Walking in Hulne Park: Brizlee Tower, the priory, and the rules

Hulne Park is the walled park that runs north-west from the end of Ratten Row, a few minutes from Bailiffgate. The Percy family hunted in it; Northumberland Estates owns it now and lets people walk in it, on its terms. Those terms are the first thing to know, because the gates shut at 4pm whether you are out or not.

The rules

• Open 11am to 4pm. The estate's page says the park is open daily from 11am until 4pm, when the gates are closed.
• Closed on listed days. The park can close for private events, and the estate publishes the dates. When we read the list in October 2026 it ran from 30 and 31 October through November, December and January to 1 February, several days a week. Check the estate's page or ring the Estate Office on 01665 510777 before you go.
• No dogs. No cycles. Both are banned. The castle suggests the riverside Pastures for a dog walk instead.
• Marked routes only. The estate's map says its permission is for use on foot and only along the ways shown, that the land is farmed, and that it can withdraw the permission at any time.

The three walks

The estate's Hulne Park map marks three walks, all starting from the park entrance:

• Walk 1, about 4 miles, up Farm Drive through the deer park and round Brizlee Hill to Brizlee Tower, then back.
• Walk 3, about 4.7 miles, down to the River Aln past the remains of Alnwick Abbey and the bridges along the river, up to the remains of Hulne Priory, and back over the hill by Park Farm.
• Walk 2, about 6.2 miles, the longest, which takes in the priory, a loop out by East Brizlee and Palmstrother Drive, and returns along Farm Road.

With a 4pm close, start soon after the 11am opening for anything but Walk 1.

Brizlee Tower

Walk 1's goal is a tall, ornate Gothick tower on Brizlee Hill. Its listing describes it as an ornamental tower dated 1781, possibly by John Adam, for the first Duke of Northumberland, though the design is also credited to the Duke himself: six stages of ashlar, with a verandah round the bottom, a balcony near the top and an iron fire basket. It is Grade I listed. The way up is a steady climb on estate drives, and the views from the hill go out over the Aln valley.

Hulne Priory and Alnwick Abbey

Down by the river, Hulne Priory was founded by the Carmelites in 1240 and dissolved in 1539. Northumberland Estates calls it the best-preserved and possibly the earliest Carmelite friary in England, a scheduled monument with a defensive wall around it, a reminder that this was border country. The estate has been repairing it in stages; work restarted in 2021 on the south boundary wall. Walk 3 also passes the remains of Alnwick Abbey, marked on the estate's map near the river below the park entrance.

Red squirrels

The estate says Hulne Park is home to a good population of red squirrels, one of the last strongholds of the native species, and asks walkers who see one to report it to Red Squirrels Northern England.

The woods

The park is old woodland as well as open grass. The estate's forestry page says the earliest record of trees here dates to 1184, that the first Duke began replanting in the second half of the eighteenth century from plans laid out by Thomas Call in 1751, and that Capability Brown took over the landscape after 1772.

Practical

The routes run through farmland and woodland well away from the town, so eat first or carry what you need. Most of the way is on estate drives and tracks. The estate's map marks suggested parking near the entrance, but the park entrance is about 800 metres from the Market Place in a straight line, so most people walk out along Bailiffgate and Ratten Row. Come back the way you went in, and keep an eye on the time.