Ruth Livingstone
My book: Walking the English Coast
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Winfield’s Award
Killer Cows: Cattle Safety
Miley and his wife have to wade across a stream to escape cattle.
Incident number 1305Date: 30.08.26Site: Public footpath alongside of Egglestone Abbey near Barnard Castle. County Durham.Bull with cows and calves (Comment: very large brown cattle with small horns.)2 walkers with dog on a lead. Miley’s Report: “We were walking from woods towards grasslands alongside Egglestone Abbey. This was the only route back to the gate onto […]
Cows chase walkers AGAIN on Sussex Ouse Valley way
Incident number 1303Date: 31.5.26Site: Between Lewes and Hamsey on the river footpath BN7I dog, on a lead, 2 walkers Description: “Chased by cows on footpath, not for the first time here but very scary. Our dog froze in panic making getting away from cows near impossible.We reported it to the council who have replied saying […]
Cows with calves roaming freely around Hare Hill
Incident number 1301Date: 24.05.26Site: Roughly this: What3words:Punctuate.Otter.Fronted. Near Over Alderley, Hare Hill permissive path. 1 dog on lead, 3 walkers. RH’s report: “We were just walking and suddenly a group of cattle burst out of a field (from nowhere) and moved around us, not charging but getting quite close, agitated and shifting around restlessly with […]
Tag Archives: hiking
Stage 32. Egypt’s Bay to Allhallows-on-Sea
I have lost the path. I struggle through brambles and long grass, then across boggy marshland intersected by water filled ditches. As I jump across a ditch, landing on a bed of flattened grass and reeds, something long and thick slithers away from close to my left foot. It is a snake.
Stage 31. Gravesend to Egypt Bay
During this walk of Great Expectations, I pass through Dicken’s wet and marshy countryside, encounter two old forts, a sunken schooner, the launch site of an ancient torpedo and stumble through the marshlands of the Hoo Peninsula. Continue reading
30 (cont): Tilbury to Gravesend
The light is fading. In my walking boots, and with my rucksack and poles, I stick out like a sore thumb. I do not belong in this area …..
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30. Fobbing to Tilbury
“Or, if you walk into the village, you may be able to catch a bus.”
“I am not allowed to travel by bus,” I tell him.
If he thinks this is a little odd, he is too polite to say so.
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29. Southend to Basildon to Fobbing
I hesitate outside the dark mouth of the gloomy alleyway. For the first time on my whole journey, I feel very uneasy. I am not concerned about tides, or mud, or even snakes. It is the thought of ….. Continue reading
28. Great Wakering to Southend to Leigh-on-Sea
Southend is full of sunlight but I am surrounded by warning signs. I am forbidden from walking along the beach – first by Ministry of Defence warning signs and later by an oil spill. I scratch my insect bites and have some close encounters with blackberry bushes, before becoming trapped in deep, dark stairwell …. Continue reading
26. Burnham on Crouch to Rochford
I am planning to make good progress over the next few days. Who knows, I might even manage to leave Essex. With 350 miles of coastline, Essex has the longest coastline in England. I was not aware of this fact before I encountered its miles of estuaries ….
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24. Bradwell to Tillingham Marshes
Around the Dengie Peninsula, there is a coastal path stretching from Bradwell Power Station to Burnham on Crouch; seventeen miles of coastal footpath, with no villages, no towns and no marinas; along which the only building of any significance is St Peter’s Chapel. A powerful atmosphere fills the place ….
23. Maylandsea to Bradwell
The wind is wild and the sea stormy. I meet a venemous, slithery thing. And I grow angry at people who obstruct my right to walk along the sea wall. Continue reading
Ruth's Coastal Walk (UK) 