What did you get for Christmas? Have you been for your Boxing Day walk yet? Are exactly the questions I would have been asked if I had rung my siblings over Christmas! And thinking of the questions have made me think of our fabulous walk last month on Tyninghame Beach. Guide books, websites and MrB’s niece will all tell you about the expanse of golden sands here, it is considered one of the best places for coastal walks. Very different to your Christmas Walk Jo, but you would love it. You begin your stroll inland with views of cabbages.

And then depending on the weather or your own personal fitness you can either enjoy a short stroll through a wood to the dunes, or head out onto the cliffs to St Baldred’s Castle for a longer hike. Whichever route you take you will eventually end up on the glorious Ravensheugh Sands, well you will if you remember to take note of the tides. Since at high tides much of the beach is impassable as we discovered the other week!

Hide Tide

However there are benefits of a hide tide, and that’s seaweed and bird life. Blending in with the seaweed there were Ruddy Turnstones, Oystercatchers, Purple Sandpipers, Pipits, a Red Shank and a couple of Pied Wagtails

The Turnstones were having a great time finding things to eat in the seaweed, although the strong winds and high tide were creating difficulties for them too.

Incoming

We were not the only creatures on the beach; there were other dog walkers and even some picnickers with everything but the kitchen sink. The latter though seemed sane compared to the solitary surfer. Whilst Ravensheugh Sands are wide and extensive, there are also numerous rocky outcrops along this stretch of coast. It didn’t seem a sensible place or time to attempt to surf alone.

A quick check of the tide times on our phones highlighted we had arrived at the height of the tide, and so we had no chance of getting to St Baldred’s Castle from the beach or reaching the other beaches to our north. So we headed back along the increasingly narrow beach, even the waders were struggling to hold their position.

Our walk may have been shorter than envisaged and the weather grey but Tyninghame Beach was everything we had been promised. We will be back!

High Tide

35 thoughts

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  5. Well that was fun. Love the birdlife Becky. I’ve not seen that many Oystercatchers in one place. Here they are in two’s and three’s and up to five.

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  6. Thanks for taking us on that walk. No beach for me, a walk however. After a birthday party (comes around every year, regular as clockwork) I walked home alone in the dark through the woods (my husband and son had given up before me and had walked home earlier). It was a beautiful walk, all by myself in the forest.

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  7. Gorgeous. Not sure I’ve been to this beach, though we’ve been in and around Dunbar a few times. Love the picture of the birds scrabbling in the seaweed. We had a bird encounter on our last visit to Dunbar. A seagull attacked John’s head, so our walk was up the main street looking for a chemist to buy antiseptic wipes!

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  8. No Boxing day walk for us today, far too wild and windy! But we did manage a Christmas day one instead. Your beach looks fab, I have yet to see oystercatchers close up here though I know they are around.

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    1. You did better than us on walks….all our last minute guests meant we didn’t get out! Thank goodness for memories of walks

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  11. I rarely saw a greyer sky or choppier sea, Becky, but I am a firm believer in Boxing Day walks… especially if there’s a beach involved 🙂 🙂 There were one or two Boxing Day dips going on too! Most of my walking today was around Manchester airport so I’m very grateful for the breath of fresh air 🙂

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