As of March this year, the King Charles III England Coast Path is officially open, following an inauguration by the King, who walked a scenic two-kilometre stretch of Seven Sisters in Sussex.
The route is part of a major access project created over the last 16 years, spanning six different governments, negotiations with some 25,800 landowners and occupiers, and the very literal, physical process of breaking new ground along the coast – often rerouting paths around gardens, farms, quarries and wildlife sites.
When the project – which began in 2010 and was renamed in honour of King Charles in 2023 – is completed, it will be the longest managed coastal walking in the world. Around 78% of England's coast is now open to the public, projected to reach 90% later this year. In total, the path will stretch 2,700 miles, including 1,700 miles of improved access and 1,000 miles of entirely new routes.
“It was about local coast for local people,” says programme manager Neil Constable of the project he has been involved in from the very beginning. “Not just getting in your car to go 20 miles to the honeypot site that is already over-visited, but opening up the coast everywhere to bring that opportunity for everybody.”
Currently, 2,100 miles of the path are open to the public, with plenty still to be discovered. Neil highlights the scenic landmarks, hidden histories and cultural references walkers can now newly explore along the coast.
Historic granite tramways in Cornwall
The stretch between Porthallow and Porthoustock in Cornwall is one of the clearest examples of the improved access the project has delivered. Neil explains that for 50 years, the route diverted inland to bypass an old coastal granite quarry, which was still in use during the Second World War. When the quarry closed, the path remained unchanged – until the new route opened last summer.
“No one had been able to negotiate a route on the edge of the sea, if you like, on the clifftops. And we did that. So there are now two miles where you are following the old tramway that they used to bring the granite down to the harbours, which would have been taken to London for buildings,” Neil says. “This programme achieved that.”
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Tidal drama on the Bristol Channel
One of the earliest and most dramatic access gains is seen on the Somerset coast, where a new path was created along the cliff edges. “There was a gap of some four miles and no one had ever had access to, which we opened up,” the programme manager tells us. “And it's the most amazing bit of coast.”
Alongside the Severn Estuary, the UK's highest tidal range occurs in the Bristol Channel, where the water levels can vary by up to 15 metres, revealing long stretches of foreshore and its Jurassic geology when the tide is out.
A newly created path now takes walkers along the clifftops (sweeping views of Wales included) before descending briefly to the beach and climbing back up again.
Birds and Blade Runner landscapes in North Middlesbrough
North of the River Tees in Middlesborough – an area associated with heavy industry – a new path is inviting culture vultures and wildlife enthusiasts to discover an unexpected landscape: one that reportedly inspired a classic 1980s sci-fi flick while also supporting thriving birdlife.
“You probably wouldn't think of going there for your holiday,” says Neil, “You've got blast furnaces, they break up oil rigs there. You've got all sorts of industrial stuff, all neatly tucked away in their sort of big metal factories. But in between, you've got seals basking in the creeks, you've got a multitude of birds on the marshes.”
Walkers along this stretch are treated to dramatic views of blast furnaces spewing flames – the very view is said to have inspired the opening scene of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, painting a picture of post-apocalyptic America.
Hidden wartime history at the Essex coast
Another newly accessibly stretch lies along the Essex coast, as the Thames joins the sea, where the landscape reveals more than first appears.
“There's a place there where you walk along, and you think, 'Is it that scenic?' But suddenly, you're walking on the beach and there's the remains of a cocktail glass or a flat iron,” he says. These out-of-place items aren't mere beach waste, but relics from the Blitz attacks: debris from bombed London homes, “bulldozed and dumped” on the Essex coast.
“One of my colleagues pulled a roll of newspaper out of the ground there that was still intact with a date of 1934 of it,” Neil adds. “It was eerie and very poignant. You think these were people's homes that were taken out in one night (or several nights) during the Blitz, in September 1942 and May '41.
“This is what you keep coming across time and again around the coast... this country, to the extent it's transacted with anybody else in the world, has done it through the coast – and it's all there to be discovered.”
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Wanda Sachs is the Multiplatform Writer for Country Living and House Beautiful, exploring the latest in gardening, wildlife and sustainable living alongside interiors and property. She is particularly interested in human-interest stories, the intersection of design and pop culture, and the evolving relationship between urban and rural life. Previously, she served as Associate Editor at The Berliner in Berlin, where she reported on culture and fashion. Wanda studied English and German at the Goethe University Frankfurt and Exeter University.
