Northumberland: Craster to Warkworth 2/7/2006***

 

Zigzag clover   Kidney saxifrage   Large speedwell   Craster   Stone Age hut reconstruction

Yesterday, on a day off, we moved to Cottage Inn, Dunstan, famous for its starter of “kippers in custard” (in fact a savoury jelly), although we tried Craster fish stew instead, which also included kippers.  Craster is famous for its fish curers and we passed the little factory (and had a good taste of its smoky odour) when we walked down the hill from Dunstan to start the walk today, past the harbour and up the hill to the southern edge of the little village.  The cliff top here had a floriferous turf with thyme, primrose, mouse-ear hawkweed and striking patches of zigzag clover.  Intermediate wet gullies held ragged robin, tufted vetch, northern marsh orchid and parsley water-dropwort. At a small inlet, Black Hole, the cliffs were covered with hundreds of nests of kittiwake and the odd fulmar.  From there the path was sandwiched between a road and the cliff edge.  Passing Howick we came across the reconstruction of a Stone Age hut (more like a tepee) on the hillside where an archaeological dig had uncovered the foundations of such structures, although at that time the sea-coast would have been several hundred metres further out and this area wooded.  The cliff top had frequent lesser meadow-rue and cowslip, and another kittiwake colony, before we descended to the bridge over a stream coming down from Howick Hall Gardens which we visited yesterday, finding kidney saxifrage escaped widely through the woods and large speedwell.  The cliffs continued, with some clumps of wormwood, to the tiny village of Boulmer, approaching which we saw two metal art-works on the trackside wall, a red cow-like “Red Loopod” by RC Frater (November 2005) and a black “A Good Tern” by G Frater (May 2006).  The only lunchtime facility here was the Fishing Boat Inn, which had a cliff-edge lawn out the back with benches providing a wide view over the rocks below.  There were still some fishing-boats on the little beach, along with a tractor to pull them up.  Most of the fishing-boats we have seen along this coast have a triangular tent-like structure over the bows, apparently the traditional design.  After the next headland we went down to the beach for the three kilometres to Alnmouth.  The heat made clouds of mist rise from the wet beach and seaweed, warm and muggy to walk through.  Being Sunday the beach was busy with families sun-bathing and playing, and we passed many other walkers, bird-watchers and fishermen, as well as the inevitable dog-walkers, although the large beach could accommodate all without feeling crowded.  The tide was well out and we walked over the still-wet lower beach ridged by the waves, because the walking was firmer here, and searched the higher dry strandline for shells, of which there was good variety including Colus gracilis.  Here a dead young grey seal had also been washed up.  The occasional groups of rocks we encountered were flat sandstones, mixed reddish and green like greensands.  We waded across the River Aln and walked up into the Alnmouth Dunes, but these held little of interest and we returned to the beach again to make faster progress for five kilometres until the dunes ended opposite Amble.  The halfway mark at the little rock outcrop of Birling Carrs had a new caravan park at the top.  At the River Coquet embankment we crossed narrow dunes to the saltmarsh beyond (Warkworth Harbour) and had to return north along a track for a while before we found a narrow path through the dunes.  These again lacked their former interesting plants, although we did record blue fleabane and heath spotted orchid.  The slacks were quite dry and dominated by thyme, lady’s bedstraw and viper’s bugloss.  Eventually we got back to the main track people were using to access the beach from Warkworth, 1½ km back from the end of the beach.  This led to a car park and we continued along the road to the town, arriving at the main A1068 where it crossed a bridge into the centre.  The river was quite wide here with mute swans.  The main street in Warkworth is interesting, as it descends from the old castle at the south end to a large church at the north end, these more or less defining the old limits of the village.

Kittiwakes   Colus gracilis   Craster kippers       Red Loopod       A Good Tern