A walk along the beach at Druridge Bay, then back behind the dunes.
Druridge bay is recognised as an area of outstanding beauty, and is a wide, sandy beach at low tide. At hight tide the sea laps the foot of the dunes, so it's best to check the tides before you visit. At the turning point of the walk, you are very near Ladyburn Lake, described elsewhere in this site. The visitors centre here has a cafe and toilets.
Postcode for Satnav - NE61 5EG, which is close to the parking spot.
Druridge Bay is just off the A1068, about 6 miles south of Amble.
Travelling from the south, take the A19 Tyne tunnel road north out of Newcastle and then join the A189 Spine Road past Ashington, then the A1068. In Widdrington village, turn right at the roundabout beside the Widdrington Inn, follow this road for about a mile down the the beach, turn left, then park near the end of the road.
Travelling from the north, take the A1 south to Alnwick and turn off the A1 onto the A1068 at the Alnwick bypass. Follow this road to Warkworth, then turn off to Amble. Widdrington village is about 6 miles past Amble.
Click here to see a routemap of the walk. This opens in a new tab.
This walk is easy to describe. Once you park your car, head further along the road until you reach the point where cars can't go further, and just past the two boulders blocking the road, there is a path going down to the beach on the other side of a small stream (the Dunbar Burn). Take this path, then head down to the beach.
Sometimes the stream washes very close to the dunes, so you might need to take a small detour into the dunes.
Walk north up the beach
and after about a mile you will find another small stream running down the beach.
Head into the dunes and cross the stream by the culvert (or wade through it if you like).
Here you have the option to head inland and turn back up the path to your car.
However, go back down to the beach and continue northwards until you come to a wooden stairway
by the old tank traps that heads off the beach and into the dunes.
At the top of the stairway you will see signs for a visitor centre, which has a small cafe and toilets. Stop here if you wish, then head back to you car up the wide footpath that runs behind the dunes. There are numerous nature reserves, ponds and lakes near this footpath which makes it ideal for birdwatching. Where the footpath meets the middle stream, you have the option to go back to the beach, or to cross the stream by a wooden footbridge. The pathway eventually joins a metalled road, but this is not used by general traffic and so continues to be safe for dogs. Eventually, a small pathway leads off this roadway, which takes you back to your car.
The photos that accompany this walk were taken in February 2020, when the beach was empty, but even in high summer it is easy to avoid the crowds here.
You can, of course, continue walking up the beach, past Low Hauxley village and right on to Amble if you are feeling fit.
In WWII, it was thought that the long beaches at Druridge were a potential landing place for the Wehrmacht, so extensive lines of tank traps and pill boxes were built to protect the beach. You can still see some of these square concrete blocks today, where I guess they help protect the coast from erosion. At Low Hauxley, further up the coast towards Amble, mesolithic remains have been found in the exposed peat beds, including an early Bronze Age cemetery.
Now, the area hosts a lot of wild birds, including Reed Bunting, Twite, Canada Geese, Sanderlings and Oyster catchers.
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