Maxine's Walk

Holy Island causeway to Bamburgh 15 1/2 miles

Well I think that luck is with us at the moment, not only was last Sunday another clear, bright sunny day but also all that slushy ground was frozen solid. Only thing was we did have to watch where our feet were going and ended up ice skating a few times.

I won't go through the whole walk as that might get a bit boring, it is enough to say that we were walking on the St Oswald's Way. www.stoswaldsway.com

This is a 97 mile long-distance trail from Holy Island to Hadrian's Wall. St Oswald was the king of Northumbria in the early 7th century, it is suggested that he brought christianity to the county.  The route links some of the places associated with him (Holy Island, Bamburgh and Heavenfield).  The first part of todays route also follows the St Cuthberts way which is a 60 mile route from Melrose, in the Scottish Borders to Holy Island.  

What I am really looking forwards to on this walk is discovering and rediscovering many parts of England. There are some places I have not visited in a long time and some places I have never been to at all.

Today I really felt like I had experienced Northumberland, we walked on the coast, through fields, woodland and even across some moorland areas.

Here are some of the best bits.

 
Walking up through the fields just after leaving the Holy Island causeway.

 I just loved the 'oldness' of this green lane with it's stunted trees due to the proximity of the easterly sea winds.
 

The view towards Budle Bay.

  

Following a burn into Belford.
   

 

Bamburgh Castle.

Angels of the North!  

Berwick to Holy Island Causeway

After a whole year of thinking and planning I finally started my walk in the middle of January. I had to wait a couple of weeks because of the fantastic snow we had over christmas and New Year. Because of the snow melt this first section was very, very wet.

We set off from home in glorious sunshine, across Berwick's Old Bridge and along the River Tweed to Spittal.
We continued along the promenade at Spittal and then followed the cycle path up onto the cliffs where we had fantastic views back towards Berwick. Just look at that clear blue sky!

From Spittal we followed the cycle route along the coast, past Cocklawburn beach. It was so wet we couldn't get down onto the beach at Cheswick Rocks so we had to continue along the cycle path. We eventually made our way through the sand dunes a little further on and walked on the vast expanse of Cheswick Sands.

We managed to walk about half a mile along the beach before coming across a stream which had been made too deep and wide to cross by the melt water from the snow. We were forced to go inland and find a footbridge, after this we played safe and walked through the dunes before rejoining the cycle path.

After a while the surfaced cycle path became grassland and our boots just got wetter and wetter. These sheep were very interested in us, coming up behind us on the path. I think they thought they were going to feed them. They had access to all the salt marsh and beach but must know where home is. Behind the sheep you can see the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. A welcome site as by now I could hear my feet slopping inside my boots and Livi's were just as wet (neither of us had thought to put on our gaiters!)

A welcome site after 10ish miles, the rest of the family, hot soup for lunch and a lift home. Thanks guys.