Craster

Craster with Dunstanborough Castle

Distance: 12.8 km (8 mi)
Time: 2 hours 39
Average speed: 4.8 km/h (3 mph)

After Friday's fiasco today's walk was going to be less ambitious and much flatter. I decided on a coastal route and picked one that started at Craster and went south past Howick to Longhoughton before returning cross-county.

If last week was late summer, this week is definately autumn. A nice heavy rain and a strong wind blowing from inland. The car park at Craster was half-full, meaning there was about 50 car loads of other idiots somewhere nearby.

Craster is famous for two things; the kippers (very nice) and the ruins to the north (see above). For a change I was headed south.

The coastal path from the harbour rises gently until it is following the top of a low cliff overlooking the rocky shore. This is where the Whin Sill meets the sea so there is very little sand.

I past a forlorn looking flock of sheep. Periodically one of them would grow tired of being wet and attempt to shake itself dry. All this resulted in was a fine mist cloud briefly surrounding the sheep.

I met two walkers coming the other way on the coastal path, one with a large rucksack. They had the look of men who could hear the Jolly Fisherman calling so I did not detain them.

Thankfully the rain eased off and settled down to a fine drizzle that came and went on a whim, allowing most of me to start drying off.

There was a surprise waiting for me above the Howick Burn Mouth. I planned the walk by looking at the map and only skimmed the accompanying text, so I did not expect to find a reconstructed stone age hut on the cliff overlooking the mouth. It was based on excavations nearby of a hut dating from c8000BC, erected in 2000AD.



Crossing over the Howick Burn it was clear the Whin Sill was behind me as the beaches were now sandy. No sunbathers, though.

At Howdiemont Sands I headed inland to Longhoughton, then north across fields to the road that passes Howick Hall. The Hall is owned by a descendant of the second Earl Grey (local hero in these parts) and where my father went camping when he was in the Scouts.

From the entrance to Howick Hall it was back onto footpaths across country. You can see more bits of the Whin Sill poking out of the ground, forming hills and cliffs. Craster itself sits in a gap between two cliffs formed by the Sill and the car park used to be a quarry.

A much easier, if wetter, walk than last week. I go back down south tommorrow, so I guess I'll be back on the Chase come Sunday.