Northumberland: Bamburgh to Newton Links 29/6/2006****

 

Bamburgh Castle   Seahouses beach   Beadnell Harbour

We resumed from Bamburgh Castle where we had left off on 25 June.  The castle, as usual, is on a steep precipice of the Whin Sill – what would the Normans have down without the Sill?  Here the cliffs are almost completely covered by a drapery of large-leaved Algerian ivy, which has also invaded nearby dunes.  As at Lindisfarne, fulmars nested in the high castle walls.  The dunes below and to the east are degraded with more introduced plants like Oriental poppy, fox-and-cubs, blue sow-thistle and tree lupin.  Surviving damp slacks supported just a common marsh flora of marsh speedwell, pond sedge and yellow iris.  We crossed these dunes to the shore and continued along the beach with a clear view of Inner Farne directly out to sea.  The area of beach recently wetted by the tide was pock-marked with ragworm holes and casts.  Closer to Seahouses the beach narrowed behind low rocks constituting further outcrops of Whin Sill with its characteristic cubic structure lending a stepped appearance.  We left the beach to climb to the coast road just before The Tumblers rocks created a low cliff, the beginning of another Whin Sill outcrop forming the whole headland at Seahouses.  The road led directly into town and down to the harbour where we could get a prawn snack from one of the stalls.  At the east end of the harbour the village ended too and we rounded the headland beside and through a golf course.  On the southern side an abrupt inland line of steep rock cut off a long pool with tench, common and grey clubrush, fan-leaved water-crowfoot, mare’s tail and water-plantain while the banks supported northern marsh orchids.  The only birds were a pair of mallard and a flock of black-headed gulls cleaning themselves of salt in the fresh water.  Here we could descend to the next beach, Annstead, and cross a small stream that spread out and became very shallow on the beach.  The dunes above were even more degraded by an over-growth of coarse grasses than at Bamburgh.  We crossed their attenuated south end to the road into Beadnell, which lies along low cliffs.  It was of little interest except what appeared to be a ruined fort beside the harbour on the far south side.  We went down again to a very wide flat clean beach, typical of the Northumberland coast, with dunes above.  A number of wind-surfers out at sea were taking advantage of a stiff south breeze that they relished while we struggled against it.  When we reached the mouth of Brunton Burn we went up beside it as the dune-edge gave way to saltmarsh.  Across the river was a large raucous nesting colony of terns, including sandwich terns, some of which, like the gulls earlier, were bathing in the river.  We took a wooden bridge over the river, keeping well clear of the colony and continued through Newton Links by the coast path.  The dunes again had few plants, despite a large amount of bloody cranesbill and some pyramidal orchids.  At the car park we turned back along the official coast path all the way to Beadnell, too far inland to get even a glimpse of the coast and straight through the middle of an immense caravan park extending a kilometre to the edge of the village.  There was just one surviving little colony of lesser meadow-rue on a path-side bank.  We re-crossed Beadnell and walked beside the B-road to our hotel in Seahouses.  All the dunes visited today used to have a varied and rare set of plants, but virtually none have survived, although attempts are now being made by the National Trust in places to graze them to reduce the dominant grasses. This is likely to prove a long-term project.