Christmas in Northumberland: Alnmouth
On Christmas Day we thought we’d have a quiet beach walk in Alnmouth, but it seems many other people had the same idea. I thought they’d all be at home cooking their turkeys! However, as is often the case, once we got away from the main beach we lost almost everybody.
We started by looking at the tiny museum in an old fisherman’s hut, said to be one of the smallest in the country. Next to it was the ubiquitous Little Free Library – the choice here was fairly decent. Directly opposite was Church Hill, a grassy knoll with a cross and a ruined Victorian Chapel. Our guidebook said this was an unbeatable vantage point and so we made it the aim of our walk.
Now you might think, looking at the gallery above, that it was an easy hop, skip and a jump to get over there, and at one time it would have been. However, in 1806 a huge storm destroyed the church which then existed and diverted the course of the River Aln which now lay between us and the hill. This gave us a round trip of six miles – some of the things we saw along the way are shown in the gallery below.
At the base of the hill we found the ruined chapel with some fine carving.
Then we had a brief climb to the top of the hill which, we agreed with our guidebook, was an unbeatable vantage point with views over Alnmouth and out to sea.
From the hill we retraced our steps back to Alnmouth with its festive phone box and an open pub – which we resisted because now we had to get back to the cottage to start cooking our Christmas dinner.
The next day was the last of our break and we went to Warkworth.
Linked to Jo’s Monday Walk.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Alnmouth was one of the places I liked best when I camped in that area, I was very impressed especially where the river flows out to the sea. Those colourful houses overlooking the estuary were the main reason for going there as I’d seen a picture of them somewhere, however I found they were located down a private alleyway with no public access but a lovely elderly gentleman watering the flowers in his end garden very kindly opened the gate so I could go in and take some photos. The houses were lovely with very pretty gardens and a great view over the river.
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We saw them from the riverbank – I didn’t know they were down a private lane as we didn’t get any closer. I liked the image I’ve used with the reflections. I was glad to have gone up the hill for a good view over the estuary.
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I’ve been to Alnmouth several times but never made it to Church Hill – it does look worth the effort!
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It’s not the most interesting walk – a lot of it parallel to a road, though separated by a hedge. However, I thought the end result was worth it.
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You did a heck of a lot of walking that day. You have plenty of stamina!
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We were determined to get to that viewpoint!
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Good views
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Yes, lovely! I was glad we’d climbed that little hill.
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