Shingle Street Walk

Still restricted to walking with only 1 other person, last week I invited Ann to walk with me today and she happily agreed. I fancied doing some walking by the sea and thought I'd do a longer version of the Shingle Street walk I did in August 2019. I parked in Shingle Street where I did previously, but I had given Ann a bum steer on the address based on misreading the write-up of somebody else's walk and she parked in East Lane just out of Bawdsey. [Note to self - send a map marking the meeting point in future]. So we got a bit of a longer walk than planned as we first had to walk to each other to meet. We met up on the beach about half way between our cars and I started my route from there. Here is a map of it.

On the way there I had driven through quite thick fog, but that cleared just about 3 miles from the coast and it turned into a beautiful day, although it was a bit frosty to start. Our route followed the Suffolk Coast Path for the first six miles before we turned inland and headed back via Boyton and Hollesley.

Here are a few of my photos.

The night before it was a bit foggy. Would it be OK to drive to the coast in the morning?

Well it was foggy most of the way but not too thick to be able to drive safely. At Shingle Street the mist was disappearing but it was still a bit frosty.

I headed down the coast to meet Ann passing this Martello tower.

There she is!

We passed Shingle Street including (see photo at the top of the post) the enduring decorated trail of shells that goes from one of the coastguard cottages down to the sea (see here for the story) and set off along the coast path. Look at all these birds on the shoal emerging from the water as the tide ebbs! Are those black ones cormorants, we wondered?

At the end of Oxley marshes, the path follows this creek inland for a bit before crossing it.

We both loved these old bits of timber sticking out of the water as we walked back on the other side.

We saw and heard plenty of birds. Are these redshanks probing in the mud for sustenance with their sharp pointy beaks?

We saw a horserider coming the other way

"Don't forget to look back"... is useful to remember when walking. I loved the dramatic skies behind us looking towards the mouth of the River Ore.

Up ahead of us we could see Orford Castle and Church lit up by sunshine through the lingering mist.

The views are vast across flat landscape and the path was good. In fact we had hardly any mud along the whole length of the walk.

In the distance we could also make out the pagodas on the strange yet beautiful Orford Ness. But the iconic red and white striped lighthouse is no more, alas. The view reminded me of my fabulous walk there in 2019 (see here).

What's this? A stile? That was unexpected.

I had missed the turning I had intended to take, but no worries. It gave us a little longer along the coast. Now we turned inland towards Boyton. Are we on the right path? Here are a couple coming the other way. Well the path must go somewhere, we thought.

We stopped at Boyton Village Hall for our lunch break.

Here we found the village sign as we set off on the return leg.

We passed Hollesley Youth Detention Centre. Ann told me they have regular escapes. Not over this fence, I imagine.

Turning off the road onto a path by the Suffolk Punch Sanctuary, we came across a couple of pigs. This one was right on our path and took not the slightest notice as we walked past.

Approaching Hollesley we saw some animals rush past us on the other side of the fence. It was some deer!

All Saints, Hollesley Church is quite impressive....

...but we didn't have time to visit if we were going to finish our walk before dark. Now it was back towards Shingle Street, past Dumb Boy Cottage where, according to this leaflet, smugglers could leave messages without fear of betrayal.

We then followed the path alongside the creek back to the southern end of Shingle Street.

At the sea wall, I said goodbye to Ann as she turned south towards her car and I turned back through Shingle Street towards mine.

I was soon back at my car and the houses on the edge of nowhere.

That was a fabulous walk. We were so lucky with the weather too. I think I would do it again.

You can see more detail of our route here on MapMyWalk and plenty more of my photos here on Flickr.