Headland North Beach

The cliffs at Headland North Beach drop away quite suddenly, and you realise why this stretch of Hartlepool's coastline has always mattered. It's a proper dramatic bit of Durham's shoreline - the kind of place where the North Sea looks genuinely muscular rather than just wet.

What you're really here for is the walk itself. The beach below has that raw, working-coast feel - no deck chairs, no ice cream vans, just grey sand and the constant percussion of waves. The headland path itself isn't strenuous, but it demands attention. You can see where erosion has had its say, and there's something oddly honest about that. The views back towards Hartlepool are worth the few minutes it takes to get up there.

This works well for walkers who want texture and grit rather than a sanitised seaside experience. Families will get half an hour's entertainment, maybe an hour if the kids are keen on rock pooling or fossil hunting - the geology here does throw up the odd find. Weather matters though. A grey day feels appropriately dramatic; drizzle makes it properly bleak in a way that's either atmospheric or tedious depending on your mood.

Heading to Parkdean Resorts Crimdon Dene, just four miles away near Hartlepool? Combine this with that park and you've got a proper coastal weekend sorted. Go in autumn or early spring when the place empties out. Summer crowds are thinner than you'd expect, but the whole thing benefits from that fresh-wind-off-the-sea feeling when the land's quieter.