Great Day Out at Spurn Point

Left: North Sea; Right: Humber

The Humber river does not only separate Hull from Lincolnshire but its north bank also marks the beginning of what historical linguists call northern English. I have grown quite fond of the estuary in all its brown glory and was intrigued to see what it looks like when it finally meets the North Sea at Spurn Point. Spurn Point is a 3.5 mile long sand and shingle island. It is only 46 metres wide in some places and protrudes out into the water like a hook. It even featured in the BBC show Seven Natural Wonders as Yorkshire’s coastal gem.

Withernsea beach

It’s possible to get to Spurn Point from Hull without too much trouble. We took the 75 bus to Withernsea. There we had 50 minutes to kill before our connecting bus arrived so we had a wander about the place. It’s your typical bucket-and-spade seaside town with tacky arcades (I never understood why the English are so fond of them) and myriads of places where you can get a mediocre coffee and ice cream on the go. But it feels strangely out of the way, which I didn’t like. I’d rather go to Hornsea for my bucket-and-spade beach feel. Luckily, the 73 bus to Easington arrived on time and we hopped on. It turned out that we could have left the 75 at a village called Patrington already and catch the 73 from there thus cutting time, money and Withernsea off our journey but at least we know for next time.

The bus dropped us off right next to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust building. From there we set off to walk the entire perimeter of Spurn Point starting with the stretch of beach on the North Sea side. The weather was terrific and I searched the beach for pretty shells and little stones. The less pretty ones I threw at John :) I was rather chuffed with my findings but I wasn't lucky enough to find a fossil, which is a shame as they are apparently quite common among the pebbles.

Every once in a while we ran up the dunes to see what the view was like on the river side. The tide only just began to rise so the Humber’s mud flats were still very visible. They might be rich in nutrients making a diverse wildlife possible but they are not all that aesthetically pleasing so back to the North Sea side we went. 3.5 miles can really start to drag when you’re walking on sand and once we made it to the tip of Spurn Point it was definitely time for a break. It is pretty windy there so our lunch was mixed with a gnashing quantity of sand as we were watching large ships cross the Humber-North Sea threshold. Gnash, gnash...

Coffee definitely required a less windy spot so we climbed up the sand dunes and found shelter in an old, overgrown gun battery used during WW1 and 2 to keep the Germans out, heh. Clearly it didn’t work! My celebratory invasion coffee tasted amazing, I admired my new stones and just chilled in the sun. It was pure bliss. But we had a bus to catch and still a few miles to walk so on we went to the Spurn Point lighthouses on the southern river side.

It’s pretty amazing to think that at least 8 lighthouses have disappeared here since the 15th century. The still intact one was built in the late 19th century but you can see that it was decommissioned 30 years ago as the paint is starting to peel off and the top is getting a little rusty. There are plans to turn it into a heritage centre but I’m not convinced. I really enjoyed the decay-charm you get from the lighthouse and the overgrown battery ruins. It'd almost be a shame to tidy it all up.

Shortly before we were back at the bus stop, we were lucky enough to get a glimpse of why Spurn Point is so popular with bird watchers as we witnessed a large bird gathering over the Humber. It's paradise for anyone who has binoculars with over 200 different bird species visiting throughout the year. We haven’t fixed the whole lack-of-binocular problem yet but I think it has definitely become more of a priority. The next paycheck will have to go on gear upgrades and not on adding to my ambitious collection of clothing. It was getting quite late and we had to rush to catch our bus back to Withernsea where we were in medical need of a large ice cream with flake by the beach. Overall a very lovely day and it’d be very good to have a bit more time when we go again to get more exploring done.