A coastal odyssey from Bridlington to Broughty Ferry

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Introduction

This is a photographic record of the coast of north-east England and south-east Scotland. The end points are Bridlington and Broughty Ferry.

I didn’t set out with any intention of making a continuous and extensive record of this sort. In the early years of the Geograph project from 2005 onwards, living first in Durham, then in Hexham, I made occasional trips to the coast. But it was not until 2010 when I embarked on a series of multi-stage coastal walks that the germ of an idea was formed. The first such was the coastal part of St Oswald’s Way (May to August 2010).

This was followed by:
The Berwickshire Coast Path (April 2013 to March 2016)
The Durham coast path (November 2015 to February 2016)
The East Lothian Coast Path and eastern end of the John Muir Way (March 2016 to April 2019)
The coastal part of the Cleveland Way (November 2017 to June 2018)
The Fife Coastal Path (March 2019 to August 2022)
The Headland Way (May 2022)
And sundry other locations over the years.

Gradually a plan formed in my head to build up a gallery of photos taken within a continuous chain of contiguous coastal kilometre squares of the National Grid. Initially the line of the chain was determined by following a plausible route overland including bridges and ferries. This involved some considerable diversions inland – specifically at the mouth of the Tees, and between Budle Bay and Holy Island in Northumberland where the St Oswald’s Way makes a great loop inland to take in the hills behind Detchant.

Subsequently I have decided to keep more strictly to the sea, even if it involved vaulting over gaps in the coast which were not feasible routes. These jumps include: across the mouth of the Tees, across Budle Bay and Holy Island Harbour, across the mouth of the River Eden (Fife) and across the mouth of the Firth of Tay. These late-day amendments are work in progress.

As my plan formed, I thought it might be a nice idea to have an alliterative pair of end points – namely Filey to Fife Ness. A bit later, I had the idea of expanding the project to include major towns at either end – Bridlington to Dundee. At the very last moment, I decided to also give them an alliterative ring, and finished up with the title in its present form: Bridlington to Broughty Ferry.

Let us have a quick reminder of what this project is NOT

1. It is not a record of a single continuous walk - the photos have been taken over a period of 17 years from 2005 right through to 2022.
2. It is not even a record of a continuous track over the ground. In a few places, I have popped in to take a handful of photos from a single spot.
3. Nor has it been covered in a consistent direction. The coast to the south of the Tees has largely been covered north to south; whilst to the north of the Tees (with the exception of the coast of North Tyneside and the southern shore of the Firth of Forth) it has largely been covered south to north. It is however presented here from south to north throughout.
4. It has not all been covered on foot - about 16% has been covered by bike and 2% by car.

Some statistics:
A total of 602 photographs have been selected from about 3,500 geographs posted for about 675 kilometre grid squares. The total number of photographs taken during this project cannot be easily deduced, but is probably in the order of two to three times the number uploaded to the Geograph project.

About 53% of the route has been covered solo, leaving about 47% undertaken in the company of others. Their assistance is detailed under the heading "Acknowledgements".

The journey has been divided up into a number of separate parts.

And in case you don't know - you can click on any photograph to enlarge it and read an extended description.

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