Seaton Carew: Beach and Coastal Landscape

Seaton Carew is a seaside resort with a long beach, a diverse coastal landscape and traces of history. If you are planning a hotel stay, you can organise your interests for your time here: would you like to spend time at the beach, follow a cycling route or explore the history of the area’s buildings and landscape? Activities and attractions range from a shipwreck site visible depending on the tides to a themed mini-golf course.

Beach, Promenade and Cycling

Seaton Carew Beach stretches for more than a mile in each direction from the centre of the seaside resort. There is space on the beach for games and building sandcastles. Cyclists can use the promenade alongside the beach. This gives you different ways to spend time on the coast.

Cycle Route 2: Hartlepool South follows the promenade beside the beach to Seaton Carew. It is flat and easy, and runs mostly along traffic-free cycle paths. This gives you a useful point of comparison when weighing up cycling against a beach stay: both the flat route and its mostly traffic-free layout are important features.

Grassland, Dunes and Landscape History

Seaton Common is wet grassland grazed by cattle. It provides a habitat for resident and migratory wading birds, as well as invertebrates and mammals. Seaton Dunes are among the largest dune areas between Lindisfarne and the Humber. Together with the beach, the grassland, wildlife habitats and dunes shape the area’s varied landscapes.

Seaton Common also bears traces of earlier use: it contains remains of the salt industry, ridge-and-furrow field patterns and an old sea wall. Natural and cultural history meet in the same landscape. Depending on your interests, the area’s former use can therefore be another point of interest, alongside the beach and dunes.

Shipwreck Site and Historic Buildings

The remains of an 18th-century English oak coal brig lie at Seaton Carew. The ship was probably washed ashore during a storm. The site is not always visible: it appears only when the sediment level drops, and its visibility depends on the tides and sediment conditions.

The Church of the Holy Trinity offers another perspective on the history of the area. Its nave and tower date from 1831, and its chancel from 1842. The church is made of dressed limestone, has Welsh slate roofs and is designed in the 13th-century style. This makes it possible to distinguish the different construction dates from the later stylistic design. Seaton Carew Bus Station is also a Grade II listed building.

Coastal Path, Golf and Mini Golf

The England Coast Path includes a mapped section from Seaton Carew to Carr House Sands.

Golf is also part of the area’s history: in the mid-1920s, Dr Alister MacKenzie was commissioned to design the links golf course now known as Seaton Carew. Lofty's Crazy Golf offers a different kind of experience. The themed mini-golf course has ten holes and draws on Hartlepool’s past and present. It was designed for players of all ages and skill levels. Check the opening hours before visiting.

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