Highlights and lowlights

A weekend visit to North and South Shields did not go entirely to plan. A combination of metro replacement buses, poor planning on my part and some footwear that left me hobbling all conspired to make this a frustrating trip. However, when it worked it was glorious. The sight of the lighthouses on either side of the Tyne in the first and last light of the day was rather special.

My first lighthouse of the day was Herd Groyne, a small red lighthouse which is just 13 metres tall, in South Shields. It has the look more befitting of a homemade moon landing craft than a lighthouse. However, make no mistake, this is a functioning navigational aid operated by the Port of Tyne complete with an active fog horn.

Herd Groyne Lighthouse in South Shields

The Herd Groyne lighthouse was built in 1882 and formed an integral part of an earlier navigation system, along with lights in North Shields, before the completion of construction on the North and South Piers in 1895.

A walk along the coast path to the ferry provided an easy way to cross to North Shields and see the parts of the old system that remain standing – the old low light, the new low light and the high light.

The high light (1808) was built high on the plateau and worked in combination with the new low light on Fish Quay to guide ships into a safe channel up the Tyne. Both take the form of tall white towers.

The old low light, built inside a gun battery at the mouth of the Tyne in 1727, is now a wonderful heritage museum and art gallery. To be honest, on your first approach the three storey brick building of the old low light is not really what you expect a lighthouse to look like. In practice the key feature was its third floor light window, the sole window on this face of the building. Once the baton was passed to the new low light the gable was painted black and the window blocked to prevent it being misinterpreted as a navigational aid.

Around the old low light you can find plenty of lovely little cafes, a RNLI station and a smattering of artworks and navigation buoys repurposed as public installations. It’s well worth a wander.

Gallery