Holy Island to Berwick
Moving ever Northwards along Northumberland's Heritage Coastline from Bamburgh you first reach the incredible Budle Bay and Waren Mill. Popular for bird watching and watersports, this massive estuary empties at low tide and the mud flats can be filled with sea and land birds. Next along the coast we find the causeway that at low tide leads to Holy Island, the place where thousands of visitors flock to each year to visit the birthplace of British Christianity. We then leave Holy Island and move on to the last stop on the Northumberland coast, which is the Border Town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed.
Budle Bay is a beautiful and important bird sanctuary, with huge mud flats that are exposed at low tide. The whole area is part of the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve and is very popular with birdwatchers, particularly in the winter when thousands of wildfowl and waders spend their winter on the bay's mud flats. It's a stunning, peaceful and quiet part of the the coastline, ideal for watersports enthusiasts with the wide, safe bay filling well before high tide.
Explore your guide to Budle Bay and Waren Mill...
Holy Island, also known as the Holy Island of Lindisfarne is an amazing place. It has a natural beauty that is unrivalled and an amazing and varied history. The Island itself is only accessible at low tide via a 3 mile causeway, safe crossing times are published by Northumberland County Council, but this doesn't seem to stop a hand full of people each year getting stuck in a rapidly rising tide! The waters move so fast across the plains when the tide is rising that you wouldn't actually be able to outrun the waters. On the Island there is the stunning Castle of Lindisfarne (a National Trust property) and the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory that has a museum that delves into this most Holy of place's religious heritage. The small Village on the Island is incredibly picturesque and there are many places to eat and drink.
From Holy Island it is just a short distance North up the Northumberland coast to the Border Town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, known locally simply as Berwick. It lies just two and a half miles short of the Scottish Border and is the Northernmost Town in England. For centuries Berwick was a battleground and was viscously fought over between the Scots and the English and changed hands many times until 1482 when England finally re-took it. Berwick today remains a traditional Market Town at the mouth of the River Tweed that offers many points of interest and architectural features and fine shopping, all in a lovely Coastal Town setting.