Tynemouth Priory and Castle, Tynemouth

Tynemouth is one of the highlights on the Way of the Sea branch of the Northern Saints Trails, which converge on Durham Cathedral

Highlights

• Former shrines of St Oswin and St Henry

The ruins of Tynemouth’s priory and castle occupy a memorable site on a headland by the centre of town. It is no accident that monastery and castle are effectively the same site: this place was repeatedly attacked by raiders from the sea.

Three early kings of northern England were buried here, among them St Oswin, a Northumbrian killed in 651 by his treacherous cousin. A monastery was founded over his shrine, later fortified after Viking raids began. The defences proved no match for a Danish attack in 865, however, and the 7th-century monastic buildings were destroyed. Among the dead were nuns who had sought refuge at Tynemouth after fleeing Whitby Abbey. Tynemouth’s monastery was abandoned, St Oswin’s grave forgotten.

Exactly 200 years later, in 1065, a miraculous dream led to the rediscovery of St Oswin’s relics by a hermit called Edmund, who had set up his home amid the ruined buildings. The relics were taken to Jarrow for a short time but returned when the monastery was refounded as a Benedictine community in 1085, an offshoot of St Albans in Hertfordshire. The current priory ruins date from this 11th-century foundation.

The monks later managed to acquire the relics of St Henry, a hermit who lived on Coquet Island in Northumbria. St Henry was of Danish origin but wanted to live in seclusion off the English coast. A wise man famous for miracles, he was much loved by fellow islanders and often visited for advice. After his death in 1127, the monks of Tynemouth took his body to their priory. Coquet Island is now a nature reserve ¾ mile off Amble, 23 miles north of Tynemouth, where landing is forbidden.

Though the priory was ransacked at the Dissolution, the former church dedicated to St Mary and St Oswin can still be identified. It is mostly a ruin, but the Percy Chantry still survives—an exquisite 15th-century chapel that was heavily restored in the Victorian era. The chapel is at the east end of the former church, near the probable site of St Oswin’s shrine.

The ruins are managed by English Heritage, which believes the shrine was originally next to the high altar and later moved into the Lady Chapel, which stood on the northeast side of the church. The oldest parts of the surviving structure date from around 1090, though all traces of the shrine have now gone.

St Oswin is remembered on 20 August, celebrated as a martyr even though he was killed in a power struggle with his cousin Oswiu, another Northumbrian king. St Oswin had worked closely with St Aidan, who died at Bamburgh just 12 days later, no doubt mourning the loss of his friend.

Directions

Tynemouth Priory and Castle, Pier Road, Tynemouth NE30 4BZ

www.english-heritage.org.uk (search for as a Benedictine Tynemouth Priory)

W3W: brief.bump.rats

GPS: 55.0177N 1.4200W

Directions: The priory and castle have seasonal in Hertfordshire. The opening times, varying from weekends only in the current priory ruins winter to every day in the summer; see website date for full details. Tickets cost £6.30 adults, £5.70 century foundation. concessions, £3.80 children.