Gadgie Walks: Rising Sun Country Park

The park of the Rising Sun. (North Tyneside)

March 22nd.

On March 29th we are allowed to meet and exercise in groups of six. Today the usual three, Brian, Margaret and I are walking locally from the Rising Sun Country Park in North Tyneside.

Built on the site of the Rising Sun Colliery which closed in 1969 the park has a large pond, a small hill and plenty of trails for walkers, dog walkers and families with small children. And there is a cafe which closes at 3.00pm at the moment.

The park is behind ASDA supermarket on Whitley Road, the entrance just to the east of the of the store, the car park about a half mile down the road.

The map for this urban/rural walk is OS Explorer 316 Newcastle upon Tyne.

This week's car park at Rising Sun Country Park. Free. If it's full you can park at ASDA and walk down the road to the park.

Leaving the car park and visitor centre we started the day walking round the Swallow Pond to the bird hide on the south side. There were quite a few water irds on the pond including tufted ducks, golden eye, moorhens and mallards. Plus geese.

Life on the Swallow Pond.

After a while and a chat with a serious camera man we walked up the hill which is the old pit heap. One of the three high spots in North Tyneside it has views in all directions, south across the Tyne, north to the Cheviots and a glimpse of Northumberlandia's nose, east to the sea and west to Newcastle.

Having admired the views we walked back down the hill and followed a track through Battle Hill to the A19. Fortunately there is a footpath beneath the road.

The footpath through Battle Hill has several large stones with pictures of miners' gear. Some have been vandalised but here's one of them.

After a short distance on a path parallel with the road we entered Silverlink Business Park, supposedly one of the largest in the UK. Close to the offices was a block of shops including the nation's favourite maker of pasties, Greggs. We called a halt for coffee.

Moving on we came to the Silverlink Biodiversity Park which includes the third of North Tyneside's three peaks, the Sundial.

Sundial gnomon in Silverlink Park.

The shadow says the time is about 12.20. It's a bit fast

Leaving the biodiversity park and its small ponds we followed footpaths to New York Road, turned right and stayed on the road for a short distance before turning left at a pub and walking to Murton Village.

Turning left at The Robin Hood, another sadly closed pub, we walked round the edges of fields, crossed the Tyne Wear Metro line (carefully) and walked more fields to Earsdon.

We decided the bench outside the church would make an ideal Herbie Spot, in the sun but sheltered. We shared apple pies, savoury flapjacks and apple cake from Mrs A.

The memorial in St Alban's Churchyard to the 204 men and boys killed in the Hartley Colliery disaster of 1862

Three boys named North aged 10, 12 and 14

Some old agricultural implement I suspect. It's outside the church

St Alban's church. A chapel was built here in 1250 but this is Victorian.

Lunch over we walked west down the road to the livery stables on the corner. They look like old mine buildings. We walked across fields, close to Backworth, using paths of course, crossed the old mineral railway line on a flat hairpin route, used the footpath under the A19 and arrived at Holystone.

At Holystone we crossed the Metro line again, carefully, walked through an industrial park and were soon back at the Rising Sun.

Unfortunately it was 3.20 and the cafe was closed so we went home.