Finchale Priory

Heading northeast, we arrived at a campground situated on the site of medieval ruins! Finchale (pronounced ’finkle’) Priory was founded in 1196 at the location of the hermitage of Saint Godric. St. Godric was born in 1070 and after years of travel as a sailor, merchant and pilgrim, he felt called to the solitary life of a religious hermit. He eventually settled at Finchale, in a bend of the River Wear, where he remained until his death at a ripe old age of 100.

Shortly after his death, the hermitage became a Benedictine priory. It incorporated St. Godric’s church and outbuildings, as well as his tomb – thereby becoming a destination for pilgrims. In the 1300’s Finchale served as a holiday retreat for monks from its parent monastery in Durham (which we visited in Nov, 2024). During the Reformation in the 1500’s, the suppression of Catholicism lead to the site being abandoned and left to fall into ruin. Thankfully, in the early 1900’s, the remains of Finchale Priory were preserved, creating a lovely spot to enjoy natural beauty and history.

View of the moon through the broken frame of the choir window

Must have been a lovely stone church

Imagining what additional buildings must have looked like

The vaulted undercroft

Nice to have an area that is still reasonably intact

Looking across the nave

The attached outer priory buildings

Happily scurrying about the ruins

The prior’s lodging

View from across the River Wear

Decorations for VE Day

Chris was hoping he might become king if he could remove the sword… Alas, he’s still just an old man - albeit, with a new hernia

The historic Union Bridge linking Scotland with England

When erected in 1820, this was the longest wrought iron suspension bridge in the world