At the end of March I jumped onboard an LNER service (read about that here) to head north and spend a couple of nights in Newcastle. As much as I love Newcastle, my stay was not to enjoy the city itself but to travel on some horrendously timed trains and explore some more the of the East Coast. Six stations were ticked off over the course of the trip, but this episode of Exploring the East Coast covers three of them: Alnmouth, Acklington and Widdrington.
Having arrived at Newcastle and quickly checked in to my hotel, I was back at the station less than an hour later to catch the next LNER service to Alnmouth for Alnwick, better known simply as Alnmouth. Helpfully the station is in neither Alnmouth or Alnwick, but in fact the village of Hipsburn which is a mile or so from Alnmouth itself and a good three miles from Alnwick. Deciding to make the 20 minute walk to Alnmouth over faffing with buses for Alnwick, I followed the Hip Burn towards the estuary.
Whilst the first part of the walk is through the housing estate of Hipsburn, following the A1068 roundabout, the route follows a country road to the river Aln itself. Crossing the Duchess Bridge, there is then a public footpath that follows the river towards the sea, allowing a lovely walk along the estuary and around Alnmouth harbour. Just across the river from Alnmouth itself is Church Hill, the site of the town’s former parish church which was cut off from the town as the river changed its course following a storm. Today all that remains on the hill are some ruins and a large wooden cross along with great views of the harbour and town.
In addition to being a great place to visit the beach or walk along the banks of the Aln estuary, Alnmouth is also a beautiful village to explore with a few historic buildings dotted around. In fact the majority of the village is designated as a conservation area, with a mix of 17th, 18th and 19th century architecture as well as at least 31 Grade II listed buildings.
As previously mentioned, Alnmouth also serves the town of Alnwick which sits a few miles from the station. Famous for its castle and gardens, Alnwick is a site of pilgrimage for Harry Potter fans owing to the castle’s feature in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. There are regular buses from the A1068 roundabout (about 5 minutes from the station) that run to Alnwick and it’s a lovely town to explore, unfortunately I didn’t have the time on this visit.
Having enjoyed a wonderful walk in the unseasonably warm weather, I headed back to the station to catch a train back to Newcastle to connect with the one return train per day to my next stop, Acklington. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the station I discovered that the trains were disrupted owing to one having hit a bird which had damaged a crucial bit of equipment. Thankfully after a bit of time enjoying the sun on the platform, things started moving again and I was able to make the connection at Morpeth rather than Newcastle.
Acklington is the least used station in Northumberland with just 324 passengers having used the station in 2021/2022 and it is easy to see why. With just one northbound and two southbound services each day, the only way to visit the station is to catch the evening service from Newcastle which gives you about an hour at Acklington before returning. However, with pretty much nothing in the vicinity except a caravan park, the hour was plenty to explore everything that Acklington had to offer.
The reason these stations are some of the last in England to feature in Exploring the East Coast is the difficulty in actually visiting them. Widdrington has the same service pattern as Acklington (one northbound and two southbound trains) with the only return trip from Newcastle possible being the evening service. This gives about 90 minutes to explore, but also means that only one station can be visited each evening unless buses are involved and as such Widdrington was visited on day 2 of this Exploring the East Coast.
The village of Widdrington itself has a Grade I listed 12th century parish church and the ruins of a medieval castle which are a scheduled ancient monument. Unfortunately, as with Alnmouth, the station is not in the village itself and is a 30 minute walk meaning there isn’t really time to explore and not risk missing the return train. The station is actually in a more modern extension of the village known as Widdrington Station which mainly features a large housing estate constructed to support the railway and former brickworks. However, it is also home to an excellent chip shop which provided sustenance whist waiting for the train.
In conclusion of the three station in this Exploring the East Coast, Alnmouth is probably the only one really worth visiting as it has frequent trains and there’s plenty to do in either Alnwick or Alnmouth itself. Acklington can certainly be missed unless you’re ticking off least used stations whilst Widdrington is possibly worth a visit for the old village, but you may have to work out getting a bus back to Morpeth if you miss the train.
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