Although we finished stage 1 of our Norfolk Coast Path walk
in Thornham, the next part of the path is inland so we decided to pick it up
again at Brancaster. We were
originally aiming for Burnham Deepdale but this wasn’t as far as we had
anticipated so decided to carry on to Burnham Overy Staithe. Unfortunately in the hope of finding a
pub or café we took a wrong turning and ended up in Burnham Norton and, as we
couldn’t find pub, café or bus stop, we decided to walk on via the roadway to
Burnham Market rather than double back.
So we didn’t actually make it to Burnham Overy Staithe, despite seeing
it quite clearly in front of us!!
Not really knowing Burnham Market very well and coming out up one end, again with no pub in sight, we caught the bus back to Brancaster for
lunch. Burnham Market turned out
to be a lovely looking place and as we went through on the brilliant Coasthopper bus we were quite
sad we hadn’t explored it a bit further.
Another day perhaps.
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| Brancaster Staithe |
Back in Brancaster we popped over the road from the church to The Ship Hotel for lunch. The scampi and chips and warm bread rolls were lovely but unfortunately they lost our order from the bar to the kitchen somewhere so we ended up waiting for over an hour. They did take the food off our bill, in the end, but a family with young children next to us also had to enquire about their food. It was a lovely homely bar and the food was good so it's a shame the service let them down.
The directions are for as far as we got before the wrong turn and then as they are on the map. It should perhaps be noted that although this is the coastal path you are not in sight of the beach or the sea!
We parked just by the church in Brancaster. There is a car park down at the beach
and if you park here you will need to walk back up the road towards the village
until you reach the signpost for the coastal path to Brancaster Staithe. This area is all part of the National Trust's Brancaster Estate
Once on the coastal path follow it to Brancaster Staithe
harbour. You will have the back
gardens of some rather lovely houses on your right and the marsh to your
left. Most of this part of the
walk is on boardwalk. You will pass a sign on your right for the Roman Fort of Branodunum although this is just earthworks now so not much to look at sadly.
When you reach the harbour go slightly right and around
towards the harbour entrance.
There is a lobster shack on the left and the coast path continues
opposite.
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| Brancaster Staithe |
After a short distance the path crosses a roadway and runs
between two old buildings before coming out in the marshes again. Follow this path again with gardens on
your right and the marshes on the left.
The garden of The White Horse pub is along here if you need a break,
although not very well marked.
Eventually you will come to a signpost. If you want to finish in Barnham
Deepdale follow the sign to the shop and café. If not cross over and continue up some steps onwards to
Bunham Overy Staithe (another 3 ¾ miles).
The path from here onwards is along a bank. We walked this on a very blustery day,
post ex-hurricane Bertha. Although
the wind was coming from the shore and not cold we were quite exposed and it
was difficult to walk at times, and hold the camera still! I’m not sure I’d
want to walk it in a cold winter wind!! We were rewarded though by large flocks of geese flying over us.
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| Geese over Burnham Overy Marshes |
Eventually the bank swings right and Burnham Overy Staithe
is in front of you to the left, however, the bank then turns right again to go
around the marshes so you are going back on yourself. This is where we made the wrong decision. (Note to self: get a
map!) You will come to a T
junction with a signpost to carry on on the coastal path or take a public
footpath. Because we were tired
from battling with the wind we decided to head to the nearby village we could
see on the footpath. This was a bad move as
Burnham Norton didn’t appear to have any facilities, nor a Coasthopper bus stop, so we then ended up walking another grumpy mile to Burnham Market instead.
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| Burnham Overy Staithe |
However, if you continue on the coastal path to the left with
the windmill in front of you then left again you will arrive in Burnham Overy
Staithe.
Our route was 7 miles (would have been 6 if we hadn’t
detoured)
Terrain: Easy, mostly flat, boardwalk, grass, could get
muddy/flooded, stile, kissing gate
Habitat: Marsh, reedbeds, estuary, harbour
Facilities: (not sure what is available in Burnham Overy
Staithe) Parking, toilets and kiosk at Brancaster beach. The Ship Hotel in
Brancaster. The Jolly Sailor and The White Horse on route. Burnham Deepdale has
shops and café.
You can see other photos from this walk and previous walks on the Norfolk Coast Path in my Flickr album
