Holkham's beach is great and broad and long.

The Coast Around Holkham

Pausing at Burnham Overy Staithe and The Hero (for this is Nelson Country) to refresh ourselves we headed back to the beach to continue on to Holkham.

Holkham is a wonderful place, with the broadest beach (nearly as good as Bamburgh in Northumberland) and lovely pine woods. The Queen had a summerhouse here as a private retreat from Sandringham and the film Shakespeare in Love shot a scene here.

Be warned, however. We were fortunate enough to choose the beach route rather than the pathways through the dunes. It took several examples of portly gents strutting their stuff on the ridge of dunes before it clicked that we were strolling through a naturist area.

Accordingly we steered a course a little further out to sea and covered our cameras until we were safely in the Holkham we are more familiar with - the long straight walk from beach to road, the Hall and grounds, the Victoria restaurant and the inevitable bus stop for the Coast Hopper.