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Route Spurn Head County East Riding of Yorkshire Difficulty Easy Distance 13 km (8 miles) Typical time 4 hours OS grid reference: TA 417158; Explorer 292 Starting point Bluebell car park, Kilnsea

Blister rating: 1/5 View rating: 3/5

Why I love this walk

Spurn is one of the strangest places in England. The last lonely outpost of the East Riding of Yorkshire, it’s a four-mile spit of sand and shingle created by coastal erosion.

It curls a giant finger across the Humber estuary and in places is only 50ft wide. Every few years storms breach it, cutting off the resident lifeboat crew, who huddle with their families in a gale-lashed cluster of houses at the far end. They redefine remoteness.

The Spurn walk, along a sandy path lined by orchids and dog roses, is surreal, akin to a tightrope between the North Sea and the shimmering estuary. The skies are vast, the sense of space is inspiring, the tide slurps and slushes, the wind flails the long grass. It feels as if it’s the edge of a very flat world.

The beaches are idyllic on a sunny day and it’s one of the best places in Britain to see migrating birds, which hundreds of visitors do at weekends. Midweek is quieter. Years ago, I tried to get there by bus. “There’s one on Monday afternoons,” said the inquiries clerk. “And there’s one back on Wednesday mornings.” I took a taxi.

The route

1 From the Bluebell car park and visitor centre at Kilnsea, follow the road south to reach Spurn Bird Observatory (420150).

2 From here continue south for 3 miles along the spit until you come to the High Light lighthouse (403113) and its earlier counterpart the Low Light lighthouse on the beach nearby — both now redundant.

3 Keep ahead past the lifeboatmen’s houses (403112), the coastguard and Humber pilots’ centre just beyond, and a number of wartime bunkers and blockhouses, to reach the shore at the southernmost tip of Spurn Head (397105).

4 From here, retrace your steps up the promontory to Kilnsea car park.

Things to see: Rare, beautiful flowers and birds all down Spurn; sundry failed methods of holding back the sea; lighthouses and lifeboat station at Spurn Head

Café rating: 3/5

Café: A hot mug of tea and a nice gooey flapjack at the Bluebell Café in the car park at Kilnsea after your windy saunter down Spurn makes it all worthwhile...

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