At A Glance:
- Circular walk.
- 2.2 miles.
- Urban views.
- Largely flat, easy walking and not ‘off road’, with some hill streets. Several roads to cross (not massively busy).
- Not all paths are accessible for pushchairs/wheelchairs.
- Interesting historical, architectural and industrial points of interest.
- Dog friendly.
A town walk with some historical highlights.
Autumn days call for as much time outside as you can manage to ensure you get those all important rays of sunlight into your eyes.
So it was that on a recent sunny Sunday, we headed to Gorleston, just along from Great Yarmouth, to try a new-to-us circular walk.
Different to most of the walks that we do that take in coast and countryside, this walk takes you along the quayside into the heart of Gorleston town.
Short in length and not challenging, I wouldn’t necessarily class it as ‘typically’ scenic, but it is certainly an interesting little sojourn.
We parked on the seafront, which is free if you can get a space, and headed down along Brush Quay, where you’ll walk beside the River Yare.
Views are beautiful in a semi-industrial way, and amidst the newer buildings, you’ll encounter the RNLI Lifeboat station (gifted by the City of Leicester, interestingly enough) and the old Gorleston Volunteer Lifeboat House as well a short section of historic waterfront, complete with the remnants of timber ‘dolphins’, wooden piers that provided access to the deeper waters of the river and enabled mooring.
Eventually you turn inland away from the river and towards the town, past the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen ‘Institute for Fishermen and Fisherlads’, erected in 1897, through the pretty Priory Gardens and past St Andrew’s Church and the Old Custom House.
The route takes you along the streets of Gorleston and back to the start via Cliff Hill, which boasts some stunning multi-level properties that must enjoy some great views out to sea and have stepped gardens in the cliff.
We returned to the promenade just as the sun was setting.
Gorleston is a lovely town and this was an interesting walk that took us past some places that link it back to it’s rich, far reaching history, that you wouldn’t necessarily normally come across.
