Bamburgh Beach
Three miles of pale sand under the castle, wide enough at low water to lose a dog in the distance, and rarely crowded even in August. There is no seasonal dog ban here at any time of year, which is the reason people bring dogs to this coast rather than to Yorkshire or Northumberland's own southern resorts. Park on Links Road or at the castle and walk in over the dunes.
Bamburgh Castle and Budle Bay circular
Five and a half miles in about three hours, out along the sand and rock under the castle to the lighthouse at Blackrocks Point, round Budle Point to the mudflats at Waren Mill and back inland over the golf links. Start from the pay-and-display car park on Links Road in the village, which is the largest in Bamburgh and still full by mid-morning in August. Northumberland has no seasonal dog ban on this beach, so the sand is off-lead all year; the return crosses grazed fields and a working golf course, and the Budle Bay flats hold roosting wildfowl that a loose dog will scatter.
Bamburgh to Seahouses along the beach
Seven and a half miles with barely 70 metres of climbing, three hours of it, south down four miles of open sand to Seahouses harbour and back on the dune path and field edges behind. It starts at the Links Road car park in Bamburgh, and if that is full the alternative is to run the walk in reverse from the big pay-and-display behind Seahouses seafront. The whole beach is free of any seasonal dog restriction, so it is off-lead sand nearly the entire way out, with fresh water where the Hoppen Burn crosses the beach; the inland return passes through sheep fields and along a short stretch of the B1340.