England Opens World's Longest Coastal Path at 2,689 Miles

You can now walk around the entire coast of England, from sandy beaches to towering chalk cliffs, without ever leaving the shoreline.

The King Charles III England Coast Path officially opened today after nearly two decades of work. At 2,689 miles long, it's the longest managed coastal walking route anywhere on Earth, according to Natural England, the government body that created it.

The project began during Gordon Brown's government and survived seven prime ministers to reach completion. About 80% of the route is already open, with the remainder finishing by year's end.

What makes this path special isn't just its length. For the first time, anyone can walk to any point on England's coast, turn left or right, and follow the sea for as long as they want.

Much of the route existed before, but crews added more than 1,000 miles of new paths. They resurfaced trails, removed barriers, built boardwalks over salt flats, and installed bridges to connect previously separated stretches of coastline.

"It is brilliant, the best thing I'll do in my working life," says Neil Constable, who led the project for Natural England. His team focused on bringing walkers closer to the water and making sections accessible to people with reduced mobility.

The path passes through stunning landscapes including the iconic Seven Sisters chalk cliffs in East Sussex, historic coastal towns, salt marshes, and endless sandy beaches. In many places, the new route opened beaches and cliff tops that were previously private land.

The Bright Side

The path was designed to adapt to climate change. For the first time in English law, provisions allow the route to "roll back" inland if coastlines erode or shift from rising seas and heavy rains.

This flexibility already proved valuable. When heavy rains caused a landslip in Dorset in February, the team quickly arranged with landowners to move the path 15 meters inland. Within weeks, walkers were back on the coastal route instead of a mile-and-a-half road detour.

"Without this rollback provision in place that would have taken us months," says Lorna Sherriff, who manages the South West Coast Path section.

The Ramblers charity campaigned for coastal access for over 80 years. Jack Cornish, their director for England, calls the path "transformational" because it creates a band of access from the trail to the high water mark, letting people leave the path to explore beaches and coastline freely.

The route connects with Wales's 870-mile Coast Path, completed in 2012. Combined with Scotland's accessible coastline, walkers could theoretically circle all of Britain on a 9,000-mile journey.

After 18 years of planning and thousands of hours of work, England's entire coast now belongs to everyone who wants to explore it.