Today we visited Holkham Hall and had a lovely walk through the estate, along Holkham beach to Burnham Overy Staithe and back via Burnham Thorpe, where Horatio Nelson was born. Dawn came too. The trip was organised by Joyce, so thanks to her. This was the invite...
"I hope you will join me at Holkham Hall and Park on Monday August 2nd . The park is open at 9am and it costs £5 per car. I'll be there at 9.30am in the car park. The Estate is stunning. I plan to walk to The LookOut at Holkham Beach for morning refreshments and to continue on our 10 mile circular walk. The walk takes us to the Holkham Dunes and Burnham Overy Staithe. You can walk in the deer park too. There are refreshments in the park and toilets etc and plenty of shade under the huge trees. Please bring plenty of drink/food with you."
This was the route of our walk. It was based on this walk, but going in the opposite direction.
In the end it was a little further than billed at about 12 1/4 miles, but we didn't mind - the weather was lovely for walking.
Here are a few of my photos...
First stop the toilets by the Courtyard Café and Gift Shop.
The 18th Century Palladian hall is impressive
There were 9 of us on the trip today. It was good to catch up with Kim, who, I hadn't seen for a while and Jane and hear about here St. Cuthbert's Way trip.
We saw a couple of deer by the lake, although we didn't see the main herd until we were on our way out.
The Coke monument. Holkham Hall was built between 1734 and 1764 by Thomas Coke, the first Earl of Leicester and remains the home of the Coke family.
From here there is a good view back to the Hall.
The North Gates and Almshouses are Grade II listed. Two ranges, originally built 1757, much remodelled and linked by the Gothic entrance screen in 1840's by S S Teulon.
We headed towards the beach via a coffee stop at the Lookout, familiar from Day 2 of our Norfolk Coast Path walk 2 years ago.
Then it was through the Holkham Gap to the beach.
We were impressed by the swathes of sea lavender.
No the sea is not rough at the horizon, it is the effect of the heat haze.
The beach is truly vast. Victorian poet Algernon Swinburne called them “wide sands where the
sea draws breath”.
Ooo look. I've found a post from my old blog from when we visited in 2008 (see here).
Joyce grabbed a shell to make the caption for our group photograph (at the top). Alas, an aitch went missing.
Now inland to Burnham Overy Staithe passing many happy families enjoying the water...
...to The Hero for a drinks stop. Another familiar sight, this was the end of Day 1 and start of Day 2 of our Norfolk Coast Path walk in 2019.
We saw a couple of people towing boats by hand down to the harbour.
Setting off once more, leaving Kim, Tina and Buzzy to take the bus back to Holkham, we found some lovely houses and gardens along Gong Lane....
...and 4 red kites! I just managed to catch this one with my camera.
At Burnham Thorpe we visited All Saints Church.
We were pleased to find it open and explored inside. There were plenty of references to Lord Horatio Nelson, who was born at the nearby rectory, which no longer exists (his father was the rector), and Jane bought one of the nice souvenir tea-towels.
The organ is small but historically valued being a rare example of an organ by Thomas Street dating from c1843.
We reentered the estate via the West Gates (and a tricky one to open).
We got a great view of the Hall across the lake on our way back....
...to the courtyard, where we found the others waiting for us.
Well that was a lovely day out. Thank-you Joyce for organising us and leading us round and the others for the company.
You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk
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