The Essay: Walking the Causeways

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The Essay: Walking the Causeways: Claire McGowan

Patrick Gale

Claire McGowan

Walking the Causeways

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Walking the Causeways, Claire McGowan

Five writers walk us along the beguiling routes of tidal causeways. Today, Burgh Island.

As the tide comes in, Claire McGowan gets soaked racing across the sandy causeway to discover Burgh Island.

Claire McGowan enters the freezing waters off Burgh Island, connected at low tide to the mainland by a short sandy causeway.

There are 43 tidal islands around the UK, accessible just briefly each day along beguiling and perilous paths. Across the series, five writers walk their favourite causeway to islands of refuge, pilgrimage, magic and glamour.

Claire grew up with the mythology of the giant Finn McCool flinging rocks at a rival in Scotland and building the Giant’s Causeway. Arriving at Burgh Island, she steps into tranquil 1920s glamour, to sip Agatha Christie inspired cocktails in the Art Deco hotel bar. In this time capsule, Claire explores our relationship with Golden Age Crime and her own past; as the tide retreats, past relationships disappear with the waves and time simultaneously changes and stays still.

Producer: Sarah Bowen

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Five writers across the country walk us along the beguiling routes of tidal causeways.

There are 43 tidal islands around the UK, accessible just briefly each day. Five writers journey across a favourite causeway to islands of refuge, pilgrimage, magic and glamour.

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