Get Lost Mountaineering
You are here: England » Humberside and Holderness Coast
This is the north side of the Humber Estuary, including Spurn Point, and up the East Yorkshire Coast as far as Bridlington.
There is much erosion of this coastline so any descriptions may be out of date fairly soon (after 2026) especially where the path is near the top of the cliffs which are very soft and crumbling at quite an alarming rate. There are many examples of roads which now go over the current cliff line. Roads which followed the top of the cliffs have often been washed away. This is very noticeable on Seaside Lane in Tunstall, at Aldbrough, at Ulrome and at Barmston. Previous paths sometimes followed the cliff top road but, where this has been washed away, a lengthy detour may be needed as some landowners are reluctant to agree to a footpath across their land. This is the case just to the north of Sand le Mere holiday Park in Tunstall where the detour is about 4 times longer than the direct route.
The current cliffs (2026) are usually too steep and unstable to allow easy access to the beach but there are safe routes down in a few places. Be careful not to get stuck on the beach when a high tide is coming in so do check tide times especially if you are intending to walk along the beach as the high tides often reach the bottom of the cliffs especially around Aldbrough.
The coastline has been broken up into small sections which can easily be combined into longer days. This is because the state of the coastline is constantly changing so don't overly rely on the details given in the walks as things may have changed since. Buses run from Bridlington to Hornsea and from Hornsea to Withernsea but the route is sometimes a fair distance from the coast. For example, Aldbrough has a bus stop close to coast near the Sellwood Arms yet Garton bus stop is about 2 km from the coast. If possible, combine the section from Tunstall to Garton with the one from Garton to Aldbrough to avoid the problem with the Garton bus stop being some distance from the coast.
There is a major potential hazard between Aldbrough and Mappleton because of the now closed RAF Cowden which used both the cliff top fields and beach as a bombing range up to about 1990. The official King Charles III coastal path goes around the back of the range meaning quite a detour on rough paths. It is best to use the beach for this section which is regularly patrolled to check for any unexploded ordnance revealed by the crumbling cliffs. Unexploded ordnance is rarely found these days but when it is, there may be a temporary beach closure. Under NO circumstances stay on the cliff tops as the going is very rough and over grown so any unexploded ordnace may well be hidden from sight.