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Tynemouth Priory and Castle

Tynemouth’s castle and priory church stand on a head pd looking out over the North Sea and guarding the approach to the River Tyne. The priory was founded in 617 and was the burial place of the early Northumbrian kings. It was destroyed by the Danish invasions of the ninth century and the present building dates to 1090. The castle was added in the fourteenth century for defensive purposes.

Over the centuries both priory and castle have been used as landmarks and served as important fortifications against the Vikings, Scots and the armies of Napoleon.There is a monument here to Admiral Collingwood,a local Battle of Trafalgar hero. During both world wars the castle was used as a coastal defence and the restored magazines of the gun battery can still be seen.

Nowadays much of the priory church remains, though most of the domestic outbuildings of the monastery have disappeared. Coastal erosion has played its part, but concrete piers have been erected to prevent further destruction. The ruins are haunted by the ghost of a Viking called Olaf who was badly wounded in a raid and nursed back to health by the priory monks.

He stayed on and joined their community, but soon the maraud ing Vikings were back, and Olaf’s brother was with them. He was killed in the fighting and Olaf was said to be so heartbroken that he died soon afterwards. Now his ghost can be seen looking wistfully out to sea, gazing back towards his homeland. Female Ghost | Green Lady | Lauder | Aberdeenshire | Angus | Barcaldine | Barcaldine | Birmingham | Bishop Cameron | Bladnoch | Braemar | Carlow | Doncaster | Dublin | Dumfriesshire | Dundee | Essex | Female Ghost | Ghost | Goatfell mountain | Green Lady | Green Lady | Ireland | Ireland | Ireland | Kent | Leap | Loch Fyne | Nairn | Pontefract castle | Scotland | Scotland | Scotland | Scotland | Shropshire | Southeastern Ireland | Sussex | The female ghost | Witchcraft |