Common law (still a thing in America) has the concept of an implied easement. If people have been relying on this path for the past century to gain access to the beach, then you can't just discontinue access.
When I was a child, my church owned a plot of land across the street from the main building. The land was vacant, and students from a nearby college used to cut across it to get to class. Once a year, church members would stand at the corners of the property to bar access to the pedestrians - so that the church could maintain that it had not ceded access to the path, in the event that the church wanted to make use of the lot at a later date.
When I was a child, my church owned a plot of land across the street from the main building. The land was vacant, and students from a nearby college used to cut across it to get to class. Once a year, church members would stand at the corners of the property to bar access to the pedestrians - so that the church could maintain that it had not ceded access to the path, in the event that the church wanted to make use of the lot at a later date.