In the Town

Alnwick is small enough that everything inside the town is walked to. From the market place, the castle walls are minutes away, the garden sits just beyond them, and the streets between hold a second-hand bookshop in a Victorian railway station, a compact town museum and lanes that still carry their old names. This section gathers what sits inside the town itself, before the county outside it.

The town's position explains its shape: a crossing point on the old Great North Road, a seat of the Percy family, a market square that still works. What survives is unusually intact for a town of this size, and the walking is all gentle gradient and short distance.

The castle and the garden

The two big sights anchor opposite ends of the town's day. Alnwick Castle, the Norman seat of the Percy family, still lived in, and The Alnwick Garden, a contemporary garden created this century with its notorious Poison Garden. Together they fill most of a day, and the guide to both covers what each is and how to time them.

The streets and their history

Bondgate Within and Bondgate Without are the town's old spine, running from the medieval Bondgate Tower down past the market place. The street holds its own small histories, including a townhouse whose story is unusually well documented: the history of Bondgate House traces three families, a doctor's surgery and a fire insurance plaque across a century and a half.

Between the landmarks sit the smaller pleasures: Pickwick Lane and Correction House Lane, the market place itself, and a bookshop and museum that reward an afternoon. The lanes, Barter Books and the Bailiffgate museum are the Alnwick that exists between the ticketed sights.

How much time does the town itself need?

Alnwick's centre fits a day comfortably: the castle in the morning, the garden or the bookshop in the afternoon, the market place and lanes at either end. A second day lets the town slow down, which is when the smaller sights, the museum, the park gate, the plaque above a Bondgate doorway, start to read properly. Visitors with a single night should choose between castle and garden rather than attempt both at speed.

Beyond the town

Everything in this section is reachable on foot from a bed in the town. The day trips, castles, coast and walking country, belong to the county section, and the practical question of where to sleep is covered in Staying in Alnwick. The full index of articles sits in The Notebook.