Norfolk Coast Path

When I walked it, this Norfolk Coast Path was 76 km long and ran along the north Norfolk Coast from Hunstanton to Cromer, along most of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Most of its length was also within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and in what is designated a Heritage Coast, including several National Nature Reserves, Special Protection Areas and Special Areas for Conservation - a bureaucratic morass but highly indicative of a special natural landscape.

Rather oddly, it was joined with the Peddars Way, a route entirely different in character, to form a single National Trail. One rather suspects a decision by committee working to tick enough boxes to satisfy pre-defined criteria - they don't even form a continuous length as the Norfolk Coast Path starts in Hunstanton, several kilometres to the south-west of the end of the Peddars Way, though it does pass the end of the latter. I've treated the two segments as two separate walks.

On my final walk, to Cromer, new signs were being erected, also bearing the legend "Norfolk Coast Path", as part of the opening of the first section of the England Coast Path in East Anglia. How the current named coastal footpaths will be integrated with the England Coast Path I don't yet know - for instance, will the current inland diversions be "lost" as waymarked routes? Assuming we continue to live in Suffolk, I plan to come back one day and walk the sections of the new England Coast Path in the other direction, so even on the long sections in common, it will look different.

My walks on the Norfolk Coast Path

Date From / to Distance on Path   Approx time Colour

Total walked so far: 75.7 km - completed (but see introductory notes above).

Norfolk Coast Path links

Home Up Angles Way Capital Ring Chiltern Chain Walk Hertfordshire Chain Isle of Wight Coast Path Lea Valley Walk London Loop Mid-Suffolk Footpath New River Path Norfolk Coast Path North Downs Way Peddars Way Ridgeway South West Coast Stour & Orwell Walk Stour Valley Path Suffolk Coast Path Thames Path Yorkshire Wolds Way