Car-free adventures aroundNewcastleTyne and Wear
Newcastle is famous for its iconic bridges over the River Tyne, for its ship-building, coal-mining heritage, and for its wealth of breweries. Not quite so many visitors know there are also world-class museums and galleries on both sides of the Tyne. Take cultural café crawls through Georgian arcades, Victorian markets and post-industrial creative centres. Or head into the hills to hike along the course of Hadrian’s Wall. And, on sunny days, discover the Tyneside coast by bus, metro or boat.
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Arrive by train
LNER’s high speed Azuma trains make the journey from London King’s Cross to Newcastle in less than three hours. From Edinburgh the journey is under an hour and a half. If you’re coming from the south, the railway speeds through York and Northallerton with the landscapes changing all the time. Look out in the fields beyond Darlington for the mounds of long-deserted medieval villages and the lines of ridge and furrow that show where farmers once ploughed the land.
- For the cheapest prices, book advance tickets.
- Don’t miss the soaring Romanesque towers of Durham cathedral and the battlements of Durham castle facing it from a neighbouring crag. There is a good view from the windows on the right-hand side of the carriage even if the train doesn’t stop there. Soon afterwards, you’ll see the Angel of the North spreading its wings on the bank above you.
- And if the views outside the window aren’t enough to divert you, there is free wi-fi and power sockets to help keep you entertained on the journey.
- From Newcastle Central Station it is just five minutes’ walk up Grainger Street to the huge indoor Grainger Market, selling Geordie gifts, 150 types of cheese, Chinese dumplings and loads more.
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Visit the Laing Gallery
Local wine merchant Alexander Laing paid for the elegant Laing art gallery, built in 1904. With floors of Frosterley marble, stained glass windows, and semi-circular murals of historical Newcastle at each end of the main galleries, the building itself makes it worth a visit.
- Add in paintings by Joshua Reynolds, Burne Jones, Stanley Spencer, Holman Hunt and more for a colourful feast of 18th and 19th century British art.
- Dramatic scenes of fire and brimstone by John Martin, born not far away near Hexham, wood engravings of birds and animals by Thomas Berwick, apprenticed in Newcastle, and artistic vases from the Sowerby glassworks in Gateshead are highlights of the Northern Spirit gallery, which showcases the region’s artistic treasures.
- How to reach the Laing art gallery without a car: the gallery is just five minutes’ walk from the Grainger market (turn right at unmissable Grey’s monument). Alternatively, hop on the Tyne and Wear metro one stop from Central Station to Monument and stroll along Blackett Street.
- When you’ve had your fill of art, don’t miss the Magic Hat café next door on Higham Place. The kitchen here cuts down on waste by producing fresh and lovely food and drink from surplus supermarket supplies that were destined for landfill.
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Castle, kittiwakes and kilns
Five minutes from the station, in the other direction, you can reach Newcastle Castle, the 12th century fortification that gives the city its name. To get there from the Laing gallery, you could stroll down picturesque Grey Street (named after Earl Grey of tea fame) and past the lantern-spired cathedral. Beyond the castle, keep going down some of the city’s oldest streets towards the banks of the Tyne. In summer hundreds of noisy kittiwakes, the world’s most inland breeding colony, nest on ledges in the cliff-like granite columns of the Tyne bridge.
- Turn left along the Tyne to reach Ouseburn, a thriving hub for artists and musicians, cafés, pubs and museums in what was the birthplace of Tyneside’s industrial revolution. It’s an interesting mile’s walk eastwards beside the river. You pass the Victoria Tunnel, an underground wagonway that you can visit on a guided tour.
- Ouseburn is packed with great places to eat and drink. For seriously tasty food in a unique setting, seek out Kiln, a popular little café in a ceramics studio on Hume Street, selling inventive plates of food.
- Ten minutes’ walk back along the river, cross the spectacular Millennium Bridge to visit the Baltic art gallery, with 2,600 square metres of exhibition space in a 1950s riverside flour mill in Gateshead on the Tyne’s southern bank. Don’t miss the fabulous panoramas from the free viewing platforms or, for a special occasion, book a feast with a view at Six, the Baltic’s fancy top-floor restaurant.
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Hadrian's Wall
Nineteen centuries ago, Emperor Hadrian oversaw the start of work on a 73-mile wall to guard the Roman empire’s remote north-western border. From the banks of the Tyne in Newcastle to the Solway Firth, west of Carlisle, this Unesco-listed frontier has a national walking trail tracking it from coast to coast. You can walk beside sections of wall and follow its former course, snaking over grassy hills, past turrets, milecastles and whole Roman towns. There are huge views across the landscapes of Northumberland and Cumbria from ruins like Housesteads fort with its barracks, hospital and communal loos. Fragments of ancient life here – a hobnailed leather shoe or a bowl with a carved soldier’s name – survive in the museum.
- How to get to Hadrian’s Wall by bus: these central sections of the wall can be accessed on bus AD122 from Hexham (trains from Newcastle). And you’ll get 10% off entry to the Roman Army Museum when you show a bus ticket.
- Hadrian’s Wall Path begins at Wallsend, about four miles east of Newcastle. An excellent museum on the site of Segedunum Roman Fort makes an ideal place to start the trail. A viewing tower overlooks the outline of the fort and a mesmerising video reconstruction shows the layers of history ebb and flow around it.
- The museum puts the site in glowing context, from epic overviews of imperial power to the tiny details of everyday life in the fort: Roman dice that soldiers used to pass the time or the mark of a cat’s paw on an ancient piece of pottery.
- How to get to Segedunum without a car: From the Monument metro stop in the middle of Newcastle, the metro runs direct to Wallsend in ten minutes.
- Following the trail westwards from Newcastle, you walk through the lovely Tyne Riverside Country Park and up to the Northumberland village of Heddon-on-the-Wall with a long stretch of broad wall to explore and the welcoming Swan pub for refreshments. Bus 685 runs direct from Newcastle.
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To the sea
Newcastle is just eight miles from the North Sea and it’s an easy trip by bus or metro to the coast.
- One branch of the metro ends in South Shields. From here, it’s a twenty-minute stroll through Marine Park to the kiss-me-quick delights of Sandhaven Beach.
- Across the widening river, the metro leads to North Shields (there’s a ferry in between too) and on to Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay with the striking domed white Spanish City, a revamped entertainment centre by the sea.
- For a more rural seaside escape, follow the King Charles III England Coast Path for two miles or catch a bus to St Mary’s lighthouse. Fans of TV detective series Vera will recognise some classic locations around Whitley Bay, and St Mary’s Island, and can take a tour.
- Completed in 1898, the lighthouse stands on a small rocky part-time island with a causeway, which is covered by high tides. Look out for the bottlenose dolphins that have been spotted here recently and, in summer, for sand martins flying low over the nearby beach and the nature reserve with rock pools and flowering clifftop meadows. If the tide is low enough to reach the lighthouse you can climb 137 steps to the top for spectacular views along the coast.
- How to get to St Mary’s lighthouse by bus: Bus 308 runs frequently from Newcastle’s bus station (two stops on the metro from the train station). Get off at The Links-Cemetery stop and cross the road towards the sea. Walk five or ten minutes along the coast path with the sea on your right and you can’t miss it.
- Discover more adventures you can take around Newcastle with a PlusBus ticket.
