Five stunning walks on the new King Charles III England coast path

On the western side of Holy Island, swallows sweep the headland while ringed plovers feed on the beach and grey seals bob out at sea. The tidal Pilgrim’s Way and the nearby causeway mean Lindisfarne is only reachable at low tide, and the new stretch of the England coast path now links the island to the mainland after the original 62-mile route once bypassed it.

Waymarked posts guide walkers through dunes freckled with cowslips, past Gertrude Jekyll’s walled garden and the craggy Lindisfarne Castle, refurbished as a home by Edward Hudson with Lutyens interiors and a telescope trained on the seal colony and harbour obelisks; the priory ruins, the museum of carved stone crosses and Pilgrims Coffee are close by.

Bus 477 from Berwick-upon-Tweed runs to the island (with discounts for castle and priory) and Berwick makes a handy base for this end of the path. From Budle Bay I continue south to Bamburgh, where new seasonally sensitive coastal access opens in summer alongside a short year-round path on the bay’s south-eastern edge.

England, Lindisfarne, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bamburgh

england coast, coast path, king charles, lindisfarne, holy island, pilgrims way, lindisfarne castle, gertrude jekyll, grey seals, berwick-upon-tweed