Best Parks and Green Spaces in Alnwick

For a town of its size, Alnwick is remarkably rich in open space. You can walk out of the market place and be among ancient parkland, riverside meadows or wooded play areas within minutes, and most of it costs nothing to enjoy. Whether you want a proper walk with the castle on the skyline, a spot for a picnic, or somewhere for the children to run off some energy, here are the best parks and green spaces in and around the town.

The Pastures

The Pastures is the meadowland that straddles the River Aln directly below Alnwick Castle, and it gives you what is arguably the most famous view in Northumberland: the castle rising above the water, with the Percy lion standing guard on the 1773 Lion Bridge. The land was landscaped in the 18th century by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, working with Thomas Call, and it remains open grassland grazed much as it always has been.

Access is free. The usual route starts at Lion Bridge, just below the castle, and follows a public footpath along the river downstream towards Denwick Bridge, near The Alnwick Garden. It is flat and open, ideal for a gentle stroll or a picnic, though the riverside ground can be muddy and slippery after rain, so sturdy footwear is worth having in the wetter months.

Best for: Best for: the classic castle-and-river view, easy riverside strolling and picnics.

Hulne Park

If you want space to really stretch your legs, Hulne Park is the one. This walled enclosure of roughly 3,000 acres sits immediately north of the town and is open to walkers free of charge, managed by the Northumberland Estates. It is entered on foot via Ratten Row, off Northumberland Street, past St Michael's Church.

Three waymarked trails, colour-coded yellow, blue and red, wind through mature woodland and open parkland along the River Aln. The red route is the most rewarding, climbing to the atmospheric ruins of the 13th-century Hulne Priory and passing the 18th-century Brizlee Tower, a folly built for the first Duke of Northumberland with wide views towards the Cheviots. The park is unusually peaceful because it is pedestrians only: no cars, no bicycles and no dogs. It typically opens from late morning until around 4pm and occasionally closes for estate work, so it is worth checking before you set out.

Best for: Best for: long, quiet walks through ancient parkland and woodland, with no traffic and no crowds.

Swansfield Park

Closer to the centre, Swansfield Park on Swansfield Park Road is Alnwick's main neighbourhood green space and its busiest free playground. It has a good play structure with swings, slides and separate toddler swings, set among grass and mature trees, and there is a small but active Friends of Swansfield Park group working to look after it.

The park is a practical, everyday sort of place rather than a grand landscape, and that is exactly its value: it is within walking distance of much of the town, it costs nothing, and it works for a quick after-school hour as well as a longer afternoon. The town council maintains a handful of other smaller play areas across Alnwick, including at Allerburn Lea, Glovers Green, Upper Barrasdale and Bull Field, so most neighbourhoods have somewhere green within a short walk.

Best for: Best for: families wanting a free, central playground and easy green space close to home.

The Alnwick Garden

No round-up of Alnwick's green spaces would be complete without The Alnwick Garden, though it is worth being clear that this is a paid attraction rather than a public park. Created by the Duchess of Northumberland from 2001, the 12-acre garden features the spectacular Grand Cascade, the famous Poison Garden, a cherry orchard and one of the world's largest treehouses.

Unlike the free spaces above, admission is ticketed, and the adjacent Lilidorei play village is charged separately. But if you want beautifully designed formal gardens rather than open countryside, it is one of the finest days out in the North East. We cover it in full in our complete guide to The Alnwick Garden.

Best for: Best for: a designed garden day out, water features and family attractions, when you don't mind paying an entry fee.

Making the most of them

The beauty of Alnwick is that these spaces sit so close together. You can walk the Pastures below the castle, cross to Hulne Park for a longer loop, and still be back in the market place for lunch. For a longer outing, our guide to the best walks from Alnwick links several of them into full routes out towards the coast.

Know a green space we have missed, or spotted something that needs updating? Get in touch and let us know.