Route: Alnwick
Area: Northumberland
Date of walk: 9th June 2015
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 4.0 miles
Weather: Sunny
We’d first visited the Alnwick Garden in March 2015 and had been impressed with the strength of the design. On our return to Northumberland we were keen to see if the planting matched up to its surroundings. We weren’t disappointed, and will let the photos describe the beauty of the gardens
We started our walk today from garden car park and walked along the B1340 for a short distance before turning off at the bridge to walk through the pastures on the bank of the River Aln This was an enchanting section of the walk, with sublime views across the river to Alnwick Castle. At Lion Bridge we followed a footpath to Abbey Cottage and then crossed the river again over another bridge. At the end of the bridge we followed a footpath on the right which brought us to the arched entrance to Hulne Park
If time had permitted we’d have walked along one of the trails in Hulne Park – this would have extended the route by 4-7 miles depending on our choice – but we’d spent so much time in the garden that this wasn’t an option, so we contented ourselves with walking through Alnwick town back to the start
For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box
Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)
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Some photos of The Alnwick Garden before we started the walk from its car park - this is the Grand Cascade which greets visitors
On our previous visit we’d become Friends of the Garden, so admission was free
Entrance to the Ornamental Garden
Inside the walled Ornamental Garden…
We leave the Ornamental Garden
Drumstick Primula on the way to the Cherry Orchard
The great glory of the Cherry Orchard at this time of year is the planting of Allium ‘Purple Sensation’…
The pond on the way out - we’d barely scraped the surface of this wonderful place but it was time to get on with the walk
After walking out of the garden we followed the road for a short distance before crossing the bridge over the River Aln
At the far side of the bridge we followed the sign pointing to Lion Bridge
The path leading to The Pastures
Then came a heavenly walk through The Pastures with views of Alnwick Castle…
Lion Bridge
Alnwick Castle from Lion Bridge
The River Aln from the bridge - we didn’t cross the bridge but headed away from the castle and joined a path leading to Abbey Cottage
The path to Abbey Cottage
Further along the path
If we’d had time, we’d have extended the walk to include Hulne Park, but decided to turn back into Alnwick at this point
We cross over the River Aln for the second time
St Michael’s Church Alnwick
We passed by the entrance to Alnwick Castle
Alnwick
Walking out of Alnwick back to the car park at the Alnwick Garden - the end of a wonderful short walk, but not the end of the day…
We drove to nearby Seahouses. This is the view from Harbourside Cottage, our base for the next 3 days - perfect!
We walk out of the cottage to watch the local lifeboat RNLB Grace Darling go out to sea on a training exercise
Seahouses harbour
Later on, the lifeboat returns from the training exercise and is winched back up the slipway
