Druridge Bay

Seven miles of unbroken sand between Amble and Cresswell, and one of the few stretches of the Northumberland coast where a lightweight drone pilot isn't immediately tangled up in National Trust land or tern colonies. The appeal is sheer scale: low tide exposes a huge, mirror-flat beach that hands you enormous leading lines, lone-walker top-downs and lovely dune-grass texture, with Coquet Island on the horizon to the north — admire that one from a very long way off, it's an RSPB seabird colony and strictly out of bounds. Expect a near-constant onshore breeze with nothing between you and Scandinavia to break it, so a Mini-class drone will chew battery clawing home into an easterly. Sea fret can roll in fast in spring and early summer and kill visibility in minutes. The country park behind the dunes at Ladyburn Lake gives you parking and toilets, but Northumberland County Council doesn't permit launching from its country-park land, so walk through the dunes and TOAL from the open sand instead. Wildlife trust reserves flank the bay at Cresswell Pond and East Chevington — give wader roosts and wildfowl a wide berth, especially in winter. Cold, bright winter mornings here are as empty and cinematic as the North East gets.