Ten years ago, the husband and I went on a British walking holiday to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We hiked the southern half of Offa’s Dyke in Wales. Well, what do you do for your 35th anniversary? Walk some more!

This adventure took place largely on the Berwickshire Coast Path and the Northumberland Coast Path. We are ten years older and wiser (or wise enough to know we are ten years older, ha!) so we requested a plan with somewhat shorter daily mileage than our previous hike: no more than 13 miles per day. Some of the trail was quite steep, so that turned out to be a good decision.

We booked our trip through one of several British companies that specialize in “walking holidays.” These outfits provide an itinerary, book accommodations, and arrange for baggage to be transferred from each stop to the next. So, all you have to carry on the trails is a day pack. It’s just a wonderfully sensible arrangement.

Since I managed to finally catch COVID exactly ten days before the trip, it was especially handy that we had planned to stay in Edinburgh for three nights before starting the hike. This was with jet lag in mind, but as it turned out, even though I had a very mild case, I still needed the extra rest before tackling the Scottish hills. We paced ourselves, saw the castle, the botanical gardens, and the national museum over three days, slept well, and by the time we set out walking, I was feeling pretty much back to normal, apart from a slight cough.

We started out in Dunbar, a fishing/resort town just south of Edinburgh. Scots were in summer holiday mode, in shorts and sandals. We were in jeans and fleeces! Our hotel was kind of like Fawlty Towers, complete with a little lounge bar featuring old folks that probably come to the same hotel every year, and a giant dog by the fireplace. It was a little tatty, but friendly and the food was good. I’d say the same about the rest of Dunbar, actually. John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club) was born in Dunbar, and there is a very nice museum in the house from which he apparently skedaddled as a boy and never looked back. Another fun fact: John Paul Jones shelled Dunbar during the American Revolution, as part of a campaign to harass the Brits on their home turf. Who knew?

From Dunbar, we walked the John Muir Link trail to Cockburnspath, where we joined the main Berwickshire Coast path. The first three days of our hike, taking us from Dunbar to Eyemouth featured the most spectacular scenery! Lots of hills and some slightly scary clifftop sections of the trail, but WELL worth it. Many, many sheep, and it was lambing season so there were loads of cute little baby sheep bounding around. There were very few people on this section, but those we met were quite chatty and curious about what a couple of middle-aged Americans were doing out in the middle of nowhere!

Because Berwickshire is not heavily populated, we had to do some doubling back with taxis at the end of each day in order to have anywhere to stay overnight. We stayed two nights in a B&B in Eyemouth, a somewhat run-down fishing town with a blue-collar vibe. Lots of tattoos. We couldn’t knock the beer and the food though, and everyone was really friendly.

From Eyemouth we walked south to a hotel in Berwick-upon-Tweed, just over the border in England. The coastal trail levels out a bit after Eyemouth, so it’s less dramatic, but still beautiful.

Then, the next morning, we took a bus from Berwick to Bamburgh for a scheduled “rest day.” Yes, that Bamburgh, AKA Bebbenburgh, of Lost Kingdom fame. (We are fans.) The castle is lots of fun, and to our delight, there was an exhibit of props and costumes from the Netflix series going on! The beach is also really lovely, although we did not go in the water. BRRRR.

Being serious history geeks, we had watched an old episode of Time Team about Bamburgh on YouTube the night before. It mentioned the Bowl Hole, a Saxon burial ground in the dunes near the castle. So, the morning after our tour, we decided to skip the first third of that day’s walk and go exploring in the dunes to look for the burial ground instead. We found it (or at least we are pretty sure we did), then lazed about on the beach for a little while watching the happiest dogs in the world, had an yummy lunch in a cafe (cheddar scones? yes please!), and hopped on a bus to Belford to resume our hike northward to Fenwick.

On our way to Fenwick, we walked inland on a stretch of St. Oswald’s Way, with a stop at St. Cuthbert’s Cave, which we’d seen on a Tony Robinson program at some point. Cuthbert pops up a lot in Northumberland history, we found. Read more here.

Because there was nowhere to stay in Fenwick, we took a taxi to the peaceful village of Lowick, where we stayed in a really excellent inn with the best breakfast of the trip (I was very excited about seeing fresh fruit!) And don’t even get me started on the venison pie that I demolished for dinner. OMG. Why don’t we eat more venison in the US? It’s not like there aren’t plenty of deer!

In fact, apart from one very unfortunate incident involving tuna, mayonnaise and corn sandwiches (WTF), we ate very well for the entire trip. Scottish seafood is great, and not just about fish and chips. OK, it’s a little heavy on the chips in the pubs, but in the more upmarket places we had excellent roasted cod and local salmon as well as Scottish mussels. We also rediscovered cheese and chutney/pickle sandwiches, which we remembered from Wales as the perfect hiking lunch.

The next day, the inn’s driver dropped us at nearby Lindisfarne, AKA Holy Island. Lindisfarne is cut off by the tide twice a day, which affects, well, pretty much everything. We walked across the mile-long causeway and just had time to visit the town museum, explore the medieval priory, and grab some takeaway sandwiches before the entire town shut down and everyone rushed to their cars to beat the tide at about 1:30. As it turned out, this was fine, as we had a peaceful picnic lunch and hike around the entire island, which is mostly a lovely nature reserve, in the afternoon. Fortunately, I was able to book us a table at a pub for dinner, and a taxi to pick us up afterwards to take us back to Lowick when the tide went out again around 8 pm.

We had a great time, but if Lindisfarne is on your bucket list, just be sure to carefully plan your day there around the tides or you could get stuck there with nothing to eat! Or worse yet, get caught on the causeway and have to wait out the tide in the little hut on stilts that has been constructed for that purpose. Per our driver, coast guard rescues are not infrequent, and even make the local news. Now that would be embarassing.

Our final day took us from Lindisfarne, along the coastal path and through another nature reserve back to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a good-sized town where we spent two more nights. Unfortunately, some of the main attractions were closed, but we could still walk around the massive Elizabethan fortress walls, visit a Cromwellian church, and take a North Sea boat trip in the afternoon. It was predictably rather cold out there, but we saw seals and loads of dolphins, so that was lots of fun.

Finally, we took a train back to Edinburgh for two more nights. We walked through Leith to have tea and scones on the the Royal Yacht, and on our last day, took the train to Stirling, where we visited the very impressive castle.

And that is the rundown of a most excellent vacation. We walked a total for about 90 miles (trail days only), averaging 12 miles per day. Unlike the last time, we had invested in proper gear, were comfortable (if a little windblown) for the entire journey, and finished up with not even one blister. We also had incredible luck with the weather, with no serious rain for the entire trip. In Scotland!

I had such a good time it was honestly a little difficult to get back to real life (and three weeks worth of sweaty laundry!) But I am adjusting–while dreaming of cloudscapes, coves and rocky beaches. The Highlands are now definitely on the bucket list.

We will definitely do this again! The one thing I might change will be the sheer number of accomodations along the way. All that unpacking and repacking just didn’t seem entirely necessary when the destinations were not really very far apart. Also, unlike on our trip ten years ago, our mobile phones worked everywhere, the map/trail apps worked fine, and there is now an app for every kind of transport. I think it might make more sense, depending on the location, to just book an AirBnB for a week or so and take buses and taxis to and from points on the trail. That would get us a washing machine as well, so we wouldn’t have to carry so much stuff with us. (That’s not knocking the tour company at all: they do what they do very well. I just think there might be a slightly more relaxed way to handle it next time.)

One takeaway for me was that I really did enjoy pushing myself more physically. I have therefore rejoined the gym I left at the beginning of the pandemic. Got to be ready for the next walking holiday, after all!

The trip has also got me thinking about retirement destinations again. Of course, it was great to be back in Europe (even the Brexited bit), with walkable towns and cities and real public transportation again. Not to mention being able to safely walk across miles and miles of farmland, with just a few polite signs asking us to please not let the sheep out and no worries about anyone pointing a gun at us. (Why, oh why, can’t we have these nice things?)

I also loved that coastal scenery, along with the very noticeable break from Virginia pollen and DC-area pollution. I just felt a lot better than I had for weeks. Maybe my destiny lies near the sea? At least in spring?