Newbiggin to Cresswell

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This was the last bit I needed to finish off my trip from the Tyne to the Tweed, and going down to the Sage for morning workshops left me just enough time in the afternoon to fit it in on the way home - even if it did mean wandering around Northumberland with a fiddle on my back.

This mission has got me well acquainted with the buses of Northumberland, as well as its less scenic parts - this time I was to change buses near a roundabout just the other side of the Wansbeck. I must have just missed the bus that went right through Newbiggin, so 10 minutes later I got a Woodhorn one and walked along from where it turned off.

The centre of Newbiggin had that rundown look that a) half of Northumberland and b) all seaside resorts in winter have - I'm not sure what it would be like in summer. Appropriately enough I picked my route back up beside the Cresswell Arms (which is also the name of a bus stop, and confuses the timetable search if you really want to get to Cresswell!).

Cresswell Arms

I went down to the church, to get a better view of it in daylight, and because I was hoping to stick to the coast if I could, although the official right of way ran further inland. The tower looks older than the rest of it - I like the way the windows don't quite line up.

St Bartholomew's Church

There was a clear path running along the top of the cliffs, past another caravan park, so I followed it.

Clifftop path

There was soon a choice of path or beach - I decided to stick to the high road, but it was the wrong choice - I did get along the path, but in a couple of places it was by sticking my feet under the fence and going along sideways holding it, and the fence wasn't all that stable either!

High road and low road

Rocks

At the end of the caravan park the path went on with more room to spare, along the edge of a golf course with the power station starting to dominate the way ahead. For a while I did walk on the beach, and then climbed back up onto the edge of the grass somewhere about the point.

Golf course and power station

There was yet another change in the rocks - so far they'd gone from the original reddish cliffs to an untidy slope down to a sandy beach to none at all, just dunes, and now a very definite right angled edge with occasional slots cut out, and much darker brown.

A slit in the rocks

The path followed the edge of the sea quite closely until the edge came so close that there was no room for a path, and it had to go inside the golf course instead. Back on the outside, it curved round to another dramatic change, with a rocky beach ahead.

Rocky shore

I kept expecting the path to swing inland towards the road, but there was no obvious turn off, and it led closer and closer to the power station, past an odd pool cut off from the sea, and then becoming less distinct up an untidy slope.

For a while I'd been slightly downhill on the sea side, and when I found a way up the slope ahead the golf course was gone, and I was in industrial wasteland. The power station's fence was quite close ahead, and although there might have been a way round on the sea side I wasn't risking it. There was a vague track leading parallel to the fence, and despite another fenced area ahead to the left it looked like there might be a way out in between - my theory was that if there was a path then people had to be able to get in to make it.

A clear track turning off to the right past a building looked like it might take me out to the road but led to a locked gate instead - I went down to the gate as it looked like there might be a faint path outside the wall, but actually it just led to a gap between the gatepost and the fence.

I hesitated before slipping through, but there was no one about and the road out was clearly not far away. Once through I stopped worrying as I found the other end of the right of way from Newbiggin just a few yards away, so I was now presumably on the right side of the fence!

The public footpath

Once out, I was on one of those dingy roads you find in industrial estates and places that are neither town nor country, along past the aluminium works and a tall wonderful turbine to Lynemouth, which was more alive than I expected - not just a miners' institute and a co-op but also a community cafe place and a couple of other shops.

Wind turbine

From Lynemouth the road turns back on itself twice, tracing a big S shape towards the coast - definitely the long way round, but with the river in the way there's not really another option. It wound round past a field of horses and over the river to run parallel to the coast.

River Lyne

It was quite an unexciting road, apart from occasional free range horses (who didn't really do anything exciting either) - fields on one side and sandy grass with the sea hiding behind it either. The light was fading by the time I came to the Cresswell sign, just before the houses at Nab Point.

Looking back

Welcome to Cresswell

From there it was past another caravan park and another dangerous cliffs sign - the two things seem to go together - to the village itself and the start of the Northumberland Coast Path, where I came in a few years ago.

The end or the beginning

With 20 minutes to wait for the bus I wandered up to the church, and got an extra bit of excitement as the bus went flying past on the otherwise of the road, despite the timetable saying it stopped on my side - however, it came back a couple minutes later, having turned round!

Then two cold waits, first at Widdrington Station and then at Alnmouth. Sadly I had completely failed to remember that Widdrington Station was a station - one of its rare trains stopped while I was walking down to check the bus times and would have got me to Alnmouth for an earlier train, but since I was booked on a later train it would just have meant an awkward wait. A shame, as there's something oddly appealing about a twice-a-day train.

I think this section is the reason why the Northumberland Coast Path doesn't start at the county border - Seaton Sluice and the beach to Blyth are lovely, Newbiggin is nice and the mouth of the Wansbeck surprisingly pretty, and the River Blyth and Cambois are at least interesting - but there's not a lot you can do with a bit between a power station and an aluminium works. It's a shame, because the south is just as genuine and distinctive a part of Northumberland as the empty north - and also because Blyth and Cambois and Lynemouth could really benefit from it. A path and footbridge from Lynemouth to Cresswell might help - as would a definite path round the coast side of the power station (as at Torness on the old John Muir Way), if that was possible. I believe there's some fancy project planned to make a route round the whole coast of England, so maybe it will change...

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