The National Trust

This is my favourite place for a walk at any time of year, although take boots or wellies in winter — even the car park is incredibly muddy! They also have farmers markets every month over the summer (on Saturdays) and these offer product grown there and on other local National Trust properties and NE businesses. Very friendly service, usually some music and you don’t have to pay to visit the market (same for the tearoom, shop and loos.) They also have Brass in the Park every month, on Sundays, when local brass bands play in front of the chapel. Take a picnic, some easy chairs, the Sunday paper and enjoy!

Gibside Estate, near Rowlands Gill in Tyne and Wear is the ancestral estate of the Bowes-​Lyon family. (The Queen Mother was born Elizabeth Bowes-​Lyon.) The estate chapel and grand walk have been owned bythe National Trust since the 1960s and they acquired some more of the grounds in the 1990s. It’s a stunning place with beautiful grounds and lots of wildlife and woodland and riverside walks.
My attitude towards Gibside is coloured somewhat by having gotten lost there a few years back following a badly signposted trail — it’s a fantastic place but I don’t stray too far!
Gibside Chapel can host Anglican weddings and on those days the chapel is closed to public access. It is a truly stunning venue for a wedding.
Facilities at the estate include a tea room, free car parking, gift shop with regional products and baby changing facilities.