Walk, Durham - Shincliffe

Walk, Durham and Shincliffe by the River Wear. Approximately 3.3 mile or 5.3 kilometres.

You can start this circular walk from Shincliffe, Durham or as we did, from the City Boathouse, Durham Amateur Rowing Club on the banks of the river wear. We were on the Caravan Club, Certificated Location, at the City Boathouse, so that is why we started there, we have done the same walk before, starting at the pub in Shincliffe.

We set off towards Durham city centre following the river Wear, along this stretch you get some of the best but lesser known views of the city, with the castle and cathedral standing high above.

At the old baths is the first bridge you can cross to the other side and you could do if you wanted to shorten the walk by about a quarter of a mile. So we continued on, the path here goes behind a hotel but rejoins the river after about 50 yards. We follow the river to the next bridge, Elvet Bridge, where we went up onto the bridge round the side of the Swan and Three Cygnets (good Sam Smiths if you fancy one).

Across Elvet Bridge we went down the steps back to the side of the river (if you are doing the walk the other way remember you have to go up these steps) and headed back in the direction we came but obviously on the other side of the river. On this side we passed under New Elvet Bridge before Baths Footbridge.

You must remember to keep looking over you shoulder as you walk, as the views of the castle and cathedral are still great from this side as well.

We continued on along this straight stretch of the river until a bend, where we passed the boat house and our van on the other side.

Just after this is the confluence of the Old Durham Beck and the Wear, we crossed Old Durham Beck, via a long footbridge (long for such a small beck that is). Here are the remains of a demolished rail crossing from the disused Durham to Sunderland Line.

We climbed up onto the old line and walked along it for a short distance away from the river, wondering what the history of this old railway is.

When we went over a bridge over Old Durham Beck, we came down from the rail track to take some photos and then headed back across a playing field to rejoin the river path.

Back at the rive next to the Maiden Castle footbridge, we again could have made the walk shorter and crossed here but didn't and carried on towards Shincliffe.  The path became a bit muddy along this stretch but not too bad, if you were careful.

At Shincliff you can just cross over the River and head back, or if you fancy a beer there is a pub, The Rose Tree Inn, next to the bridge.  Today we didn't we just crossed and set of back, still sticking to the river bank.

With the river on the right and the university sports grounds on the left we head back towards the Maiden Castle footbridge.   The View in front of you as you head back towards Durham is that of Maiden Castle itself, well the hill where the Iron Age fort stood many years ago.

As we walk around the base of the fort still following the river, the path becomes muddy again but again not too bad.  This part of the path is also more wooded than the rest of the walk and towards the end there is one part of the river bank that is not accessibly where we had to follow the path  through a small wood for about 50 yards until it comes out on the road about 100 yards from the Boathouse.