Lulworth Cove to Weymouth

Distance: 17km (10.5 miles)
Height Gained: 640m
Difficulty: Moderate
Public Transport: Bus X43 runs from Weymouth to Lulworth Cove four times a day during the summer holiday. Otherwise…
Parking: Pay car parks at Lulworth Cove and along the front in Weymouth (though the latter is considerably cheaper for day parking).

A strongly front-loaded day whose dramatic chalk undulations around Durdle Door and White Nothe gradually give way to the gentle sands of Weymouth Bay.
   Cross the massive car park behind Lulworth Cove and follow the obvious pitched path up the side of Hambury Tout, the first climb of a serious morning. As a section of the path has collapsed into St Oswald’s Bay, follow the new fence to a gate below the Newlands Farm campsite and then turn left down the main path towards the chalk cirque of Man O’ War Cove, an idyllic spot for an early dip. The headland and line of rocks offshore are outcrops of hard Portland limestone, through which the impressive arch of Durdle Door is carved. Its name comes from an Old English word for a hole.
   The coast path follows the line of precipitous chalk cliffs over to Scratchy Bottom, the first of a series of dry valleys dropping down to the shore. In between you climb over Swyre Head and Bat’s Head as the path rolls exhaustingly but to dramatic effect – the latter is thought to resemble a bat’s head with the tiny arch of Bat’s Hole its eye and said to glow red with the setting sun twice a year. From the headland there are stunning views along the inaccessible Lone Beach, dominated by the vertical chalk column of Fountain Rock. The ground finally flattens out after passing the navigational obelisk that helps guide ships into Portland Harbour, and stays along the edge of the fields to reach the Victorian coastguard cottages at White Nothe (meaning ‘white nose’).

   The chalk cliffs house a vast area of undercliffs, formed by prehistoric landslips. Though a smugglers path winds its way down to the beach here, stay along the crest with extensive views across the beaches of Ringstead and Weymouth Bays before dropping down towards the scattered houses above Burning Cliff. This unremarkable-looking and densely vegetated cliff spontaneously set fire in 1826 due to the decomposition of pyrite in its bituminous oil shales and burned continuously until 1838, giving off thick sulphur fumes. 
   Turn right then left onto a tarmac track, before branching off through the vegetation behind the shattered cliff. Stay along another track into Ringstead village, turning left at the road end by the shop as a track continues along the shore. A number of paths lead down to the shingle of Ringstead Bay, but the route weaves through the dense scrub and eventually climbs up past the observation posts on Bran Point. They are part of the World War II radar defences along this stretch of coast, whereas the now-converted Upton Fort just inland was a Victorian battery. On the rocks below is the wreck of The Minx, a coal barge that was washed across the bay from its moorings in Portland Harbour one night in 1927.
   Descend steadily to Osmington Mills, where you emerge by the Smugglers Inn, originally the innocent Crown Inn but renamed in honour of the nefarious activities of its former landlords. Follow the road right for 300m and turn left up a narrow pathway; keep left where the Dorset Ridgeway branches off, an alternative inland path to West Bexington. At the top of the hill, the prominent mound of Goggins Barrow, a possible ancient burial chamber, is partially devoured by the cliff ahead. The route stays inland beneath the willows, then bears left through the campsite to cross the grassy slopes of Black Head. A rather unnecessary alternative route follows the fenced path alongside, rejoining to skirt around the activity centre above Osmington Bay. Follow the edge of the broad fields beyond, tiptoeing around the collapsed edges of Redcliff Point before descending towards Bowleaze Cove. On the downs inland you should see Osmington White Horse, a representation of King George III on horseback to commemorate a royal visit in 1808 – it is said the designer commit suicide after the King took offence that it portrayed him leaving the town. 

   Keep to the left of the 1930s Art Deco magnificence of the Riviera Hotel, a former Pontins holiday camp, then cut through the fun park at Bowleaze Cove. Through the car park, head up across the grassy common above Furzy Cliff. At the far end, keep to the right of the Spyglass Inn and join the road heading down to the long Esplanade around Weymouth Bay. It is an easy one and a half mile stroll past the beach huts and traditional amusements along the back of the beach into Weymouth. The centre is reached soon after the Jubilee Clock Tower, built in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee. Buses leave from the roundabout shortly beyond, in the shadow of the King’s Statue, erected in 1809 to George III, who had helped popularise Weymouth as one of the first seaside resorts.

Whitehaven to Maryport

Distance: 25km (15.5 miles)
Height Gained: 210m
Public Transport: West Cumbrian Line trains roughly every hour between Maryport and Whitehaven (only trains on Sundays at 1447 and 1747). Bus 30/300/301 (Stagecoach, towards Whitehaven) three times an hour (every two hours on Sundays).
Parking: Pay car parks in centre of Whitehaven and Maryport. Free car parks on shorefront in Maryport.

A very surprising day through the industrial heart of West Cumbria, which is dominated by the unreal cliffs scoured from former slag heaps. A far nicer walk than one would imagine, the hills of Lowca Point giving way to the endless Solway shore.
   Follow the main road south from the centre of Whitehaven and turn left up Bransty Road after the Tesco petrol station, then fork immediately left again to follow the railway line along the foot of the hill. At Redness Point and on round Tanyard Bay, the sandstone faces of Bransty Cliffs tower above. The cycleway joins the road again in Parton, turning left into the centre of the old village. Turn left at The Square and duck beneath the railway to follow the low shore around Parton Bay, where there was a quay until it was completely washed away in a storm in 1796.
   After crossing Lowca Beck, turn right and join the road climbing the hill; to the right stands St Bridget’s church and the site of a Roman fort on the adjacent flat ground, but the onward route doubles back to the left. The path climbs steadily up above the slopes of Lowca Point, formed of molten slag from the iron smelting works in Lowca, to reach the remains of Micklam Brickworks. Drop back down through the bushes to the left and, after crossing Andrew’s Gill, join the vehicle track through the wind farm above Cunning Point. This joins another track heading steadily down the slope along the line of an old light railway towards Harrington. A WW1 pillbox stands on the last crest amid the eerily eroded shapes of Copperas Hill; these can be reached via a stile off the track and provide great views along this section of coast. The name copperas refers to iron sulphate or green vitriol, which was produced in an early 19th century chemical works nearby. Continue down the track and then road to the small enclave of Harrington Harbour, which was once surrounded by terraces and vast ironworks producing 60,000 tons a year. Later the site was used for magnesite works, which extracted magnesia from seawater for use in the brickmaking industry and covered the area in white dust.

   At a car park the far side of the marina, join the onward path – it is possible to bear right to follow a path along the top of the low bluff her, but the signed route stays along the shore. It is lined with ironstone defences made out of slag and arranged along the shore during WW2 against possible invasion. Nearing the striking white cliffs beyond Moss Bay, one starts to question their very nature; Jurassic-looking and riddled with caves and arches, they are actually formed entirely of spoil from the adjacent steelworks. Molten layers of heat-fractured metal, quartzite and slag were tipped into the sea and flowed into contorted waves, which the waves have exposed in patterns I find all the more haunting for their origin. The path on along their crest is soon obstructed by the vast site of the former Moss Bay steelworks on which Workington was built. The unique haematite ore, coal and limestone meant that the town was perfectly suited to the development of Henry Bessemer’s new converters for producing high quality steel, and from 1877 until its final closure in 2006 made the rails for tracks across the world.
   Ducking back across the railway, follow a gravel path along its side past Salterbeck Resser and the edge of the steelworks’ site. You eventually emerge at a road and re-cross the railway, before turning left then immediately right on the edge of Derwent Howe Industrial Estate. Head up the steps beyond to climb up onto the whaleback slag heap of The Howe which stands proudly above the town. The spoil of the steel industry is now being mined for aggregate here, while the cliffs beyond are further startling precipices formed out of these waste products. Descend towards the car park on the headland, where you get a great view of this stretch of artificial coastline, white to the south and black to the north.

   Join the cycleway heading inland along the River Derwent to join the attractive quayside that leads into the centre of Workington. Keep left on the roads beyond, then turn left again by an old forge to skirt around the back of Derwent Park, home to Workington Town RLFC. Rejoin the main road to cross Northside Bridge, rebuilt after it collapsed in the floods of 2009 killing PC Bill Barker. Descend some steps the other side and turn right out towards the dock. At present, the route is signed right along the cycleway before crossing the railway, but it is a tedious 3.5-mile trudge along the tarmac all the way to the far end of Flimby. Turn right again just before the port and fork left to reach the striking black clifftops amid the Siddick Wind Farm; it is no surprise by now to learn that the sinister arch ahead is formed entirely from coal spoil, another ephemeral feature in a shifting coastline. Follow the path right over the headland then on round the bay beyond. Several paths weave across the undulating slag heaps until the shoreline flattens and you are squeezed between railway and new sea defences. 
   It is an unglamorous stretch to Flimby, dominated by chemical works, factories and the old workings of St Helen’s Colliery, whose spoil makes up most of the strange rocks on the beach. The paths are sandy and hard-going in places, but eventually the low cliffs of Risehow emerge as a welcome distraction. The path along the soft cliff edge here has worn away in places, so the route stays along the railway, joining the shore beyond. Stay along the low shore through the Maryport Coastal Park until the dock wall forces you inland to the dockside road. The route is not signed through Maryport, but stays along the pleasant marina-side to reach the bridge that leads over the River Ellen and into the town itself. Originally Ellenfoot, Maryport was renamed in 1749 after George Senhouse’s wife when he redeveloped it as a new port; its attractive Georgian marketplace at Fleming Square dates from this time.

Sunderland to Easington Colliery

Distance: 18.5km (11.5 miles)
Height Gained: 280m
Public Transport: Buses 23 & 24 (towards Sunderland) between Easington Colliery and Sunderland twice hourly (hourly on Sundays).
Parking: Free car park on B1283 in Easington Colliery, as well as various in Seaham. Various pay car parks in the centre of Sunderland

Once a coastline blighted by the coal industry, this is now a lovely clifftop wander once past Sunderland’s docks. Long beaches backed by crumbling shale and limestone features dominate the scenery and is particularly dramatic around Ryhope Beach and Noses Point.
   Turn down Bridge Crescent on the immediate Sunderland side of Wearmouth Bridge and descend a path back to the riverside. Follow the river to Fish Quay, where steps lead up to the road above, heading out towards the docks. This was the bustling heart of the old town, which developed around the port as a major centre for shipbuilding and the export of coal. The shipyards that had built ships here since the 14th century finally packed in 1988, by which time much of the old dock area had been levelled for redevelopment. Turn right on a neighbourhood street (towards Chance Community Centre) and, at its end, head straight on across Town Moor. Turn right half way across and emerge to follow Lawrence Street, then turn left at the roundabout by The Charltons. Follow the A1018 for about a mile, before turning left at a lane shortly before the third roundabout. This leads down beneath the railway to Hendon Beach and the welcome resumption of the coast path after the warehouses, cranes and storage tanks of the industrial side of Sunderland.

   Follow any of the pathways above Hendon Beach to the car park at the far end, soon after which a faint grassy path heads on along the soft crumbling mudstone clifftops round Salterfen Rocks and Ryhope Beach. The latter is particularly fragile with temporary arches and stacks littering the sand, the most striking being the Darning Needle, a twin pronged lump of chert and limestone, while only a stump remains of Jane Jiveson’s Rock. It is near here the route takes a slightly unnecessary short diversion inland, but the wooded scar of Ryhope Dene just beyond is the first of a series of deep glacial ravines in this stretch of coastline. The route follows the field edge up to the B1287 and ducks back into the field now in the modern County Durham.
   The gentle clifftop path continues to the large car park above the precarious arches of Seaham Hall Beach, which itself can easily be followed into Seaham. The route continues to the road, then doubles back down to a concrete promenade, which is followed along the beach to its end and some steps back up to the road near the centre of Seaham. Seaham Harbour was hewn entirely artificially from its limestone headland in the 1820s to export coal from the numerous collieries nearby, and the town grew around it, quickly engulfing the old village of Seaham.
   Follow the main road on above the harbour and out of Seaham past Byron Place shopping centre (named after Lord Byron, who began his first novel at Seaham Hall yet condemned ‘this dreary coast’) and Dawdon Business Park. A grassy path parallel to the road begins beyond the docks and is worth following to get a view of Liddle Stack rising dramatically below the first cliffs – interestingly, this wasn’t the original Liddle Stack, which once stood closer to Seaham. The route turns left through the car parks above and follows the broad gravel track on along the cliffs. Again it is worth wandering out onto Nose’s Point to appreciate the limestone cliffs around Liddle Stack and Dawdon Blast Beach. The area was once an industrial eyesore, shaped by the iron furnaces which gave the latter its name and Dawdon Colliery on Nose’s Point, which was one of the area’s largest collieries and only closed in 1991. Coal spoil was dumped over the cliffs and painted the beach black, but it had the inadvertent effect of protecting the cliffs and the area has quickly rewilded, now becoming a beautiful arc of pale cliffs again.

   Keep to the grassy path along the cliffs around Blast Beach, heading out towards Chourdon Point, where the route doubles back to a bridge over the railway. It is possible to continue along the cliffs to a railway crossing, joining the route the other side where it ducks down into the rich glade of Hawthorn Dene. Limestone cliffs and the redbrick viaduct tower over the burn here, and the path climbs steeply up before doubling back through the last of the viaduct’s arches. The bay by the mouth is known as Hawthorn Hive, thought to have come from hythe, an Old Saxon word for a landing place, and it is said St Cuthbert’s body was brought ashore here in the 9th century when the monks of Lindisfarne were fleeing the Vikings.
   Follow the railway past Shippersea Bay, then fork left along the high cliffs. On the hill above, the Pit Cage Monument stands on the site of one of the 1500ft shafts of Easington Colliery, which has been radically landscaped since its closure in 1993 using the spoil originally dumped on the nearby beaches. The path eventually joins a tarmac walkway that leads on around the headland overlooking the long sweep of Horden Beach, before cutting inland along the side of Fox Holes Dene. Continue beneath the railway arch to reach the road and bus stop in Easington Colliery.