Best places to stay within easy reach of Beamish?

[Crinkle55]

Keen to visit Beamish this year, and looking for suggestions of where to base ourselves and where to stay so we can visit Beamish for the day as part of our trip.

We like mooching round pretty towns and villages, nice walks and scenery, nice cafes, farm parks and some attractions like NT type places. Somewhere not too busy, and definitely unspoilt!

Is there anywhere within a 45 minute-ish drive of Beamish that meets this description, ideally with other things to do nearby.

Also any ideas of nice self catering in the area would be fab too!

Just don't really know where to start!

Thanks!

I'd suggest having a look at Corbridge, a good base to explore some of the Hadrians Wall area and not too far from Beamish for a day trip.

Oh, thanks. I've been through Corbridge but never spent any time there. Is there much to do there or is it just a base for travelling about?

We used to go to Beamish when visiting our daughter at Durham. I’d recommend not going to Beamish when it’s the school holidays as it’s a much better experience when it’s quieter. The buses and trams get very busy. Durham is lovely, the cathedral and castle. We also stayed in Seahouses and traveled up the Northumberland coast, collected sea glass at Seaham and went to Alnwick Castle.

Thanks for the tip SpringSparrow.

Love Northumberland and had many good holidays there, quite fancied a change this time though. Alnwick is lovely. That's exactly the type of town I was thinking of tbh! Somewhere with independent shops and cafes and nice walks.

Never been to Durham, so did wonder about staying there but wasn't sure if we'd want a city break for a week with the kids. Might consider staying somewhere on the outskirts if there was a nice, quiet self catering with a garden.

We stayed at East Briscoe cottages which is fairly close to Barnard Castle. Their website gives a whole list of places to visit nearby https://www.eastbriscoe.co.uk/activities-teesdale/

If you have NT passes Gibside is close by, or even if not its a beautiful place. South Causey Inn is lovely for food and there's a walk opposite called The Causey Arch which is the oldest single surviving railway arch in the world! High Force Waterfall is also beautiful, the high force hotel does nice food too. You can also walk along to Low Force. Cragside NT is about 50 mins away but is incredible, the first house to be powered by Hydro electricity. We also have the best coastlines, if you didnt want to go as far as Bamburgh, Blyth beach has free parking and does fab fish & chips.

Looks great, thanks. Sadly booked up for when we need, but will keep in mind for future visits.

Some great ideas, thank you!

Any ideas of nice places to base ourselves to be able to visit all these?

Morpeth is lovely. We went last year

Never been to Morpeth, is it a nice town? Any suggestions of good places to stay nearby?

https://plawsworth.com/

We have stayed here on a couple of occasions. Easy buses into Durham if you want to leave the car at the cottages.

Durham is a really nice small city - I live close by and visitors always like it. It is walkable and you can hire boats and go rowing on the river, visit Durham Cathedral, tour the castle (sometimes), botanical gardens etc. Plenty of restaurants and although it is a city it's not at all like eg staying in Newcastle for a city break.
Barnard Castle is a smaller market town but it's a while since I've been there so can't comment on current amenities. Would second South Causey Inn as a good pub and the nearby walk. Raby Castle is nice to visit with pretty villages such as Staindrop nearby. Lumley Castle near Durham is a hotel depending on what kind of accommodation you wanted, and pretty close to Beamish.
If you stayed somewhere like Barnard Castle or Durham I wouldn't say you need to go as far north as Blyth for a nice beach with fish and chips. Tynemouth and Whitley Bay are both good beaches with independent shops and eateries nearby. Roker and Seaburn are actually also lovely beaches with plenty of eating options, not really shops to mooch about in, but you can go through an underground lighthouse keeper's tunnel and visit the lighthouse at the end of the pier there. Seaham has plenty of eating options and looking for sea glass is popular on the beach there. Hawthorn Dene just further south is a lovely coastal walk through a nature reserve.
Further north yes Corbridge and Morpeth are lovely places, not too big, and within 45 min you can also visit NT/EH Belsay, Wallington, Warkworth, Cragside, plenty of Roman stuff and Kielder, which are all worth a visit.

This looks good, thanks!

This is so helpful, thank you! Off to google some of these now!

Corbridge sprang to mind for me, lovely place and lots of walking, ready stroll to Dilston for the Physic garden, you have the Roman ruins in Corbridge itself and a short hop to Hadrian's Wall, Housesteads fort and a nice walk along to Sycamore Gap minus the tree.

Lots of lovely suggestions. Barnard Castle is another good shout (and has a brilliant wood fired sauna), as is staying in Durham. Just depends what you want really overall. If you want endless beaches then Northumberland could be better good and just do Beamish on the way up or down or accept a longer drive. The Durham coastline is beautiful too though more industrial past on show. Near Barnard castle you've got Raby Castle which is lovely and the Bowes Museum. Nothing is a million miles away from anywhere else though.