Things to do near Beadnell
Written by us, not a tourist board — the beaches we actually swim at, the walks we send people on, and the pubs where the food is worth the drive. Distances are from our gate, honestly measured.
12 min
walk to Beadnell Bay
15 min
walk to the village pub
10 min
drive to Farne Islands boats
20 min
drive to Alnwick
Chapter 01
Northumberland has the best beaches in England and hardly anyone on them. Three of the finest are within twenty minutes of the gate, and one of them starts at the bottom of our field.
A mile and a half of pale sand curving south from the harbour, backed by dunes the whole way. Shallow, sheltered from the north, and big enough that a busy August afternoon still means a hundred yards to yourself.
Our tip: Walk down through the dunes at the south end of the village rather than driving to the car park. It is ten minutes and you arrive at the quiet half.
Two small bays reached only on foot, which is exactly why they stay empty. Rock pools at the north end, clean sand in the middle, and water clear enough to see your feet on a still morning.
Our tip: Take everything you need with you. There is nothing there at all, and that is the point.
The one on all the postcards: a vast flat beach with a castle on a rock above it and the Farne Islands out to sea. Enormous, so it never feels full, and the village behind it has good coffee and a very good ice cream shop.
Our tip: Park in the village and walk north past the castle. The stretch beyond it is twice as empty and twice as good.
Chapter 02
The coast path runs past our bottom hedge, so the good walking starts without a car. These are the three we give directions for most often, in rising order of ambition.
Down the coast path to Beadnell harbour, round the eighteenth-century lime kilns, back through the village past the church and up Swinhoe Lane. Flat, sandy underfoot, and you pass the pub at roughly the right moment.
Our tip: Do it in the evening. The kilns catch the last light and the harbour is full of pots and gulls.
Park at Craster, walk north along the low cliffs to the ruined castle on its whinstone headland, then on to Embleton Bay and back. It is the best two hours of walking on this coast and it never disappoints anybody.
Our tip: Buy kippers from the smokehouse in Craster before you set off, not after — they sell out by early afternoon.
A change of scene when you have had enough sand. Sandstone crags, Scots pine and a cave where St Cuthbert’s body is said to have rested, with the whole coast and Holy Island laid out below you.
Our tip: Go on a clear day and take binoculars. On a grey one you will see the inside of a cloud and wonder why you bothered.
Chapter 03
For the days when the beach has lost its novelty, or when it is raining hard enough that even we would not send you outside.
Boats leave Seahouses harbour for the islands most mornings in season. Thousands of puffins, guillemots and kittiwakes, grey seals hauled out on the rocks, and a landing on Inner Farne if the swell allows.
Our tip: Take the first sailing of the day — calmer water, better light, and the birds are busiest. Book ahead in July.
A proper castle with broomstick lessons in the outer bailey, and next door a walled garden with the largest treehouse in Europe and a poison garden the guides enjoy far too much.
Our tip: The castle and the garden are separate tickets and separately enormous. Pick one, or you will be carrying somebody by four o’clock.
A vast secondhand bookshop in the old Victorian station, with open fires, a model railway running above the shelves and a cafe in the waiting room. The obvious answer to a wet Wednesday.
Our tip: The market square is two minutes away — Thursday and Saturday are market days, and the cheese stall is worth the detour.
Chapter 04
We eat out perhaps once a week and these are the places we go. No sponsored entries — if it is on this list, one of us has paid for a meal there recently.
The village pub, and the closest thing we have to a staff room. Crab sandwiches at lunch, a proper Sunday roast, a good garden and no objection to sandy boots or a wet dog under the table.
Our tip: Book Friday and Saturday in season. Walk down, so the second pint is not a problem.
A whitewashed pub on a square green a hundred yards from the beach, brewing its own beer. Small, popular and cash-loving in spirit; the walk there along the coast is half the pleasure.
Our tip: Arrive early or eat late — there are perhaps a dozen tables and no way of making more.
Four generations of oak-smoking herring in the same sheds by the harbour. Buy a pair of kippers, a side of smoked salmon and some fish pie mix, and cook the best supper of your holiday on your own stove.
Our tip: They will vacuum-pack for the journey home. Everyone on your street will know what you had for breakfast.
Practicalities
Anything not answered here, ring us on 01665 720 000 — someone in the family will pick up.
Postcode NE67 5BQ drops you in the middle of Beadnell village, which is close but not us. Come along the B1340 from Seahouses, turn inland onto Swinhoe Lane at the red phone box, and we are 400 metres on the left through a pair of stone gateposts with a wooden Haven Crags sign. What3words for the gate itself: ///dunes.kettle.harvest.
Swinhoe Lane is single track with passing places and tarmac the whole way to our gate, so caravans and 8m motorhomes manage it fine. There is one blind bend by the farm; sound your horn and take it slowly. Do not follow sat-nav directions that send you down the unmade track past the reservoir.
Yes, and a few people do. Trains to Chathill (4 miles) or Alnmouth (14 miles) from Newcastle and Edinburgh; the X18 bus runs along the coast road and stops in Beadnell village, twelve minutes’ walk from us. Ring ahead and we will collect you and your bags from the bus stop.
Our own shop covers bread, milk, gas and the essentials from 8am. For a full supermarket, the Co-op in Seahouses is ten minutes’ drive and has the nearest cashpoint. Petrol is in Seahouses too; the nearest 24-hour fuel is at Alnwick, twenty minutes away.
It occasionally does. Barter Books and Alnwick town, the Maritime Centre at Seahouses, Bamburgh Castle indoors, the swimming pool at Alnwick, and our own table tennis in the byre. The shop keeps jigsaws and paperbacks, and the shower block is warm — never underestimate how much that helps.
The southern stretch of Beadnell Bay takes dogs all year round, and so do Football Hole and Newton Haven. Bamburgh has seasonal restrictions on the central section between May and September. Ground-nesting terns at the Long Nanny end are fenced off in summer — please keep leads on there.
There is more here than two days will hold. Most people work that out on the Sunday.
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