St Baldred's Cradle

Crawford Macnab

23 July 2023

Possibly a record 24 walkers (and one dog) gathered at Tyninghame Links car park for the walk to St Baldred’s Cradle.

The walk started by heading along the edge of Little Binning Wood and then Fir Links Wood, emerging at the edge of the Tyne Estuary. A good opportunity for a group photo.

We continued round the edge of Fir Links Wood avoiding the marshy ground before heading to the crop of land called Sandy Hirst. The lead group paused briefly to chat to three girls that had camped overnight and were packing away their tents on to a convenient wheeled trolley. Mike pointed out an area where Samphire was growing in abundance. A few had a go at tasting this succulent plant for the first time, while the more experienced (canny!) filled some plastic bags with the plant to take home!

We rounded the headland in to a strong wind with some slightly awkward boulders to be navigated before reaching a sheltered wood side location for our lunch stop.

Suitably refreshed the walk continued through the woods to reach the edge of Ravensheugh Sands with excellent views along the beach to the north west. A short distance walking around the headland we reached St Baldred’s Cradle.

The walk returned along the edge of the beach before retracing our steps back to the car park.

A short drive to the nearby Smeaton Nursery proved to have a convenient sheltered outside seating area where soup, cakes and tea/coffee were suitably enjoyed!

Thanks,
Crawford.