Craster
Craster is a small fishing village on the Northumberland coast famous throughout Britain for its traditionally oak-smoked kippers, produced by the Robson family in the smokehouse that has operated in the village since 1906 and which continues to supply what many consider the finest kippers available anywhere in the country. The village also provides the starting point for the two-mile coastal walk to Dunstanburgh Castle, one of the finest short coastal walks in northeast England combining the character of the Northumberland coast with the dramatic ruins of one of the most remote of England's medieval castles.
The Robson kipper smokehouse is the principal industry and the dominant identity of Craster, its traditional method of cold-smoking whole herring over oak sawdust producing kippers of an intensity and quality that have developed a national reputation. The kippers can be purchased directly from the smokehouse and from the village shop, and the combination of the quality of the product and the directness of the purchase from the producer in the working village provides one of the most authentic food heritage experiences on the northeast coast.
The walk from Craster to Dunstanburgh Castle passes along the rocky foreshore and through the coastal grassland of the Northumberland coast path, the profile of the castle appearing progressively more dramatic as the walk develops. The castle ruins, managed by English Heritage, provide the destination for a round walk that returns across the fields behind the coast in an excellent circuit of about four miles.