Reading Coastal Footpath Signs and Access Codes

Why coastal signs deserve a second look

A cliff-top path is rarely just a path. It might cross a working farm, a nature reserve, a golf course, a Ministry of Defence range or a stretch of land that a landowner allows walkers to use purely as a favour. The signs and waymarks along it are the shorthand that keeps everything working: they tell you where you may go, where you must not, and which of the two you have just wandered into.

Reading them properly takes five minutes to learn and pays you back for decades. It also means the farmer who grumbles about walkers has one less reason to do so.

Waymarks and the colour code explained

Public rights of way in England and Wales are waymarked with coloured arrows, and the colour tells you who the route is for.

• Yellow arrow — a public footpath. Walkers only, on foot. No cycling, no horses.
• Blue arrow — a public bridleway. Walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Cyclists must give way to walkers and riders.
• Purple arrow — a restricted byway. Walkers, riders, cyclists and horse-drawn vehicles, but not motor vehicles.
• Red arrow — a byway open to all traffic, which in practice usually means a rough track best attempted in boots.

On long-distance routes you will also see the acorn symbol, used for National Trails, and the distinctive waymarks of the England Coast Path and the Wales Coast Path. These are usually bolted to gates, fence posts and, in exposed places, to sturdy posts set back from the cliff edge. If a waymark points left and the worn path clearly runs right, trust the waymark: the wear is often created by people who have taken the wrong line.

Stiles, gates and the gaps between

The structure you are asked to climb through or open is itself a piece of information. A kissing gate swings in a frame and self-closes — it exists to let people through while holding livestock, so push it, don't climb it. A squeeze stile of stone or timber is deliberately narrow; a ladder stile over a stone wall will have a step for a dog, usually at the hinge side and often covered in moss. Lifting a dog through the gap rather than over the top is far kinder to its back.

Signs reading "Please close the gate" mean exactly that, even if you can see nobody and nothing around. A gate left open on a coastal farm can put a herd onto a road within minutes. Where you see "No public right of way" or "Private" on a track that looks inviting, treat it as a firm no — politely asking at the farmhouse is not a substitute for permission.

Access land, permissive paths and gate notices

Some coastal land is open access land, marked on maps and on the ground by a brown sign with a walking figure. On this land you may roam away from paths, subject to local restrictions that are posted at the main entry points. It is a genuinely generous arrangement, and it is withdrawn when abused.

Other stretches are permissive paths: routes a landowner or a golf club allows by permission rather than by law. They are usually waymarked in a different style from public rights of way, and they can carry conditions such as "no dogs" during nesting season or closures on certain days. Where a notice says a path is closed on, say, the first Sunday of the month, plan around it rather than arguing at the gate.

Farmland, livestock and dogs

Coastal farmland is often grazing land, and the rules are simple. Put your dog on a lead around livestock, and keep it short rather than long. If cattle approach, let the dog go — a loose dog can run clear while a leaded one drags you into trouble — and walk calmly to the side of the field, giving the herd room. Never walk between a cow and her calf.

On many cliff-top paths, ground-nesting birds mean dogs should be on leads between spring and late summer regardless of what the local signs say. Where signage and instinct disagree, the sign wins.

Tides, erosion and temporary diversions

Coastal routes change faster than any inland path. Cliff erosion forces diversions, signposted with temporary yellow arrows that may lead you inland around a field rather than along a familiar headland. Follow the arrows rather than the map's dotted line; the map may be a decade behind the coastline.

Estuary crossings often depend on a ferry or a causeway that works only around low water, and the timetable posted at the slipway is worth photographing before you set off. In some areas, red flags flying on a headland mean a live firing range; the flagged route is closed, and the safe alternative is waymarked inland.

Three habits make you the walker everyone is glad to see. Read the noticeboard at the car park before you start, not on the way back. Leave gates as you find them and take your litter home, including fruit peel. And when you meet a farmer, a ranger or a club steward, a nod and a thank you costs nothing and keeps the path open for the next person along the coast.