Our hotel for two nights overlooks the mouth of the River Tyne and from our bedroom window we have a wonderful view of one of the three lighthouses that guard the entrance to the river.

Built in 1882 the Herd Groyne lighthouse was restored In November 2024, taking around six months to complete. The work cost £250,000, with a donation of £100,000 from the Barbour Foundation, which uses the lighthouse as its logo on some of its clothing. An exciting moment is when the DFDS ferry from Amsterdam glides past – takes me back to the many ferry trips on the Dana Anglia from Harwich to Esbjerg in Denmark, before the advent of cheap air travel.

So, today we are walking south and start by walking through groups of strange bronze figures. “Conversation Piece” is a public art installation created by Spanish artist Juan Munoz in 1999 – I wonder what they have found to talk about.

From here we drop down to Littlehaven beach, a safe spot for boating, swimming and paddleboarding, as it is well protected by its two piers.

There are brave attempts to encourage people to clear up their litter.

But the message hasn’t got as far as the end of the promenade where we are directed up on to the sea cliffs.

We walk in the sunshine on a wide sandy path that curls around Frenchman’s Bay and a while later drops down to Marsden Sands.

Tucked into the base of the cliffs, across the bay, sits the pub/restaurant that I have been wanting to visit for quite a long time.

Access is via a lift or some steep steps down to the beach – we take the lift.

Well – despite the screeching of seagulls, nesting in the nearby cliffs, and the slightly musty smell, this really is a very unusual spot for a cup of tea and a cake. It also has a large dining hall hacked into the cliff with subdued lighting and heavy chandeliers hanging from the rocky ceiling. We sit and watch a couple of people in wetsuits engaged in coasteering around the massive sea stack in front of the outside bar.

In the lift going up we read about its colourful history with talk of ghosts and such. After the great reviews in the Sunday newspapers I find it slightly disappointing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsden_Grotto#History

Our next landmark is the lighthouse at Souter. Built in 1871 to warn ships of the dangerous rocks at Whitburn Steel, Souter was the first lighthouse in the UK, and one of the world’s first, purpose built lighthouse to use electricity. Decommissioned in 1988 It is now in the protective hands of the National Trust and looks well looked after.

A bench on the way offers its services – maybe a relief for some, but over the years, having walked past hundreds of memorial benches with flowers in varying stages of decay, I have developed a slight aversion to this way of honouring the dead – but whatever floats your boat.

We walk past more sea stacks – a nesting platform for hundreds of squaking screeching seabirds. I used to like seagulls but ever since our experience in Scarborough I have viewed them as an invasive species…..sorry

A pretty signpost – our direction is Sunderland today nut tomorrow we will be sailing across the Tyne.

Whitburn Sands falls beneath our feet followed by Seaburn and its lighthouse – Meiks lighthouse, one of the very few cast iron lighthouses in the country.

Three names are now competing for the path – King Charles England Coast Path, Tyne and Wear Heritage Trail and the Weardale Way. We continue straight on, past yet another three lighthouses, all protecting the entrance to Sunderland Harbour.

No idea what these concrete structures are – seats? I later discover they are just that, but are also part of a Riverside Sculpture project – the seven lunar pieces are meant to represent the seven phases of the moon.

A little later we reach Sunderland Marina and further down the path Sunderland Glass Centre where we stopped last time.

Outside the centre stands a steel sculpture, a tribute to the vital role Sunderland women played in the shipyards during the first and second world wars. I know I have taken this photo before, but as my granddaughter is called Molly I take another one.

Distance: 10 miles