Our easy-to-use website contains details and locations of places to visit around this area. Please select from:

	Places to Stay: Bed and Breakfast Hotels and Guest Houses Pubs with Accommodation Self Catering
	Places to Eat and Drink: Cafes, Coffee & Tea Shops Pubs serving Food Restaurants and Bistros
	Places of Interest: Places to Visit
	Gardens Centres: Garden Centres/Nurseries
	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Kirkoswald

The village derives its name from the Church of St Oswald. Oswald was the King of Northumbria who, according to legend, toured the pagan north with St Aidan in the 7th century. The church is unusual in having a detached bell tower standing on top of a grassy hill some 200 yards from the main building, which is in a valley, so if the bells had been placed there they could not be heard by the villagers.

This once thriving market town still retains its small cobbled market place and some very fine Georgian buildings. There's also a striking ruined 12th-century Castle, formerly the home of the Featherstonehaugh family.

One of Kirkoswald's most splendid buildings is The College, its name recalling the days when St Oswald's was a collegiate church. The two-storey house with its sloping-ended roof was originally built as a pele tower and converted into the college for priests in the 1520s. The manor house opposite has a particularly attractive entrance front in sandstone, which was added in 1696.

Just to the northwest of Kirkoswald are the Nunnery Walks, which start at a Georgian house built in 1715. Narrow footpaths have been cut into the sandstone cliffs along the deep gorge of Croglin Beck and they pass through beautiful woodland to reveal exciting waterfalls. The walks are open to the public during the summer months.