A walk around Spurn Head (9 miles)

Spurn Head 'High' Lighthouse

Whilst visiting friends in Hull, I took a day off and walked around Spurn Head. I parked in the Discovery Centre car park, £5 for the day, payable either at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Kiosk in the car park (if open), or at the Centre.

In 2013, exceptional tides and storms created an approx 1km breach in the spit at the landward end, washing away the road. You can still proceed but only during the 3-4 hour window either side of low tide. The YWT publishes tables of 'Do not cross' times. Fortunately, as luck would have it, I had timed it perfectly: low tide was about 1pm, so I had plenty of time to complete my circumambulation.

After a coffee in the Centre cafe, I set off around 10:30am and crossed the breach on firm sand. (In the absence of a road, vehicles travelling to the Head drive along this sand, before climbing back onto the surviving road.)

I then walked all the way along the seaward (Eastern) beach to the end of the spit, which provided good walking on firm sand. The black and white lighthouse tower out on the headland seems so near and yet so far, but I eventually reached and passed it to round the tip, Spurn Point. I then got onto 'dry land' to explore the headland. There are layers of history, including the classic black and white striped 'High' lighthouse (operational 1895-1985, now restored and open occasionally), a 'lower light' on the Eastern beach (its lantern was removed and is now replaced by a water tank), a Vessel Tracking Station with a surveillance radar rotating on its roof, and extensive remains of WW1 and WW2 military camps and fortifications. In WW1, German Navy warships bombarded the Yorkshire coast, and the area, including Spurn Head was heavily fortified as a result. In WW2, anti aircraft guns were added to pick off bombers heading for the Humber ports.

There was a lifeboat station on the spit until 2025, when it was moved to Grimsby. Modern houses were built for the crew's families, replacing earlier Victorian cottages which were demolished. Information boards have photos of the family life of the crews: quite sad to think of the little community now lost. (The info boards about the lifeboat station seem to pre-date the closure!)

I returned along the 'landward' (Western) side of the spit via a mix of the road and beach. Several individuals were laid out flat on the muddy shore: I think they were meticulously planting sea grass by hand, as part of a general project around our coasts to restore this increasingly rare carbon-sequestering habitat. Quite a lot of the grass and dune alongside the beach is fenced off as nature reserve, so opportunities to swap between the road and beach are limited. Near the breach, the path along the bluff has fallen away, and you are diverted down onto the Western beach.

With my various wanderings around the headland, I walked about 9 miles in total.

All in all, this is a wonderful walk, with a sense of adventure, history and nature (most fellow walkers seemed to be birdwatchers, hoping to catch some autumn rarities). It is likely that erosion by the sea will continue, amplified by climate change. The breach will widen, and might become permanently submerged, making Spurn Head an island, so best do this walk whilst it is still possible.

Here are some photos. It was a sunny morning, clouding over later, with good views out across the sea to the offshore wind farms, and across and along the Humber Estuary.