Gristhorpe Cliff Tops – credit, John Fielding CC BY-SA 2.0.
Last week GNN reported on the completion of the Cross-Texas Trail that would allow Americans to enjoy the full breadth of natural beauty in the Lone Star State.
For Brits, or for those who like their hiking a little more moist, there is the just-finished King Charles III England Coast Path, a 2,689-mile-long trail along the entire coast of England.
In the works for 18 years, it’s the first trail anywhere in the world that follows the entire perimeter of a nation’s coastline.
It was recently inaugurated by the King himself, whose smile was impossible to mistake for anything other than giddy excitement as he hiked a stretch of newly-completed trail along the famous chalk sea cliffs known as the Seven Sisters.
He was joined by Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, which oversaw the creation of the trail project going back to the tenure of Gordon Brown.
Juniper said the path “is a testament to how public enjoyment, conservation, heritage, history and community can come together, helping make life better for millions of people.”
A sign for the King Charles III England Coast Path – John A, CC0
An intrepid hiker could very well have done the entire coast of England from Loch Ryan to the Tyne before, but some sections would have required walking along roads, and rambling across others.
Now, 1,000 miles of path have been newly built, intelligently connected, or renovated, which include new boardwalks and bridges as well. Only two sections are broken: one that requires a ferry to cross the Mersey, and another in south Devon where the River Erme must be forded—part of the adventure, argues Neil Constable, who led the project for Natural England.
“It is brilliant—the best thing I’ll do in my working life,” Constable told the BBC.
Quite the statement, but there’s something incredibly special, fulfilling, perhaps spiritual, and ‘just,’ in there being—at any point in the country—a road that leads to the coast, a path that forks at the sea, where whether you turn left or right, one knows they can walk for as long as they want.
ENGLAND’S COASTS: ‘Give Nature Space and it Will Come Back’: Rewilding Returns Endangered Species to UK Coast
Total completion of the King Charles III England Coast Path is predicted for the end of this year, but it will be undergoing maintenance and attention for years to come, as the 2009 Coastal Access Law that mandated the trail’s creation has inbuilt provisions if parts of the seaside route should become unpassable due to rising seas or torrential rains.
The Sussex coast, credit Tim Broadbent, unsplash
Called a “rollback,” where it was necessary to negotiate the trail across private land, all agreements were made with the clause that a could necessitate the trail being moved further inland under climate and weather conditions.
The law also secured public access to many areas that were off limits, including sand dunes, cliff tops, and across salt marsh.
MORE GREAT TRAILS: New Yorkers Will Love This New 7.5 Mile Trail Along the Hudson River Highlands Inspired by Landscape Painters
The BBC reached out to a nature-use advocacy group known as the Ramblers, which had been fighting for the creation of such a route since the Second World War. Their description of it was “transformational.”
The trail opens the tantalizing possibility for a route along the entire coast of the island of Britain, which would extend the trail to some 9,000 miles. Scotland already enshrined access to walking along its coasts through the Right to Roam legislation in 2012, but any such infrastructure is lacking.
Perspective hikers can plan their trip easily on the trail’s website here.
SHARE This Once-in-a-Lifetime Hike With Your Friends Who Love The Seaside…
