Longhoughton Beach — Attraction in Longhoughton

Absolutely beautiful spot. Highly recommend. We had it to ourselves for a while BUT…be VERY careful with the car park. Having read online that it would be open 8-6 and checking that on the RingGo app, we arrived around 4:10. We weren’t the only ones in the car park and sat for a while trying to pay online (ONLY way to pay and signal VERY poor). We arrived back at the car around 5:30 to find the gate padlocked and NO other way of getting the car out. We found an old sign saying it would close at 4pm but we had arrived after 4pm to find it open, so perhaps stupidly trusted the online information and new signage. We tried the local farm, the emergency number on the car park signage and other local houses as the farmer is responsible for locking it and we hoped we could get in touch with him. No luck at all. We ended up walking into the village and having to take a taxi back to our accommodation. Then another taxi back to retrieve the car in the morning at around 8:30, to find the car STILL locked in and the car park NOT open as stated it would be. Park elsewhere, clearly this parking system is not working, conflicting signage, poorly kept hours and no response at any emergency phone numbers. Holding my breath for the ticket now…there are cameras on the entrance.

Thank you to those locals we stopped to ask for help and MASSIVE shout out to Craig and Roger at RSM Cabs for...

Nice little beach, but was very disappointed after reading previous reviews and seeing other photos. Thought we'd actually somehow ended up at the wrong beach, but seems not. Not sure when the pay and stay was put in place, but it seems excessive considering there isn't really a car park as such, no facilities, not even a bin! It's not the best access road either. A shame really as past reviews were very positive and it looked like a nice place to visit, but don't think we'll be back here again. Don't object to paying, but at least make it a reasonable fee given it's not even a maintained car park. We visited to walk our dog so only really needed an hour, but a flat rate of £3.50 (sign says otherwise!) is going to put a lot of people off I imagine.

Edit: the parking is done via ringgo, so unless you have that on your phone then you're going to be stuck. Oh, and internet signal was very poor/almost non-existent in the area so you might not even be...

Have visited here for many years and always been happy to pop money in the honesty box at the farm. Today there are parking charges - free for 1/2 hour and then a huge jump to £3.60 for the full day. So not enough time for a dog walk and too much for an hour or two stroll. Plus the only option was to pay by Ringo - luckily I had the app, but seeing as the beach is quite isolated, I couldn't get any phone signal to pay. A bit pointless, so we left without going on the beach at all. I agree with the above comments - it's hardly a car park - rough ground full of mud and no facilities, not even a bin. We felt cheated at the mercy of a greedy council. Doubt we will be back, and because we usually spent money in the local area, those businesses will lose out on custom. Such a shame - no-one seems...