The view from my bedroom at the B&B faced onto the sea front and came with a wide panoramic view out across the North Sea and the lights of Blyth some 8 miles away, the view also enabled me to be treated to a beautiful sunrise. The B&B had let me leave my car parked there while I walked back from Amble. I needed to get two buses again today. The first was the X21 to Ashington, the second was the X20 which called at virtually every village before arriving at Amble 45 minutes later.
The weather was again beautiful and on arriving Amble I quickly headed for the spot I finished yesterdays walk. Within 20 minutes I had dropped down to the beach, where I spent the next 2 hours walking. At Low Hauxley I found a brilliant section of an exposed ancient forest sandwiched between the lower glacial boulder clay and the upper dune system. The ancient forest was about a metre thick and composed of rich black peat, interspersed with large tree trunks. The forest was discovered in 2016 after rising sea levels cut back the dunes and has been dated at 7000 years old.
As I rounded a small point I entered Druridge Bay; this is a long sweeping sandy bay stretching for about 5 miles towards the village of Cresswell. I could also make out the power station at Lynemouth in the far distance. The underfoot conditions along the beach was on firm sand and a joy to walk. Unfortunaetly, the low sun made for poor photographs of any anything towards the south. I made excellent progress, passing small groups of people out with their dogs enjoying the late autumnal sunshine.
I eventually re-joined a minor road at Cresswell, running adjacent to the shore. The road headed straight towards the Power station but then swung around into the village of Lynemouth. The village of Lynemouth and the surrounding area has a rich heritage of coal mining where coal was extracted at a number of collieries up until the early 2000’s. The road passes the Power Station which looks at first glance to be dormant. However, ongoing work to convert the station to a biomass electricity generating station have been underway for some time. I turned left towards the main gate of the Power station and then took a public footpath which shepherded walkers through a gate in the high perimeter fence onto the open golf links. I headed around the outside of the golf course heading first to Beacon Point and then along the links all the way into Newbiggin.
Distance today = 15 miles
Total distance = 3,337 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 
This is quite a walk of contrasts. Most of the coast of Northemumberland is beautiful but then it’s a shock to come to that power station and industry. I was a bit naughty on this walk. I did it the other way to you but from Blyth I walked round roads to North Seaton Colliery and then followed the coast north to Newbiggin. From there I stuck to the shore line and decided to see if I could walk along the coast right behind the power station. It’s is quite disgusting around there, very pollouted and piles of spoil of some sort (like you find at the back of the beaches on the Durham coast). At one point I had difficultly and ended up coming out at a stream that was flowing bright orange (with what, I have no idea). I then continued on the spoil heaps that formed the cliffs here. There were no signs, to my surpise, preventing access this way – but I did pick up a wooden sign that had fallen over which said “Strictly no admittance” so I guess the signs had been vandalised or damaged by the environment. SOon I was able to return to the shingle beach and the stream marked on the map proved no problem because when it meets the beach the water flows under the pebbles so you can use them as stepping stones and keep dry feet. After that I saw some people ahead fishing, so I realised I’d have no further problems (as was the case). Though it’s not a route I would recommend!
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Hi Jon, thanks for that. I did think about walking behind the power station, but at the end of a walk I hate making unnecessary forays. I actually thought the place was derelict until I got closer and saw work being carried out. I know what you mean about debris and spoil as on passing the power station I immediately returned to the shoreline and onto Beacon point I walked over a beach which had been bull-dozered over with all sorts of stuff.
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A part of the coast I haven’t reached yet. Wonderful to find that ancient forest- 7,000 years old!
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Hi Ruth, I had not heard about this find until I got back home and checked it out. This was part of a much larger area of swamps/marshes forming a land mass known as Doggerland that once connected GB to mainland Europe. The trees within the peat layers are quite amazing and look like they had only been felled last year. Instead they pre-date the Pyramids by some 2000 years!!
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