Additional information
Terrain
- Town streets and good paths, 4 stiles
Landscape
- Riverside and market town
Dog friendliness
- Dogs should be on leads
Parking
- Pay-and-display car park at end of Queen Street
Toilets en route
- By Morrisons supermarket off Galgate
About the walk
Approach Barnard Castle from Bowes and you’ll see the imposing nature of its fortress, which tops a bold 80ft (24m) crag and towers above the River Tees. The castle was built in 1112 for Bernard de Baliol, whose father Guy had fought side by side with William the Conqueror at the Battle of... Hastings. The Baliols would become a powerful force in the north, and John Baliol, with a little help from Edward I, would become King of Scotland in 1292. In the same century the little town that had grown around the castle was granted a charter for a market. The medieval layout of streets, yards and back alleys still exists today and many of the older buildings have survived. Our look around the town, affectionately known as Barney, will reveal this to the full. Riverside woods The walk begins with back alleys that take you past St Mary’s Parish Church, founded in the 12th century. You continue down to Demesnes – open parkland by the Tees, where springs once supplied the town with drinking water. On the leisurely walk by the Tees you’ll see grey marble in the riverbeds, a stone that has supplied building material for the locals, including a fine font in St Mary’s. The pretty riverside woods may also reveal banks of anemones and primroses. Through the trees Egglestone Abbey appears. You may have seen it in one of Turner’s paintings. Abbey Bridge takes you across the river, which hereabouts has formed a deep gorge, and gives you a closer look at the old abbey, founded around 1196 by Ralph de Multon for the Premonstratensian order. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the abbey was sold to Robert Streeley, who converted the cloisters into a house, which has long since been in ruins. The best-preserved part of the abbey is the church, which stands on a grassy knoll above the river. It has impressive, elegant double-lancet windows and an unusual mullioned east window. Returning to Barney A quiet lane takes the route past Bow Bridge, a 17th-century packhorse bridge across Thorsgill Beck. Just beyond this you’re back on field paths above the Tees. Two majestic buildings come in and out of view over the treetops. One is the Bowes Museum (a 'French château’ situated on Newgate Street) and the other, Barnard Castle School. And so you come back to Barney, over the footbridge to Thorngate. At the top the route heads for the castle, which has had a colourful history. It was captured by one of the Prince Bishops of Durham and in 1569, during the Rising of the North against Elizabeth I, it was subjected to an 11-day siege. The damage inflicted made rebuilding necessary, though the round keep survived intact. Beyond the castle you come to Galgate, a wide street that used to be called Gallowgate, referring to a place where the gallows stood. It was also the course of a Roman road linking forts at Bowes and Binchester. Market Place on the right is the commercial centre of Barnard Castle. Here you’ll see the former Kings Head Inn, now a care home, where Dickens stayed while researching his novel Nicholas Nickleby (1839). At the end of Market Place stands the octagonal Market Cross building of 1747. Last but not least on this journey through history is a street known as The Bank. Among the fine old buildings you’ll come across is the town’s famous 16th-century Blagraves House, now a restaurant. Oliver Cromwell is supposed to have stayed here during his visit to the town in 1648.
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