Seaham

Seaham is a lively harbour town on Durham’s Heritage Coast, it offers spectacular views from it’s dramatic clifftop location down to the harbour and sandy beach below. It is a perfect base to explore the Durham coastline. In Seaham, there is a promenade, an esplanade and Terrace Green which are perfect for a gentle walk.

A sense of history is never far away, just North of Seaham is the church of St. Mary the Virgin, one of the County’s oldest surviving churches. The church is near Seaham Hall Hotel (Lord Byron’s former home) and over the road from Seaham Hall beach carpark, which boasts a nice circular café for a warming cup of something on a cold day and ice creams when the weather is hot!

Further south you will pass Terrace Green with it’s many delightful shops facing it – bistro’s, coffee shops, traditional sweetie shop and of course there is a fish and chip shop and ice creamery. Over the road on Terrace Green, there is a cenotaph and a stunning sculpture (entitled 1101, known locally as ‘Tommy’) by local artist Ray Lonsdale.

Continuing in a southerly direction will bring you to the new Seaham Marina, which boasts a café with beautiful sea views, ice cream shop and others. Make sure you call in at the George Elmy lifeboat house to find out more about this restored lifeboat and it’s history.

Even further south the town’s mining heritage is in evidence all around, from the origins of Seaham Port (built to transport coal from nearby pits) to the reclamation of this coastline particulary at Nose’s Point where the former Dawdon Colliery stood.