Best coastal walks in Britain
July 8th, 2009 | by lucy |
Since Britain’s weather doesn’t always encourage sunbathing on the beach, an alternative way to enjoy the sea is walking near it. Yet another handy list from The Guardian covers 10 of the country’s best coastal walks. Most aren’t longer than 6 – 8 miles, realistically taking into account the tempting distractions you might come across, including rock pools, fossils, windmills and seals. The walks reflect the variety of Britain’s coastal landscapes, such as the vertiginous cliffs of Beachy Head and the eternal sands of Holkham, as well as a section of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path.
The list was put together by Martin Wainwright, author of The Coast to Coast Walk. Read in the Guardian
Some possibly unrelated posts
The oldest osprey of the UK – and probably the world – has returned to her eyrie in the Scottish highlands. When she left for West Africa at the end of last summer, no one expected her to return. At 26 she’s lived 3 times longer than most female ospreys. In her life she’s laid 58 eggs and hatched 48 chicks, a massive individual contribution to the survival of ospreys in Scotland, where there are still only about 200 breeding pairs. The questions now are if her mate will return and if she is still fertile. Events can be followed on the 
Otters, water voles and fish are all benefitting from the improved quality of the UK’s waterways, now described as the cleanest since the industrial revolution. Since almost disappearing from the wild in the 1970s, otters are thriving, particularly in the south west of England, Cumbria and Northumberland. The population of water voles, highly precarious in the 1990s, is also beginning to recover. The good results of stricter pollution controls and extensive conservation work are set to continue in the new year with the introduction of new European water quality directives.











