emilywillisblogbest walks at Budle beach
Budle beach is located in the North East of England and is a great beach to visit if you crave a secluded walk.
Budle, neighbouring Bamburgh beach in Northumberland, is less frequented than its neighbour. It really feels like a natural eden. As you walk down past the Budle Farm campsite and the stone cottages, the path is overgrown and lined with nettles and gorse. You pass the old ruined railway tunnels. Aloof a sudden the path ends and you find yourself on an initially stony beach looking out across the vast mud flats towards the pine trees lining the shores of Ross Bay. If you walk to your right and make it past the rocky section, you hit the white sands where you can take your shoes off. There is a fenced off section of beach which is given over as a wildlife reserve for the conservation of birds such as the snow bunting, long tailed duck, and arctic terns. With the scenic backdrop and the serenity, it really is a bird watchers paradise.
When you emerge onto the next section of beach beyond the nature reserve is where you hit the most spectacular part of the walk. There is a secluded strand of white nacreous sand, and a ruined beach house to your right, and to your left the ocean which always seems to be an interesting shade of sulphurous blue at this particular juncture, which is very alluring to the wild swimmer. Often when immersed up to the waist, the water is so clear you can see to your toes (a rarity in the north sea) and as you bask in the iciness of it with the sun on your face the odd paddle boarder will glide past. Otherwise the bay is silent.
As you make your way along the coast there is a concrete pier. At low tide this can be a lovely place to stop for a picnic as the pier stone warms in the sun and is nice to sit on particularly in a cold wind, and makes for a great vantage point for photos of the sea. If you sit on the beach here you are also sheltered by the dunes. At high tide you can’t walk round this on the sand and you need to ascend the dunes and find a path through the dunes and back down onto the beach on the other side.
The section of shingle on the other side of the pier offers a great stretch for swimming as well, – it’s a shallow sheltered cover which means there are often patches of warm water here, and you very rarely see other people, owing to this being the midway point of the walk and now a considerable distance from any parking either at the Budle end or the Bamburgh end. As you round the edge of this cove the beach opens out now onto a vast strand where the ocean gathers intensity and the waves start to break more forcefully. There’s a notable drop in temperature if you choose to swim here and the tide can turn quite quickly. If you walk onwards you reach the beach on the other side of the lighthouse from Bamburgh. You can read about this in the Bamburgh beach walks article here.
How to get to Budle beach
Head for Budle Farm Campsite. There is a bus stop at the crossroads here, or there is roadside parking spots that you don;t have to pay for (at peak times they can get full). If coming by train, you can get the train as far as Alnmouth or Chathill and then would need to get local bus services from there.
Is Budle Beach accessible?
Budle beach is less accessible when compared with other beaches like Bamburgh and Alnmouth in Northumberland. This is owing to the fact that unless you have a car it can be awkward to get to. Even with a car, you have to walk down a country path for a while, and then across a rocky section of beach and past the nature reserve, before you get to parts of the beach affording the best views, where you have better opportunities to swim or have a picnic.
Traversing the pier is also not accessible, as at high tide you have to climb the dunes to get around it, and at low tide your only options are to cross some rockpools at the foot of the pier or to climb over the pier itself, both of which present obstacles.
Safety at Budle beach
There are no lifeguards at Budle Bay and rarely other people other than the odd dog walker, and most of the beach is not overlooked by any houses. Whilst this makes for a stunning walk and a feeling of communion with nature, it’s worth being mindful that if you get into any kind of trouble, the chances of help being on hand are slim.
It’s worthwhile being cautious if you plan to cross the mud flats which are exposed when the tide goes out, to reach Ross Sands. It is further than you think, and the mud that mixes with the sands is pungent and thick and you can sink very deeply into it which precludes crossing it. This means when the tide is on the turn and coming back in it tends to race across the flats faster than you can make your way back.
You should also be careful when swimming on the far side of the pier as the jutting cove beyond it means water rushes in very fast on an incoming tide at an angle to the beach and can create small rip tides in places.
If climbing across the pier, be on the lookout for holes in the concrete – the pier is old and there are metal hooks sticking out in places, and there are some sections that have fallen away where a wrong footing could mean a twisted ankle or falling off the edge of the pier.
