King Charles inaugurates the world’s longest managed coastal path

King Charles inaugurated a new footpath stretching around the entire coast of England on March 19, 2026.

At 4328km, the King Charles III England Coast Path is the longest managed coastal walking route in the world.

It has been 18 years in the making by Natural England, the government body which will also manage it. Around 1600km of new paths had to be made, to open up new access to cliffs, dunes and beaches.

And it is a forward-thinking project, as the path is designed to be “rolled back” — automatically moved inland in areas affected by the effects of climate change and erosion. It was designed with heavier rainfall and a changing shoreline in mind.

Creating the route required new legislation in the form of the Marine and Coastal Access Act, which was passed in 2009.

For the inauguration, King Charles (a long-time pioneer of such environmental thinking) walked part of the path, at Seven Sisters Country Park in East Sussex, which has been made into a new National Nature Reserve.

But some sections of the path are still being finished, and it is expected to be complete by the end of this year, 2026.

Highlights of the new National Trail include both well-known places and some little visited parts of the coast, which have been largely inaccessible until now.

+ Seven Sisters and South East The chalk cliffs at Seven Sisters and Beachy Head in East Sussex, and the new Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve.

+ Jurassic Coast, Dorset From Swanage to Lyme Regis, including Lulworth Cove.

+ Cornwall’s coastal villages Picturesque stops like Mousehole and Port Isaac.

+ North East and North York Moors Coastal scenery, the pretty fishing village of Staithes, and Whitby Abbey.

+ Northumberland beaches Big sandy beaches and historic castles like Dunstanburgh.

+ Suffolk The bird sanctuary at Minsmere and artsy town of Southwold.

WALES & SCOTLAND

The new English coast path also links with the Wales Coast Path — a 1400km route around the Welsh coastline which was completed in 2012.

+ While there no single, official coastal trail in Scotland, much of the shoreline is accessible because of Scotland’s “Right to Roam” legislation, passed more than two decades ago. It is generally calculated that the mainland coast of Scotland is around line vary depending on how it is measured, but it is often put at around 8850km.

+ Together, a continuous coastal walk around the whole of Britain’s mainland would be about 14,480km. At 25km a day, that would be an average of 15 miles a day — about 580 days walking over two years, with rest days.

+ nationaltrail.co.uk