England has approximately 2,800 miles of coastline, and for most of its length it is accessible to walkers on foot. The England Coast Path — a continuous walking route around the entire English coast — is now largely complete, joining together centuries of existing paths with newly created access routes. What it reveals is a coastline of extraordinary variety: limestone arches and red sandstone cliffs, chalk headlands and dune systems, estuaries alive with wading birds and shingle beaches that groan underfoot.
Walking along the coast is one of the great pleasures of living in, or visiting, England. You are always, by definition, between two worlds: the human one and the oceanic one. The horizon is always there. The light is always different. And the paths are almost invariably excellent.
Here is our ranking of the finest sections, from a long list of outstanding candidates.
1. The South West Coast Path: Padstow to Port Isaac, Cornwall
The South West Coast Path is Britain's longest national trail at 630 miles, and almost every section of it is worth walking. But the stretch between Padstow and Port Isaac — crossing the Camel Estuary by ferry at Rock, climbing above Pentire Point, and descending through the ancient valley paths to that improbable fishing village — is, in our view, its finest thirty or so miles.