May Day in Warkworth

Dramatic Dunes Warkworth Beach

May Day walk in Walkworth

It was a bit of a miserable day for the first of May 2014. However, if you let the British weather stop you from doing things here in the UK, you could easily turn into a root vegetable or a pot plant.  So you simply must summon that ‘get up and have a go’ mentality we British used to be famed for and get out and about.

Ergo, after a glorious breakfast of home made Heuvos Rancheros and blueberry pancakes (not on the same plate ) my Canadian chum and I head off to Warkworth beach for a determined coastal walk. Warkworth village, North of Morpeth on the A1, is famous for its imposing castle perched on a strategic mound just outside the village.

Northumberland boasts the most castles of any county in England. We tend to take them a bit for granted here, but they are all impressive in their own way and all quite unique. The picturesque river Coquet runs through the village. You can hire a rowing boat to take out, which is also a very pleasant thing to do here when the thermostat rises above today’s heady 7 degrees centigrade brrrr! We headed for the beautiful wild Northumberland beach next to the golf course with its impressive sand dunes and seaside flora.

Spring weather – lovely!

Warkworth coastline.

Whatever the time of year or weather conditions, our Northumberland coastline is spectacular, wild, beautiful and rarely crowded. Granted, you can count on the fingers of one hand the days when you can take your jumper off, but it’s lovely all the same. We did a bit of beach combing. We find copious amounts of Bladder wrack seaweed strewn like piles of knitting along the shoreline. Bladder wrack is apparently delicious eaten raw or cooked and can be used in soups. It can also have a laxative effect if you eat to much of it. I have no plans to test this claim.

I love seaweed

We also found razor shells, crab claws and lots of limpets and cockles. The beach is also peppered with sea coal. A legacy of the days a when the North East coast line was ruined by tipping the left over slag from the coal mines into the sea.

Two generations after the pits closed, the beaches have cleaned themselves. There is still quite a lot of coal to be had which you could burn on your open fire. However, you must dry it out first. Now it just looks like smooth black stones. The black pebbles  blend in with the colours of all the others on the beach. The give away is its weight, as its much lighter than the volcanic stone Obsidian which it resembles. Another clue that it is not Obsidian is that there are no volcanoes around here that I know of.

Beach Art

A windy walk

We walked against the wind well wrapped in a various layers of clothing and jumped the inlets as the high tide approached. The sea was advancing rapidly. We didn’t continue to the end of the beach where the river meets the sea and you can wade across it to the next village. You can then walk back through the fields (which will soon be full of spring flowers) and trespass back across the golf course to your starting point.

Jumping the tide

The life saver belts at regular intervals along the shore hint at how rough the sea can get. The waves were pretty frisky that day. After your walk you can mosey back into the village and browse a gift shop or two.  We headed home for tea and a three cake combo previously purchased from the cafe. Espresso cake, lemon drizzle and Vanilla butter cream. I would have had a picture of them but they were consumed at high speed upon returning from our walk. Thus all calorie burning efforts were cancelled out.

Moody beach shot	Just in case..