Coastwalk : walking the coastline of England and Wales

Andrew McCloy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated

The popularity of coastal walking remains unrivalled and here is a book which lays out the options in a beguiling overview from castle-dominated headlands to golden sandy bays, from chalk to cream teas, from downs to dunes and marsh to towering cliffs.

For those who favour the ultimate nonstop long-distance challenge, Andrew McCloy proposes starting at Berwick-upon-Tweed (top right) and continuing in one mighty clockwise loop to the Solway Firth (top left). For the slightly less ambitious the coastline embraces several already well established long-distance paths (notably the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, the South West Coast Path and the Norfolk Coast Path), and some entirely new routes (Cumbria Coast Path, Lancashire Coastal Way and Suffolk Coast Path).

While for weekenders or even Sunday afternooners there is the pleasure of fitting yet another intricate piece into their coastal chain. Andrew McCloy suggests where to walk, what to expect and what to look out for along the way.
He has divided his route into four coastal sections: the North Sea Coast follows the northern castles south, along vanishing eastern shores and by creek and marsh to the Thames Estuary.

The Channel Coast runs the gauntlet of bucket and spade but finds much more to enjoy between the Cinque Ports and Penzance. The Atlantic Coast includes England's only Cape, Cape Cornwall, and takes in the cliffs of North Cornwall, North Devon and South Wales; and the Irish Sea Coast leaps off from Wales along the promenades of the north-west, following the Lake District's forgotten shore, to end just over the border at Gretna Green.

Andrew McCloy's winning combination of enthusiasm, authority and readability ensures that the reader is never bogged down in facts and statistics, but is lured happily to discover the infinite variety of perhaps our greatest island asset.