike overall – however the mist made for some very dramatic ocean views, and the wind and rain would ease off periodically to give us some more pleasant stretches.

After walking north out of Warkworth, we walked through the dunes toward Alnmouth, where we again ran into some very confusing directions from the book, which caused us to make a fairly large detour, up to a mile, before we got back on the right path. However the detour did take us along the Aln estuary for a while, providing some lovely views as well as a visit to a small, disused chapel, so it was not a complete waste of time. A very long, meandering road finally got us into Alnmouth, where we had a very strange coffee break at an almost completely deserted inn, courtesy of a guy with an almost incomprehensible accent, consisting of “latte” (black coffee), “cappuccino” (black coffee), and big slabs of (admittedly delicious) caramel cake which he gave us “for free” (but the coffees cost £15!).

After snacks, we went on past two golf courses (getting our passports stamped at the clubhouse of the second) and then on to a windswept path which ran for many miles up the coast. The weather was fine for much of this, so it was quite enjoyable for the most part, with very distant views of Dunstanburgh castle through the mist at times, and the path led us past spots like Sugar Sands which were very memorable to us from childhood holidays and trips in later years with our own children. However the “mizzle” (mist/drizzle) descended fully on us as we came toward Craster, and by the time we reached the village we were very tired, damp and ready for a break at a tea shop. We even briefly discussed ending the hike early – I was willing to walk ahead and then bring the car to pick up the others – but this would have led to a very long day later in the week to make up lost distance. So after a very refreshing break, we pushed ahead as quickly as possible up past Dunstanburgh Castle to Embleton and home base at the cottage. It was a little bit of a shame not to be able to enjoy the spectacular approach to the castle more – but we have many memories of that walk on more pleasant days, so we didn’t feel we were missing too much.

Day 1 – Cresswell to Warkworth (10.5 miles)

Gilli and Allan arrived at the cottage around 10:15am, after dropping their dogs off at the kennels, and we got on the road shortly after that. We executed the first “car shuffle,” which was an operation that would be completed many times over the next few days: we drove in two cars to Warkworth, left our little rental Renault Captur in a parking lot there, and then all piled into Allan’s car and drove to Cresswell and parked there for the start of the walk. At the end of the day we would then all drive in the Renault from Warkworth back to Cresswell to pick up Allan’s car.

It was a pretty grey day when we set off, but not as wet as we had feared, and actually a pretty comfortable temperature, with little wind. We set off northward along the beach and then along a grassy path to the East Chevington Nature Reserve, and then on to the Druridge Bay Country Park visitor center, where we got our NCP ‘passports’ stamped and enjoyed lunch at the cafe (for me, mince (beef) pie and beans). After lunch we continued on through the dunes toward Amble. Around Amble for the first time we ran into the shortcomings of the route description in our guide, which was fairly vague about exactly which way to go through the town – we also discovered that the directions were written before the construction of a large, spike-topped fence near the marina, which required a certain amount of improvisation to get around … In the end though we made it through Amble, and headed on up toward Warkworth. Around Amble we had run into the first real rain of the day, but it was fairly light and didn’t inconvenience us too much – in fact it was nice to have the excuse to break out our fancy new Eddie Bauer rain gear. Overall then we had a quite pleasant day with some lovely beach views, a nice walk into Warkworth with views up to the castle, and in general not too strenuous a start to the whole hike.