Today we got to D in our alphabet of walks and did a circular walk from Dunwich via Walberswick.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Tuesday January 21st. D is for Dunwich. We will meet at Dunwich Free Car Park IP17 3EN at 10.15am. (toilets here) and walk the beach over to Walberswick for morning drinks at The Adnams Pub, The Bell Inn. Possibly….our packed lunch at the Recreation ground but be prepared to be flexible. Then back inland via The Sandlings and Suffolk Coastal Paths. Some new King Charles III footpaths, footbridges and boardwalk open on our route. "
This was our route today.
Here are a few of my photos.
We met at the Dunwich Beach Car Park. The café is closed for the winter so no warming drinks before we started our walk.
Looking South along the beach it was still quite misty.
I heard a song thrush and, while waiting for everyone to assemble, Jane and I went in search of. There it is!
Ready now for our briefing from Joyce before we set off.
We went along the beach to start with. It was good to get moving - it was rather too cold to stand around for long.
I didn't manage to catch it on camera but we saw a large seal just offshore. A little further on we came across these photographers, who had their lenses trained on the sea to try and catch a glimpse of any other seals.
We could see Walberswick and Southwold in the distance as we headed towards them.
Nearing Walberswick, we left the shingle and crossed the Corporation Marshes and Dunwich River to get to the coastal path.
The Highland cow looked cold.
This is Walberswick Village Hall, start and finish for the Flower of Suffolk Walk I did in torrential rain 2019 (see
here).
We stopped at the Bell Inn for drinks to warm us up.
The Southwold lighthouse had its beam on because of the mist. I just managed to catch it shining here.
Onward now with a little loop down to The Flats and back with some nice views.
Here we had our group photo shown at the top of the post.
We didn't visit Southwold Harbour - that's for another day when I lead a walk in February.
We re-crossed the Dunwich River.
Our lunch stop was at the recreation ground. It was a little early, but we wouldn't be passing any more seats on the rest of the walk.
We had a view across the River Blyth to the impressive looking
Quay House, now available as a "holiday cottage" that sleeps 14.
I remembered this house with the stag's head over the door, called
Eastwood lodge....
It is part of the ghostly Westwood Lodge, (read
here about "The Great Troubler" of Walberwick who's widow Jane married Sir William Blois - owner of Westwood Manor. It remained in the possession of the Blois family until fairly recent times). According to
its listing, it dates from the mid 16th century.
Close to the Newdelight Walks car park (where I walked with the Bury St Edmunds U3A Longer Walks group in Sep 2021 - see
here), we stopped for a quick drinks break.
Nearby was one of the series of 12 nightjar and moth sculptures on the route of the Sandlings Walk.
The name of the walk, The Sandling, as described
here, refers to "
the Suffolk Sandling that used to stretch from the outskirts of Ipswich
to Southwold which is an area of lowland heath, Britain's rarest
wildlife habitat, and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty".
We went through an avenue of gorse.
Nearly back now, I had hurried to try and catch up from a long way back. Not far behind now.
On St. James Street, Joyce had one last little surprise for us - a footpath up to Monastery Hill.
At the top was a modern house.
But instead of heading for it, we turned the other way down the hill back to the beach car park.
Thanks for leading us round, Joyce, and thanks everyone else for the additional company.
You can find more details of our 11.6 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include
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