Places to visit

Local Destinations

Hadrians Wall

The Romans had a pretty impressive empire. They didn’t bat an eyelid at incorporating such notably tranquil parts of the world as North Africa, the Balkans and Palestine into it. But when they encountered the Scots they decided the best plan was to build a giant wall, along the lines of “alright chaps, let’s not push our luck.” Net result: loads of stone skilfully shaped by the Legions’ master masons, and then left in situ for the next two millennia, providing a handy source for ‘upcycling’ into many of the buildings around here.

But despite the best efforts of the resourceful locals (and of General Wade who turned much of the Wall into his Military Road in the 1740s), much Roman heritage survives within minutes of Warksburn Old Church. It is extraordinarily impressive, solidly present in the environment, and offers a directly visible connection to the Roman past which has been totally erased in other parts of England.

The English Heritage website offers a highly informative guide to Hadrians Wall, fully reflecting its importance as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Key Hadrians Wall sites within a 30 minute drive of Warksburn Old Church include Housesteads Fort, the ongoing archeological excavation and interpretation centre at Vindolanda, and walks along higher sections of the Wall from Steel Rigg. The Roman Army museum is at the other end of the high central section of the wall, just before the descent to the Cumbria border at Greenhead.

There’s plenty about the Wall in The North Tyne Bike Ride Guide, which Alan wrote, and which we provide as a free download for guests here. The book also contains plenty about the extraordinary history which the Wall makes visible in the landscape to interest non-cyclists as well. The Wall is simply here. By the very fact of its continued existence, it brings the past into the present in a very direct way. On the subject of Great Walls, Chairman Mao (or perhaps Zhou Enlai) was once asked how he judged the impact on history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. He is said to have replied that it was “too soon to tell.” When you’re up here, you’ll see what he meant!

Warksburn Old Church has partnered with Peter Carney, the renowned Hadrian’s Wall guide, whose superbly informative tours (on foot, by car, or even by helicopter) can offer guests truly deep insight into this stupendous ancient monument, and the landscape, history, and people of Northumberland, which the Wall continues to shape to this day.

Hexham

A historic market town, which has evolved over the centuries since Hexham Abbey was first founded in the year 674 AD. Which, when you think of it, is really quite a lot of years for things to evolve. And it shows in the very fabric of this unique town, which was voted one of the “10 happiest places to live in the UK” in 2023.

Click this link for our recommendations of places to eat in Hexham.

The Visit Hexham website is a rich source of information for visitors to the town.

Hexham Abbey information is here. This is a must-see.

Corbridge

If Corbridge were in the Cotswolds, it would be one of the best known very small towns in England. It’s that beautiful and quirky. But, precisely because it’s not in the Cotswolds, Corbridge remains an authentic place, where people live and work, as well as a fascinating place to visit.

Alongside its many excellent places to eat and buy great food and drink, Corbridge has a unique selection of specialist shops ranging from interior design to an amazing cookshop.

The Visit Corbridge website has full information.

Kielder

Kielder Water is the largest man-made lake in England, in the middle of the largest man-made forest in Britain, creating an area with some of the lowest light pollution in Europe, reflected in the area’s designation as one of the very few International Dark Skies Parks in the World. This is a unique and wonderful place, on an epic scale.

Although it is fundamentally a human-created area, Kielder is all about enjoying the superb natural environment which all that human activity has created. It’s about getting outdoors then immersing yourself in nature, or simply gazing upwards in awe at the cosmos on a clear night. Playing on the human/natural dialectic, Kielder is also home to a superb public art project, with thought-provoking works of art distributed deep into the countryside around the lake and forest.

Kielder is also one of the best cycling centres in Europe, with everything from a 26 mile round-the-lake route to kamikaze downhill mountain bike runs. The three routes described in Section F of Alan’s North Tyne Bike Ride Guide have loads of information on the opportunites and challenges Kielder has to offer the cyclist.

The Visit Kielder website has a wealth of information.

Bellingham

5 miles north of Wark, the village of Bellingham styles itself rather grandly as “the capital of the North Tyne”. It’s basically the last reasonably sized outpost of civilisation before the uplands begin. There is the small settlement of Otterburn, and a few outlying hamlets are scattered about, but the next place of any size you’ll encounter heading further north is Jedburgh, several miles past Carter Bar, the Scottish Border on the A68.

So Bellingham has a basic Coop shop, petrol station, pharmacy, and a few other facilities the traveller needs before heading off into the wilds. That ‘last stop before the wilderness’ ambience is quite literally the case for walkers on the Pennine Way, who pass through here on their boggy slog along the spine of England. Catering to a vast agricultural and forestry hinterland, Bellingham’s pubs also offer endless opportunities for serious drinking, a local pastime which reaches a peak at the annual Bellingham Show, which traditionally takes place on the last Saturday in August.

Despite its rather workaday unpretentiousness, Bellingham also has a couple of decent cafés (described here) and a fascinating heritage centre, telling the story of the North Tyne.

The Visit Northumberland website has more details.

Northumberland Coast & Countryside

It’s probably the best kept secret in UK tourism. Northumberland has miles and miles of fantastic beaches, with almost nobody on them. Not to mention endless beautiful countryside, with almost nobody in it.

The countryside is all around you from the minute you step into the garden at Warksburn Old Church. The coast is between an hour-and-a-bit and two hours drive, depending how far up towards Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border you travel.

Beaches we recommend are at Alnmouth, Amble, Bamburgh and Beadnell, all offering vast open sands and North Sea vistas. There are some fantastic fish and chip shops to be found, many with sit-down tables in addition to paper-wrapped take aways. Visit Northumberland has a guide to the great beaches here.

Two rather special places lie just off the coast. The Farne Islands are surrounded by seals and are home to an immense seabird colony, a natural resource of great significance. And the historical and spiritual importance of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, with its priory and castle, cannot be understated.

Established by St Cuthbert as a place of sanctuary, Lindisfarne and a handful of other monastic establishments kept a vital thread of civilisation alive against the odds in the Dark Ages. Without the flickering scriptorium candles in places like this, reading and writing could have been lost for ever. On the minus side, however, choosing a place of sanctuary in the North Sea, directly facing Denmark, didn’t turn out so well: chronicling and librarianship were not exactly top of the Viking agenda. There’s another side-effect of Holy Island’s odd location you should be aware of. You can drive to the island, but the causeway is entirely cut off by the tide twice a day. It is imperative to know the safe crossing times, otherwise you’ll end up on TV news.

There are vast tracts of stunning countryside to explore, including the Northumberland National Park, the Northumberland Coast National Landscape, the North Pennines National Landscape and the immense spaces around Kielder. Many of these can be reached by car. But if you’d like to really get into the heart of this large and varied county, long distance paths and a wealth of other hiking trails invite you to explore on foot. The walking and hiking page at Visit Northumberland is a good place to start.

Destinations for a Day Trip

The Lake District

From most of England, getting to the Lake District means a long drive. From Warksburn Old Church, it’s between one and quarter and two hours drive, depending which lake you’re aiming for. All you need to know is here.

The Scottish Borders

About 40 minutes drive north of Warksburn Old Church, the landscape may come as a surprise when you descend the hairpin bends on the A68, from the viewpoint at the border crossing high up at Carter Bar. Yes that’s extinct volcanos you’re seeing. A bit like parts of New Zealand, but with less ferns.

There’s plenty of interest in the Borders, and the official website offers a good overview of places to see and things to do.

For a longer day trip into the Borders, it is definitely worth including Berwick-upon-Tweed in your itinerary.

Packed with interesting architecture, Berwick is the archetypal Border Town. To get there, you’ll almost certainly pass through Scotland. However, the town is currently in England, yet its football team plays in the Scottish league. On balance that’s a much more amicable way of ‘splitting the difference’ than the previous custom in these parts, which was essentially to lay siege to the town every few years, with a proper battle and attendant slaughter and pillaging thrown in for good measure from time to time. To put a stop to this, QE1 had the place beefed up. Berwick’s Elizabethan Walls are the only example of bastioned town walls in Britain and one of the best preserved examples in Europe. When built in 1558 – designed to keep out the marauding Scots who regularly laid claim to the town – it was the most expensive undertaking of England’s Golden Age. You can now walk these unique fortifications and get a unique view down into the town huddling beneath their protective mass.

Attractions & Activities

Castles, Houses & Gardens

The Northumberland Coast is impressive enough for its beaches and seascapes alone. But that natural beauty is amplified by its outstanding string of castles, stretching all the way from Berwick in the North to Tynemouth in the South. Visit Northumberland has an overview of most of them here, including some of the inland castles too.

On the coast, Bamburgh Castle, still inhabited and heavily rebuilt over the centuries, utterly dominates the village of the same name; Dunstanburgh Castle is a magnificent ruin; and Warkworth Castle looks down the high street of an exceptionally pretty settlement. Inland, Alnwick Castle famous as a Harry Potter movie location (and its adjacent Alnwick Garden) is an inescapable presence in the pretty market town which grew up around it. Each is different, and a visit to at least one of Northumberland’s castles should definitely be on your list.

A couple of National Trust and English Heritage properties stand out, including the house and gardens at Wallington and the castle, hall and very visually impactful gardens at Belsay.

Cragside, the home of the industrialist William Armstrong, with its very extensive grounds is a particular favourite of ours. As the first house in Britain to be lit by electricity generated sustainably from its own hydro-electric plant, and with hydraulics powering various devices in the building, Cragside is often considered to be Britain’s original smart home. Warksburn Old Church continues in this pioneering North East tradition, uniquely combining many of the Smart Home technologies at the cutting edge of energy efficiency a century or so later.

The gardens at Howick Hall are a must see. From formal planting around the ancestral home of Earl Grey (yes him of the tea) to the newly developed bog garden, and the extensive arboretum with its expansive views over the landscape, Howick is exceptional. Earl Grey is, of course, available in the tea room.

Finally, Seaton Delaval, by the architect Sir John Vanbrugh, is frankly just a bit weird. Very heavy in appearance, but playful in execution. A bit like laughing gas in a morgue. Prepare to be unsettled. Then recover your equilibrium in the lovely garden.

Museums, Galleries & Culture

The North East has a wealth of cultural destinations. We link to some personal recommendations below. We’ve also include a few of our favourite places a little further afield, all within Day Trip distance of Warksburn Old Church.

Beamish is a world famous open air museum which brings the history of North East England to life at its 1820s Pockerley, 1900s Town, 1900s Pit Village, 1940s Farm, 1950s Town and 1950s Spain’s Field Farm exhibit areas. The working electric tramway and railway are highlights.

The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle is home to an internationally important collection of art, focusing on British oil paintings, watercolours, ceramics, silver and glassware.

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead is for those who like their art at the cutting edge of creativity (and/or who appreciate spectacular cityscape views when eating in a good restaurant).

Roman Vindolanda Fort & Museum unearths and interprets an archeological site of immense significance, bringing the story of Hadrians Wall and the people who built and lived here in Roman times vividly to life. You can whet your appetite by visiting the online collection.

Some of the most important documents ever to have been discovered in Britain have emerged from the ground at Vindolanda, including the note written on a wooden tablet, by a woman called Claudia Severa, to her friend Sulpicia Lepidina, the wife of Vindolanda’s fort commander, inviting Sulpicia to her birthday party. “Dated to around AD 100, this is the earliest example of a woman’s handwriting from anywhere in the Roman Empire”. The Vindolanda Tablets are of such immense cultural significance that they are now in the keeping of the British Museum.

Just along the Wall from Vindolanda, Housesteads Fort is well worth a visit, whilst the National Park visitor centre at The Sill has a good café with giant windows facing the ridge along which Hadrians Wall runs.

Visit Northumberland has more information about museums here.

Looking a little further afield, there is a truly diverse array of heritage destinations within a couple of hours drive from Warksburn Old Church, with something to appeal to most mainstream cultural tastes (and some pretty niche ones too…). In no particular order, here are a few of our recommendations.

Brantwood is the historic home of John Ruskin on the shores of Coniston Water. It also has a very nice café. Another superb Arts & Crafts destination is Blackwell, where another great café will tempt you. And whilst you’re in the Lake District, the recently reopened Windermere Jetty Museum has an extremely interesting collection of boats – and another very appealing café. You’re getting the message on the café front, right?

On your way back from The Lakes, opportunities to indulge more niche interests present themselves at the Solway Aviation Museum, or perhaps even the Vintage Excavator Trust at the Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum. These two venues can be thoroughly recommended for their collections. However, visitors would be best advised to plan their café stops at, how to put it diplomatically, one of the less industrially-focussed institutions listed above.

Just over the Cumbria/Scotland border you’ll find The Devil’s Porridge Museum, commemorating HM Factory Gretna, the largest munitions factory in the world during the First World War. Back in the Lake District, perhaps the nichest-of-the-niche venue of them all is the Pencil Museum at Keswick (yes, that is a thing).

Cathedrals & Other Churches

The impact and importance of Northumbrian Christianity in shaping the culture of the North of England, the Scottish Borders and the wider British Isles is immense. The legacy of Bede, Cuthbert, Aidan, Wilfred, Hilda (and of the ‘second division’ saints lurking in their shadows) is simply all around you, as you traverse Northumberland and the Borders centuries after they did so, when either undertaking spiritual journeys of devotion, penitence or enlightenment, or (pretty often) when simply fleeing the Vikings, who preferred rampages to pilgrimages.

We list below a number of churches (both intact and in ruins) which you may wish to visit. Needless to say, we’ve included a “greatest hits” selection of our region’s cathedrals, abbeys, priories, monastries, etc. But we’re also listing two much less well-known little churches, which are notable for historical and cultural reasons. So, to start with the obvious Big Beast, your ecclesiastical excursions may include:

Durham Cathedral If you like very solid columns and lots of towers, this is most definitely the cathedral for you.

Whilst you’re there, you might also want to visit Durham Castle, the other cornerstone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in this ancient university city.

Hexham Abbey No stay in the North Tyne valley is complete without a visit to Hexham’s very impressive Abbey church, right in the heart of the town.

Be sure to visit the crypt, the oldest part of the structure, partly built from recycled Roman stone with some Latin inscription still legible. This is an incredibly atmospheric space. It’s also tiny: a remarkable survivor from a distant time, now dwarfed by the scale of the Abbey which has evolved above it.

The Abbey is rich in heritage and art, including the tombstone of Flavinius, a Roman memorialised doing unspeakable things to an ancient Briton, but who might have been good value at dinner parties (who knows?). The paintings which survived both Henry VIII and the Puritans are also astounding, including the suitably macabre Dance of Death.

Jarrow Monastery From the monks keeping the flickering the candle of civilisation burning in the Dark Ages, to launching the Jarrow March in 1936, this corner of the North East has profoundly shaped our world.

Carlisle Cathedral Notable for its really surprising ceiling, just look up.

Jedburgh Abbey Over the border in Scotland, a striking ruin as you enter the Royal Burgh of Jedburgh from the South.

Melrose Abbey The burial place of the heart of Robert the Bruce (the rest of him is at Dunfermline Abbey further North), another imposing partially ruined heavyweight church.

Lanercost Priory Ruin, with a small part still going as a church. Partly built using stone from Hadrians Wall. Robert the Bruce (yes, him again, whilst still intact) arrived with his army in 1311 and made it his headquarters for three days, “committing infinite evils”. Super café in the outbuildings (see Places to Eat and Drink).

Blanchland Abbey Also mainly a ruin, the stones of this Abbey south of Hexham were themselves recycled to build most of the village surrounding the church. See Places to Eat and Drink for the Lord Crewe Arms which occupies part of the former Abbey buildings.

Tynemouth Priory and Castle. A very handy 3-in-1 destination if you’re pushed for time. Yes it’s a ruined abbey. Yes it’s also castle. And, if all the history around these parts means you’ve reach your heritage-absorption limit, it’s right next to the beach, with fish and chips within easy reach.

That’s probably enough big churches to be going on with. For us, two of the most fascinating churches are tiny, well off the beaten track, and barely known outside their immediate area.

Our first secret tip is St Oswald Heavenfield, in a field right next to Hadrians Wall. This is one of those Northumbrian sites where history is utterly inescapable. It’s up the hill, not far from General Wade’s Military Road bridge over the North Tyne at Chollerford, which, piling epoch upon epoch, is within a stone’s throw of the earlier Roman one, of which only the abutment remains.

Cyclists will find the hill up from the river crossing nasty, brutish and long, but it’s worth it when you get to the top (or park in the lay-by if you’ve driven up). Here right next to the Wall, stands a tiny church and an oversize cross. Both commemorate a battle in 635 AD, when Oswald (a Northumbrian King and, later, Saint of the same name) slugged it out with a bunch of pagan Welshmen. It ended Northumbria 1; Wales 0. As a result Northumbria remained Christian, ultimately locking the whole island of Britain into that religion. Even today, nearly fourteen centuries later, paganism is still feeling pretty unwell.

For sheer unexpected “wow, I didn’t expect to find one of those here”, visit the church of St Cuthbert at Bewcastle. The object in question is Britain’s finest Anglo-Saxon cross, which has stood in the churchyard for 1500 years since being placed here, for reasons unknown, in the 7th Century. As the National Churches Trust puts it: “to appreciate the rarity and wonder of the church and cross you have to embark on an expedition of sorts, for Bewcastle lies in the debatable lands of NE Cumbria, where Cumbria, Northumberland and Scotland meet. Bewcastle is perhaps England’s last true wilderness.”

Pevsner describes Bewcastle and its sister cross at nearby Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire as “the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe.” As Alan puts it in the North Tyne Bike Ride Guide, “personally, I’m inclined to agree, given that most of post-Roman Europe was, at the time, forgetting how to read, to write, to build roads, baths, toilets, sewers and central heating, to go the theatre, to codify laws, to navigate, to do mathematics, architecture, geometry and rhetoric, forgetting, even, how to build houses out of anything but twigs and cow shit.”

Bewcastle is a truly special place. Visit if you can and simply stare directly into the distant past. PS, amongst the multi-layered symbolism, some of which can be traced back to 1st Century Syria, see if you can spot one of Europe’s earliest (perhaps even first ever) representation of a sundial.

Other Attractions

If you like dangling from wires and swinging from trees, there’s a branch of GoApe at Matfen.

The Falconry Days Bird of Prey Centre offers visitors a brilliant opportunity to get up close with a huge variety of birds of prey. This great little attraction is only a ten minute drive from Warksburn Old Church. Booking essential.

Errington Reay is the last remaining salt glazed pottery in Britain. It’s about 25 minutes away at Bardon Mill. Amazing garden pot, a must if you are a gardener. Guided tours of the kilns are available.

The narrow gauge South Tynedale Railway runs from Alston, England’s highest market town, a few miles beyond the Northumberland/Cumbria border, to Slaggyford (yes that really is a place). En route to Alston, you might wish to take a slight detour to take in one of the masterworks of Sir George Barclay Bruce, the benefactor of Warksburn Old Church. As engineer in charge of the Haltwhistle to Alston railway he was responsible for the magnificent Lambley Viaduct.

Cycling

Rural Northumberland is a cyclist’s heaven of off-road tracks through vast forests and tarmac back roads which see near-zero motor traffic. Guests can download Alan’s North Tyne Bike Ride Guide to unlock the gates of this paradise on (two) wheels.

Bike hire is available from The Bike Place in Kielder village.