The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure (Part 4) – Warkworth Castle & Tynemouth Priory and Castle

Simon (right) and me (left) at a services stop for dinner.

This is the fourth part in my Hadrian’s Wall Adventure with my good friend Simon. You can read and see the photos from Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here. Yesterday Simon and I set out to do the last leg of our Hadrian’s Wall Adventure. It was my birthday. The day was gorgeous, sunny, around 19°C all day and not a cloud in the beautiful blue sky. There aren’t many specific Hardrian’s Wall sites near the Newcastle end of where the wall would have been. So we decided to do Castles near Newcastle.

Our first castle was the magnificent impressive Warkworth Castle. Before you see the photos, first let me apologise for any fingerprint marks on them. The lens of my iPhone had fingerprint marks on, but I didn’t realise because of the bright sunshine.

Here is Essential Info and are some photos:

Essential Info:

• A castle including remains and a keep with Duke room’s.
• Highly recommended.
• Admission Fee: Adult £7.50 with gift aid (£6.80 without). Free admission to English Heritage Members.
• Opening times: View here.
• Parking: Plenty in front of the Castle. However even English Heritage Members are required to pay (rather than the usual free parking with sticker in car). The shop does refund the cost of parking, but this was disappointing and we could seen no reason for this.
• Toilets: Available in the carpark.
• Has a very small gift shop. Free audible guides available.

Entrance to Walkworth Castle.	Outside of Walkworth Castle.
The most well preserved keep.	Remains of Walkworth Castle (1).
Remains of Walkworth Castle (2).	A selfie of Simon (right) and me (left).
An iron fireplace in the Duke’s rooms inside the keep.	The view from inside the Duke’s rooms.
A view from an archway (1).	A view from an archway (2).
One of the many tunnels to rooms in the remains.

Our next stop was Tynemouth Priory and Castle. Here is Essential Info and are some photos:

Essential Info:

• A priory, castle and World War 2 defence station.
• Highly recommended.
• Admission Fee: Adult £6.50 with gift aid (£5.90 without). Free admission to English Heritage Members.
• Opening times: View here.
• Parking: Follow signs for free parking.
• Has a small gift shop.

The view from the top of the hill near the entrance to Tynemouth (1).	The view from the top of the hill near the entrance to Tynemouth (2).
Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (1).	Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (2).
Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (3).	Stone coffins.
Simon (right) and me (left) in the stone coffins. I couldn’t believe that we both fitted perfectly.	Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (4).
A carving that looked similar to The Green Man on the entrance to the priory.	Tynemouth Priory.
Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (1).	Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (2).
Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (3).	Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (4).
Inside the Priory, photo of Priory door. Reminded me of the door to heaven.	Tynemouth graveyard and World War 2 defence tower.
Tynemouth World War 2 defence gun.	Shells for the gun in bunker.
Tynemouth Lighthouse.

We had a great time. Next year we are going to visit the fine city of Newcastle including Newcastle’s castle.

Blog soon,

Antony

Edit: 16/05/18 18:30 – Used GIMP to remove some of the finger prints in some of the above photos. If you click on the photos for full size, you will see the updated photos.

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