The rocks and pools provided the photographers with an interesting foreground and Bamburgh Castle a tremendous background. In truth, I was a minute or two late for that perfect light. The sun had already risen above the castle making the light less saturated. Even so, I managed to get some decent shots. I wandered over to the large concrete cube sea defences. These had been painted into Rubik Cubes and one was a dice. As I dropped off Harkess Rocks on to the sand I came across the carcass of an adult Grey Seal. I remembered the last time I was here, I'd found the body of a seal pup. They breed on the nearby Farne Islands. With this sombre conclusion to the start of my walk, I started heading southwards along the beach. 

Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh Castle is stunning. It is how you'd draw a castle during your primary school years, with all sorts of towers, walls and gates. It is the sheer size of the structure that is impressive too. The dunes tend to obstruct the view of the lower half of the castle and so I think the best view is probably from the village side. The view from the beach certainly has drama though. I'd escaped the photographers and my beach companions were now dog walkers and joggers. By the time I reached Greenhill Rocks I was on my own. It had been a few years since I'd walked this stretch of coast and I couldn't remember if it was okay to continue walking over the rocks. The tide was coming in, and the cliffs so steep that it would be hard to escape if trapped. I decided not to risk it and climbed up the dune to a derelict pillbox on its top. 

The sun had disappeared, the sky had turned grey and it felt like rain was approaching. I walked along the top of the dunes, England Coast Path posts leading the way. It actually led me to the road between Bamburgh and Seahouses. I walked along the pavement beyond Monks House and then a footpath delivered me back to the beach. I remembered this spot from the last time I did this walk. I now remembered that I'd walked over the rocks on my previous walk, rather than the bypass route over the dunes. I'd take that option on my return, later in the day. 

Seahouses

A light rain started as I walked along the beach to Seahouses. I found a stone that I thought might be a fossil since it had an intriguing design on its face. When I studied it, I could see that it was sandstone and that the markings were simply caused by the layers of rock and how it had worn. Oh well, I will find a fossil, one day. It was still quite pretty though and so I bagged it. I visited the small harbour at Seahouses. Two fishing boats had just sailed in. The England Coast Path followed the harbour around until it gained the top of the cliffs again and entered the domain of the Club Swingers. A line of direction posts provided a route for walkers across the course. Given that it was early morning and a dull day, I was surprised to find the course very busy. Many Club Swingers appeared to be using electric buggies to transport themselves around the course. I thought they might have some sort of medical problem, but a quick research study that I initiated clearly revealed that they were  capable of walking and swinging an iron stick. My conclusion was that they were simply lard arses. There are two large becks that run into the sea, south of Seahouses and the England Coast Path uses the bridges along the coastal road to cross them. After the second crossing, an ECP sign directed me back into the dunes. 

Beadnell

A light rain started as I walked across the dunes to Beadnell. I put my hood up and for a while my day was lost to the few metres of path directly in front of me. I came across half a dozen Exmoor Ponies that were free to roam around the dunes. For a while we had a staring competition but they were far better at it than me, and so I left them to it. I reached the outskirts of Beadnell and started following the road to its harbour. The rain was quite persistent now and looking to the horizons I thought it was probably odds on to remain for the rest of the day. I reached Beadnell beach and headed up to the harbour and the old lime kilns. I think this was the first time that I'd been to Beadnell when the tide was in. Previously there had been big drops down from the harbour to the water, but there was hardly a drop at all today. This was my turn-around point and I started heading back towards Seahouses.

There is a village shop on the outskirts of Beadnell and I called in to get a bar of chocolate to cheer me up. There was a picnic area with some benches opposite, and I wandered over to sit down and eat it. As I chomped on the chocolate, a Rook started taking an interest in me. It plodded up and down about 10 yards away from me with a pretence for looking for worms. Clearly his heart wasn't in it though and he was looking at me for easier pickings. I'd started a cheese sarnie after the chocolate bar and so I dropped a couple of crusts down on to the ground. There isn't much nourishment in bread for birds and so it's best not to feed it to them, but I figured the crusts weren't that large to cause any harm. Sure enough, I'd only walked 10 yards away from the bench before the Rook flew across to where I'd been sitting and gobbled them up. 

Return

Rather than walk through the dunes, I dropped down to the beach on my way back to Seahouses. A couple of fellows in high visibility jackets followed me about a 100 yards behind. They seemed to be looking for things on the beach. I'd seen the carcasses of quite a few bird-flu victims today and I wondered if they might be collecting them. I'd also seen a notice that palm oil had been washing up on the beach and this had caused problems for dogs that had consumed it. 

I couldn't face walking through the Club Swinging area again and so I took a more direct route through the centre of Seahouses. When I reached the other side, the rain had stopped and it looked like the sun was making an effort to break through the clouds. Things were looking up. The tide looked to be at its highest level now and so walkers were now compressed on to a narrow strip of sand. By the time I reached the beach to Bamburgh Castle the sun was out and things were chipper again. 

At Bamburgh Castle I diverted from the beach onto a footpath towards the village. I branched off from this up to the top of a hillock that held a bench. I'd been up here before and I knew what the sign said on the bench: 'Kingsmill - Voted one of the UK's 10 best lunch spots - 2013.' I have to say, I think it does have the best view of Bamburgh Castle. Unfortunately, the birds like its lofty position too and the rear of the bench was coated with bird crap. I perched on the front of the bench to admire the castle for a while.

The carpark was full when I returned. Curiously, nearly all the camper vans were gone and were now replaced by cars. 

Bamburgh Castle should be on everybody's tick list on a visit to Northumberland. It is awesome. The beaches between Bamburgh and Beadnell make for wonderful walking. The Kingsmill 2013 UK's 10 Best Lunch Spot winner is well worth the small climb. It does make me wonder what the other 9 UK's Best Lunch Spots might be.