St. Cuthbert's House

Driving yourself round the bends...

If you insist on using your satnav, and are prepared for it to take you on a circuitous mystery tour around the lanes of Northumberland, then tell it to bring you to NE68 7UB. Call us when you get frustrated, or lost. And remember - don't shout at that lady who's telling you which way to go, because she's not real.

If you're approaching from the West - well you already know where you are, on those country lanes. If you're coming from the East then look for the lighthouse flashing twice every 15 seconds, and pull your oars in because you're nearly here.

If you plan to drop in by balloon here are the coordinates: Lat 55.57591221431669 Long -1.6693425178527832

Car-park charging policies around Northumberland are a bit of a mish-mash.  Depending on where you're parking (and which Parish Council rules the roost there) then you may need to either pay and display or simply display a Parking Disc for free parking.  We can lend you one of these for the duration of your stay, which will save you buying one for £1.

On the right track...

We are close to the main East Coast railway line, which carries high-speed trains between Scotland and London, and also Cross-Country services between Edinburgh and the south-west. The trains pass within four miles of St Cuthbert's House, but unfortunately we have to travel a bit further to actually get on or off any of them. The nearest mainline stations are at Alnmouth (17 miles to the south) and Berwick-upon-Tweed (about 23 miles to the north). Regular bus services run from either town to Seahouses, once every hour or so. Andrew or Rob, our local taxi drivers, will also be pleased to collect you.

We are keen to wholeheartedly recommend travelling to Northumberland by train, and it is now practical to do so because it's also possible to move around by bus once you're here, as we said earlier. And of course you could bring your bike on the train and then ride along Sustrans' Coast & Castles route to get here.

You can even arrive by train and then climb onto a hired bike, thanks to a great scheme called Bike and Go. Alnmouth station is one of only two in Northumberland which are part of the scheme. You can also arrive by train and hire a serious bike from Adventure Northumberland or Pedal Power too.

If you're really determined, there is one slow train per day which connects from Newcastle-upon-Tyne (a mainline interchange) to our sleepy local station called Chathill, which is four miles from here. But there are absolutely no buses from there, so you'd need a short taxi ride.

If you want to come by train, then please contact us so we can help you to plan your journey, and your transport from the station to St Cuthbert's House.

Some useful travel-by-train links:
East Coast trains
Cross-country trains
thetrainline.com (covers all networks but you seem to pay a commission to them.)

On your bike

Northumberland is a cyclist's dream. There's a great choice of beautiful, quiet waymarked routes, both on and off-road. Sustrans' 'jewel' is the Coast and Castles route, which goes - literally - past our front door. It's a linear route, but it's easy to turn sections of it into circular tours. As well as the 'official' waymarked routes, almost every road for miles around makes for wonderful cycling.

It's very easy to use the train to get you and your bike here, and then ride along the beautiful Coast & Castles cycle route to get to St Cuthbert's House. Thanks to the Bike and Go scheme, you can also hire a bike at Alnmouth rail station - although this would need careful planning if you were bringing panniers or any bags of kit with you.

If you're arriving by train, you can also hire a serious bike from Adventure Northumberland or Pedal Power too. Even if you're coming in your own car, this gives you a real opportunity to leave it in the car park for a few days and get out there.

St Cuthbert's House is a great base for a cycling holiday. We have routes, ideas, maps and advice, as well as a track pump and a well-stocked bike toolkit. We also have about 20 spare inner tubes of every conceivable dimension... the result of being a large cycling family! We do have secure and dry cycle storage available too, and therefore we earned the 'Cyclists Welcome' accolade. Cool. We are CTC members ourselves.

Magic Bus

There are a number of coach networks which seem to link virtually every town in Europe together. The nearest main coach drop-off point is Alnwick.

Some useful travel-by-coach links:
National Express coaches
Megabus