Beach of Dreams
Martyn Howe describes an artistic community project to walk the coastline of the UK and Ireland in May 2025
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W love of the outdoors and our desire to write and photograph landscapes , seascapes and communities to inspire others . My journeys by foot and bicycle are enriched by public art in sculpture , poetry , music , paintings and even graf�iti . It stimulates the mind and often remains a thought for many miles . What did that sculpture mean ? What was the poet trying to say ? That seascape reminds me of a famous painting .
I am currently walking the England Coast Path . Stopping to pay for a coffee in Southwold , I was asked by the cashier how far I was walking , and I explained my coastal ambition . “ Oh , a group walked by here a few days ago , all carrying �lags ”, she said . The conversation repeated a day later with a stout gentleman on a beach chair . A quick online search revealed this as a storytelling and community engagement project to walk from Lowestoft to Tilbury . Each participant , joining at different stages , carried a silk pennant that they had designed and represented their vision for the future .
These personal stories re�lected their concerns for their coastline ( coastal erosion , bird protection , pollution , etc .) and a more deeply held anxiety for our own lives and those of future generations . Travel journalist Kevin Rushby documented each day ' s walk , with summaries published in The Guardian . It received a good deal of exposure in the national and local media , and a �ilm was commissioned to be screened in London in January 2022 .
The project is called Beach of Dreams .
I am sure members of OWPG will participate or even volunteer for the project
At the culmination of that epic 500-mile walk , Ali Pretty , the artistic director of Kinetika , the UK Arts Company who ran it , announced a new ambition to extend this project to the entire coastline of the UK and Ireland , some 10,000 miles . In partnership with Creative Lives , an organisation that champions volunteer-led creative activity , they propose to hold a monthlong walking festival in May 2025 . I was so moved by the scale and nature of the project that I offered to help . I have walked , cycled or campervanned almost the entire coastline , including the hard-to-reach places and had a background in technology and operational strategy that I knew they would need .
I am now affectionately known as “ Martyn the Mapper ” and set about breaking down the challenge into 45 sections , mapping routes , and planning itineraries for the coastline . While England and Wales have ( or will soon have ) established waymarked coastal routes , Scotland has a very complex coastline and many island networks ( Orkney , Shetland , Western Isles ), but does have an enlightened approach to access . Ireland is yet another challenge , with much of the coast in private hands , but we hope to use kayakers , sailors , cyclists , kite surfers , swimmers , or any zero-carbon means of travel to join the walking sections . Each mile is allocated a silk pennant which can be adopted by anyone who wishes to have a voice about the future of the ecosystems and the communities along the coastline .
In addition , I am building a digital platform to capture thousands of stories , pictures , and experiences from this mass participation event ,
10 outdoor focus / spring 2023