The Grey Panthers

Explorer Maps 306 & 308 - Middlesbrough & Hartlepool / Durham & Sunderland

This is a very "straightforward" walk, which doesn't really need any maps.
However, It is worth checking the latest version of the relevant Ordnance Survey map which shows the route of the England Coast Path. This path needs to be followed EXACTLY, checking finger posts indicating the way ahead, as the route potentially crosses the local Golf course. We have twice fallen out with the Golf players, who thought that we were too close to the Golf course itself.
The walk is suitable for any time of the year, and combines some history (Hartlepool Headland) with superb sea views and a bracing walk along the beach.

For a Memory Map overlay of the walk described, please select the above link.
(Overlay made with Version 5 of Memory Map)

Some new mapping software is now available which you may want to try, - QUO mapping. You can download the software for free from the link below, complete with demonstration maps. Having installed QUO, you can import and export Memory Map overlays. Thus YOU DON'T NEED Memory Map to use any of the overlays provided on the Grey Panthers web site, - just use QUO!!

Start from car park to the South of St. Hilda's Church (NZ52769 33701).
Cut through streets past a fish-and-chip shop to the Town Wall by Fish Sands.
Now turn left and walk along the promenade (take the steps down to the lower level). When you reach the breakwater, take the steps up to the upper level again. Continue past the War Memorial Gardens and the Battery on the Heugh.
Continue along the promenade until it ends, then take the footpath up above the beach (there is a pillar marked "Spion Lop" ahead of you).
Walk pst the cemetery on the Headland, and immediately turn left on the England Coast Path (ECP) footpath.
Follow this for a short distance in the new housing estate.
Where the footpath leaves the housing estate on your right, follow the path until it turns sharp left towards the railway line. Just before the railway line there is a footpath on the right.
Follow this footpath until you come to the Golf Course.
Now follow the waymarks over the Golf Course, past the Club House. Then take the footpath to Crimdon Dene.
To return, take the footpath back to the Golf Course then head to the dunes on your left.
Return along the dunes and the beach to your starting point.