Beadnell Haven

The harbour at Beadnell is one of those places that rewards you for bothering to turn up. It's a proper working fishing village affair - boats bobbing in the shallows, a scatter of stone cottages facing the sea, the kind of spot where locals actually live their lives rather than performing them for tourists.

You can wander the beach itself, which is golden and wide at low tide, or spend an hour picking through the rock pools. The village has a calm, unhurried feel that makes it easy to lose an afternoon just sitting on a bench watching the light change across the water. There's a lifeboat station if you're into that sort of thing, and the remains of old lime kilns dotted about if you fancy a bit of industrial archaeology.

Families do well here - the beach is safe for paddling, there are no crowds to speak of, and kids find the pools endlessly entertaining. Walkers passing through the Northumberland coast path will recognize it as a sensible lunch stop. History types get something from the Victorian era buildings scattered about.

It's free, obviously, and you can spend as little as thirty minutes or stretch it to half a day. The nearest proper facilities are in Chathill, though there's often a van selling tea near the harbour itself. If you're staying at Beadnell Bay Camping just up the road, you're on your doorstep. Worth the drive out from the main coast route? Absolutely.