Running at Camber Sands

The beach at Camber Sands stretches for around three miles in East Sussex and at low tide is also very wide.  It is edged by quite high sand dunes so if you want to add a challenge to your run you could try clambering up one, for instance from the path opposite the fine Owl pub in Camber. Alternatively there is level access on to the beach by the Camber Central car park.

Clamber up a sand dune to get to the beach

Early in the morning it was just me and a few pony riders on the beach, with the harder wetter sand of course being easiest to run on. Heading east there is more shingle on the beach as you pass over to Broomhill Sands. After a short stretch running on pebbles though there is a concrete path heading out of town with the sea on one side and the flat marshy landscape on the other. There are wind turbines on the horizon and as you head further out Dungeness nuclear power station can be seen in the distance.

The path continues for a couple of km, and actually goes on further but the path is blocked by a Ministry of Defence barrier - the is the Lydd firing range, still in use. So turning back my run from the middle of Camber to there and back was 7k (I could also have run on the beach in the other direction and there is a good path along the road heading out of Camber towards Rye - maybe next time).. I passed too the now empty Pontins holiday park, where I went on a family holiday as a child. It closed down in 2023.

Highlight of the run though was seeing my first swallow of the year, skimming the rocks along the coast path on the 11th April 2025.

A Camber mermaid

See also: Running at Dungeness

Running Islay (4): The Big Strand

The Big Strand on the Isle of Islay is just what it says - a continous sandy beach stretching for six miles from Laggan to Kintra, with the sea on one side and sand dunes, then peat bog, on the other.

There are several places from where you can readily access the beach - from Kintra at its southern end, via Laggan Estate at its north (as explained at Islay Info), or by the airport. I did the latter - heading south on the main road from Bowmore to Port Ellen there's a track immediately before the airport on the right. If you go down to the end you come to grassy dunes and the beach beyond (if driving go slow, the surface is very uneven but passable).

I ran south (left) from this point, down to the end of the bay at Kintra and back - a 5 mile run. Apart from one dog walker I didn't see another soul until I got to Kintra where some children were playing on the beach by the campsite there.

It's a great place for a beach run, with the sand generally fairly firm. There are a few points where shallow streams run in to sea, so you will need to get your feet wet  - I ran barefoot for a while.

There was one hazard I hadn't expected - being dive bombed by terns! Like other birds they nest on the shore and they clearly don't like you getting too near. None of them actually made physical contact with me, though they came close, but I did hear that a walker recently received a head cut from terns on that stretch.

This house is at the southern end of the bay at Kintra. I think this is where my grandad Neil Orr was born in 1906. That's me and him at the bottom.

See also:

Running Islay: Bridgend Woods

Running Islay: Bowmore to Gartbreck
Running Islay: Bowmore to Cruach and beyond
Running Islay - The Big Strand

Running Islay - three standing stones in three miles from Port Ellen

Cycling on Islay
Running Islay: Port Ellen to Kilnaughton and Singing Sands


Walking Beinn Bheigier: Islay's highest point

Barefoot on the Beach in Portugal

The day after the Summer Solstice and for once I am somewhere where the sun can be relied upon to shine on throughout these longest days.

Running in the early morning, barefoot on the beach from Vale do Lobo to Quarteira on the Algarve. Running between the Atlantic and the low red sandstone cliffs reminding me of Chesil Beach in Dorset. A housemartin swoops down and flies ahead of me, gliding just above the sand and mocking my graceless progress. 

Running like this entails a fine tuning to the subtleties of the landscape via the information passed from foot to brain. Too far from the sea and the sand is too soft, each step sinking too deep then having to lift a mass of particles ground down by an eternity of wind and wave. Too near to the sea and the waves lap your ankles - cooling and refreshing in short bursts but no way to fun for any distance. In between is the zone of harder sand best for running on,  but here too there are distinctions to be negotiated. There is a wavy line of shell and stone marking the limit of the tide. You find yourself following that line  while keeping just away from it in order to avoid the pain of treading on it. Following too the footsteps of other runners and walkers for a while, just to see if they found some better way through the terrain.

Sand is deceptive - initially it feels soft underfoot, and it does absorb some impact. But never forget that it is made up of tiny stones - the stuff they make glass out of no less. My second beach run  the next day left me with a blister on my foot. Still I did manage to avoid the beach trip hazard of the buoy lines.