- There and back walk – 2.25 miles (or more, or less, depending on how much energy you put into the sculpture trail)
- what3words address for parking: ///equity.trucked.bunks
- GPX File
The car park is opposite the Calgary Art Gallery and the tearoom.
We stopped for a coffee at the tearoom (great coffee – roasted on Skye) after parking and then paid our donation (£2.50 each) to the lady in the arts centre for access to the ‘Calgary Art in Nature’ sculpture trail. Your £2.50 gives you unlimited access for a year.
The sculpture trail winds through the woodland behind the gallery and down towards the sea. The gpx file shows something of our route, but just wander (as we did – randomly!) There’s a map showing various trails. It isn’t the Yorkshire Sculpture Park but it’s a good way to experience the woodland. The trail begins by following the left wall of the arts centre (as you look at it from the road) and there’s a gate behind this building. There are marker posts for suggested routes but, as I mentioned, we just wandered for a while.
We then followed a track towards the sea and then a gravelled path that runs along the northern edge of the bay until we reached a picturesquely disintegrating stone pier where we just sat and enjoyed the sound of the sea gurgling through loose stones. As another visitor said to us, “what a beautifully tranquil place to sit.” And the slabs of rose pink granite from which the pier was constructed were just lovely in themselves. Despite the relative popularity of the beach few people bother to follow the coastline to this point.
There is also a track on the OS map that veers off from here (east-north-east) towards what looks like the ruins of an abandoned village at ///poem.images.washroom (though it’s not labelled as such on the map) but the sun was hot, the bracken was high and we were feeling too relaxed to fight our way through the vegetation, midges and ticks. We ambled back the way we had come, looped through the woodland on a different path and bought a blanket from the Arts centre that was just closing. Some really good local things for sale here.
A short walk but plenty of interest and great views; a beautiful spot.
Download file for GPS
