Additional information
Terrain
- Roads, tracks, field and coastal paths, 7 stiles
Landscape
- Views to sea, with offshore rocks, rolling countryside
Dog friendliness
- On lead on inland section of walk
Parking
- National trust pay-and-display car park by Souter Lighthouse; alternatively municipal pay-and-display car park by Marsden Grotto
Toilets en route
- By Marsden Grotto
About the walk
The coast of Durham south of the Tyne was long renowned for its smugglers. The natural caves at the base of the cliffs of Marsden Bay provided hiding places for illicit activity. Most famous of the smugglers was Jack the Blaster, who in 1792 used explosives to increase the size of one of the caves,... and provide steps from the cliff top. An entrepreneur, he sold refreshments to other smugglers. In the 19th century an underground ballroom was created here, and in the 1930s a lift was installed. It is now a popular pub and eating place called the Marsden Grotto. Punishment hanging One 18th-century smuggler turned informer to the customs men. His fellows discovered his treachery, and the smugglers' ship was prevented from landing its contraband cargo. As punishment the man was suspended in a basket in a shaft, now called Smugglers' Hole, near the Grotto, where he starved to death. On stormy nights his shrieks are said to be heard in the howling of the wind. The windmills of Cleadon On the walk you will pass two windmills. The first, in Whitburn, is a squat building that retains its sails. The other, higher on Cleadon Hills, was built in the 1820s, and survived until the end of the century, when it was damaged in a storm. During World War II it housed Royal Observer Corps members who scanned the North Sea for enemy aircraft. Looking south from the tower you see the Penshaw Monument. A half-sized replica of the Temple of Theseus in Athens, it commemorates the 1st Earl of Durham, 'Radical Jack' Lambton, first Governor of Canada. As you cross the golf course beyond the windmill there are views north to Tynemouth, with its castle and priory on the headland. The red-and-white striped Souter Lighthouse was opened in 1871 to protect ships from the notorious rocks called Whitburn Steel, just off the coast. It was the first light in the world to be electrically powered, by electric alternators. Originally it was nearly 0.25 miles (400m) from the sea, but erosion has brought the cliff edge much nearer. Now decommissioned and in the care of the National Trust, the lighthouse and its surrounding buildings reward careful exploration. The open areas beside the lighthouse were the site of Old Marsden, built in 1874 to house miners from Whitburn Colliery. The colliery, just to the south and now transformed into a nature reserve, operated from 1873 until 1968. Opposite the lighthouse are massive lime kilns. They burnt limestone from the quarry behind, which was then taken by rail to the docks at South Shields.
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