Alnwick on foot: the old station, the Bondgate and the Shrovetide field

Alnwick is small enough to see on foot in a morning, and the best of it is free. This walk links the old station, the medieval gate, the Market Place and the streets up to the castle, and ends on the field where the town plays football once a year.

Barter Books

Start in the old railway station on Wagonway Road, which closed in 1968 and is now Barter Books. The shop describes itself as one of the largest secondhand bookshops in Britain. It opens every day of the year except Christmas Day, from 9am to 7pm, and in winter the open fires are lit. Look up: a model railway runs along the tops of the shelves in the central room, there are three 40-foot murals and lines of verse painted on the shelves, and a room of glass cases holds the antiquarian books. The shop calls itself the home of the original Keep Calm and Carry On poster, the 1939 HMSO design, and sells its own facsimile.

The Station Buffet inside is in a room the staff came across in 2008, untouched since the trains stopped, with a fern growing on the wall under a skylight. There is no booking, so at busy times you wait for a table.

Through the Bondgate Tower

Walk back towards the town along Bondgate Without, past the Playhouse, to the Bondgate Tower, also called the Hotspur Gate. Its listing dates it to after 1434, around 1450, built by the second Earl of Northumberland as the east gate of the town walls, with portcullis slits and a much-faded carved lion on the outer face. It is Grade I listed and a scheduled monument, and the traffic still goes through its single arch, so stand on the pavement to look.

Bondgate Within and the Market Place

Inside the gate is Bondgate Within. On the north side, the White Swan Hotel has a curiosity behind its front: its listing records the Olympic Room at the back, fitted with salvage from RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic, broken up at Jarrow in 1935. Also on Bondgate Within is the Hardy store, the fishing-tackle firm that started in Alnwick in 1872 and still describes itself as based here.

Turn into the Market Place, cobbled, with the arcaded Northumberland Hall along one side. On Thursdays and Saturdays from March to December, and Wednesdays as well from June to October, it is a market, 10am to 4pm.

Narrowgate and Bailiffgate

Narrowgate climbs from the Market Place towards the castle. The Dirty Bottles is halfway up, with its untouched dusty bottles in the window. At the top, turn along Bailiffgate. The Bailiffgate Museum is in a former church here, telling 10,000 years of the area's history over two floors with a changing gallery upstairs; it opens Tuesday to Sunday, and adult entry is £6. Further along are the Cookie Jar, in the old Convent of Mercy, and the Bailiffgate Hotel, which faces the castle.

The castle and the Pastures

From the end of Bailiffgate you see the castle's outer walls. To see it the way the town does, go down to the River Aln and look back up from the Pastures, the field on the far bank. The castle points dog walkers here, since only assistance dogs are allowed inside its own grounds.

Shrovetide on the Pastures

Once a year the Pastures become a football pitch. On Shrove Tuesday the parishes of St Michael's and St Paul's play the town's Shrovetide game. The Town Council's notice for 2026 set it out: the ball thrown off the barbican of the castle at 2pm on Tuesday 17 February, a piper leading the parade down to the Pastures, by permission of the Duke as Lord of the Manor. The first team to score two hales wins. The council lists the prizes, £15 each for the first two hales and £30 for the third, with up to twenty £5 prizes for good play. When the prizes have been given, the ball is kicked into the river, and whoever lands it on the far bank keeps it.

The council publishes each year's notice in its news. The 2027 date had not been announced when we checked in October 2026; Shrove Tuesday moves with Easter, so look for the council's notice early in the year.

If you have longer

Ratten Row, off the end of Bailiffgate, leads to the gateway into Hulne Park, open 11am to 4pm with no dogs or bikes. And on running days the Aln Valley Railway takes steam and diesel trains out of Lionheart station, on the south edge of town, along the old branch towards Alnmouth.