A Pithy Guide to the King Charles III Coast Path

At Marske Sands, a wooden fingerpost points towards Redcar and its turning turbines, as if pointing out the obvious. The King Charles III Coast Path belongs to a 2,700 mile plan to walk round the island, or near enough¹‌‘King Charles III England Coast Path – North East and East Coast – National Trails’. 2025. National Trails <https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/england-coast-path-north-east/> [accessed 16 February 2026]²‘25 Years of the CROW Act: Why This Anniversary Matters — And Why We Need to Act Now’. 2025. <https://www.prowexplorer.com/blog/25-years-of-the-crow-act-why-this-anniversary-matters-and-why-we-need-to-act-now> [accessed 16 February 2026]. It is the sort of stroll that rewards enthusiasm with blisters. You walk north until Scotland appears, then, one assumes, you sigh and walk back again.

The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 offers a rare flash of common sense known as ‘roll-back’. Once, a legal path stayed fixed while the cliff quietly vanished beneath it. Walkers kept the right to hover above nothing or paddle unwillingly in the North Sea. Now the route shifts inland on its own³‘The England Coast Path: walking the edge of a changing coastline’. 2026. <https://www.prowexplorer.com/blog/the-england-coast-path-walking-the-edge-of-a-changing-coastline> [accessed 16 February 2026]. At last the law admits the coast moves.

There is also spreading room. The coastal margin lets you wander dunes and cliff tops instead of marching along a narrow strip like a penitent⁴‘King Charles III England Coast Path: Improving Public Access to the Coast’. Natural England. 2014. <https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/england-coast-path-improving-public-access-to-the-coast> [accessed 16 February 2026]. The joke, of course, is that you may roam freely over land the sea plans to repossess by Tuesday.

It is set to become the longest managed path on earth⁵‘Walking the King Charles III England Coast Path: North West –…’. 2025. Cicerone Press (Cicerone) <https://www.cicerone.co.uk/walking-the-king-charles-iii-england-coast-path-north-west> [accessed 16 February 2026]. So far, 2,065 miles are open from a planned 2,689. Here the route begins suddenly at Marske and stops just as suddenly at Warrenby, like a sentence abandoned halfway through. Elsewhere, whole communities still lack green space and countless paths lie forgotten. Access remains a lottery, and not everyone holds a winning ticket.

Nature pays no heed to paperwork. Landslips at Flamborough have already closed stretches⁶Pells, Matthew. 2024. ‘Is the King Charles III Coastal Path Too close to the Coast?’, This Is the Coast <https://www.thisisthecoast.co.uk/news/local-news/is-the-king-charles-iii-coastal-path-too-close-to-the-coast/> [accessed 16 February 2026]. Steps at the south landing have given up the ghost. ‘Roll-back’ will earn its keep soon enough. Building a permanent path along the fastest eroding coast in the United Kingdom is an odd pastime. The sea keeps the final word.

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  ‌‘King Charles III England Coast Path – North East and East Coast – National Trails’. 2025. National Trails <https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/england-coast-path-north-east/> [accessed 16 February 2026]
• 2
  ‘25 Years of the CROW Act: Why This Anniversary Matters — And Why We Need to Act Now’. 2025. <https://www.prowexplorer.com/blog/25-years-of-the-crow-act-why-this-anniversary-matters-and-why-we-need-to-act-now> [accessed 16 February 2026]
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  ‘The England Coast Path: walking the edge of a changing coastline’. 2026. <https://www.prowexplorer.com/blog/the-england-coast-path-walking-the-edge-of-a-changing-coastline> [accessed 16 February 2026]
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  ‘King Charles III England Coast Path: Improving Public Access to the Coast’. Natural England. 2014. <https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/england-coast-path-improving-public-access-to-the-coast> [accessed 16 February 2026]
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  ‘Walking the King Charles III England Coast Path: North West –…’. 2025. Cicerone Press (Cicerone) <https://www.cicerone.co.uk/walking-the-king-charles-iii-england-coast-path-north-west> [accessed 16 February 2026]
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  Pells, Matthew. 2024. ‘Is the King Charles III Coastal Path Too close to the Coast?’, This Is the Coast <https://www.thisisthecoast.co.uk/news/local-news/is-the-king-charles-iii-coastal-path-too-close-to-the-coast/> [accessed 16 February 2026]