A warm walk from Wylam

 A warm walk from Wylam March 27th.

A much reduced team,  because of holidays, family birthdays or the talk of poor weather, is walking fro Wylam in the Tyne Valley again. Easy to reach, west on the A69, turn off at the signpost for Wylam and head down towards the river. Just before the river, on the left, is a large and free car park.

The walk is covered by OS Explorer 316 Newcastle upon Tyne.

                            Wylam car park.

From the car park we walked down towards the river and took the footpath under the road bridge, continuing close to the water to Hagg Bridge.

Hagg Bridge. Originally built in 1896 to connect the Wylam line with the Newcastle to Carlisle railway it is said to be a model for the Tyne Bridge. The line closed in 1968 and the old track bed is a footpath.

Once on the south side of the river we followed the footpath/cycle path alongside the bank to the Tyne Riverside Country Park at Prudhoe.                                                                                                           This section passes the Spetchells, an artificial mound created from chalk when the nearby factory was used for the production of fertiliser and explosives in WW2. 

The Spetchells. The chalk mound was planted with trees and is now a nature reserve!

      Although we had only got 2.5 miles under our feet we stopped for coffee, sitting outside in the sun. 

Break over we continued for a short distance on the river bank before crossing the railway and walking through woodland to a road. Turning left we walked a short distance down the road to a track that took us to Prudhoe Castle.

Prudhoe Castle built in the 11th century and occupied by the Umfravilles until  in 1381 the last of the line died. His widow married into the Percy family. The Percy family lost it, got it back, restored it and let it out. (The Percy family are the Earls/Dukes of Northumberland) Prudhoe comes from old English and possibly means High Ridge. The castle does stand high above the river. In one of several battles between the English and the Scots the soldiers from north of the border did a lot of damage to the castle orchard.

The castle is closed but there is a footpath all the way round the walls, as the loop at  mile 4 on the map shows.

Leaving the ruin we walked along a footpath close to the road and the industrial area which makes tissue.                                                                                                                                                          The path went through a wood below the Recycling Area but a log made a fine seat for a Herbie (Close to Mile 5)   Titans from ALDI, cookies, no Mrs A                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Crossing the railway again  a series of steep steps took us back to river level and round a large pond.

               The large pond

Back on the track by the Tyne at mile 6 we were soon back at Hagg Bridge from where we followed the dismantled railway back to the car park and home. And, in spite of the forecast, it was  a warm dry day.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2026

The walk is about 7.5 miles, easy going, river views and a castle.