The Rising Sun country park is in Benton, just north of Wallsend in North Tyneside, and is just off the A19 Tyne Tunnel road.
The country park is built on the site of the old Rising Sun colliery and has a cafe with public toilets.
The route should be safe and suitable for all sizes of dogs.
Postcode for Satnav - NE12 9SS
Turn off the A19 Tyne tunnel road at the Holystone roundabout, and take the first left heading north, or the third left heading south. This exit is signposted for the country park. Cross over the next roundabout, heading for Wallsend, then turn left at a third roundabout, towards the ASDA store. About 75 yards down this road you will see the entrance to the country park on the left, just before the ASDA car park. Follow this one-way road around for maybe 300 yards until you reach the car park for the visitor centre.
You can also get the bus to Benton Asda and the countryside centre is a short walk along the path.
Click here to see a routemap of the walk. It will open in a new tab.
There are lots of options for walking in the park, so this is just one of them. We walked this route in early February 2024, after a very wet winter, so the pathways should be much easier in dry weather.
Walk down to the bottom of the car park, looking south towards the Tyne,
then turn left along a wide pathway,
with views of Swallow pond on your right.
After some distance, you come to a crossroads. Turn right here, but take the path through the woods, rather than down the track.
This path then rejoins the trackway half way down the hill.
At the end of the track, turn right, then left down another track, which takes you to a large riding stable.
We followed the track around the stables, then turned right up another track which was a little muddy at the start. On the left here you will see a path that takes you up the pit hill, from where you can get a lovely view of the surrounding area, if you want the diversion.
It would have been possible to carry on and take other right hand turns further along, but we carried on up the muddy track, then at the top came to a very muddy area just before the path came to swallow pond.
Turn left, then right up a track heading towards the road. You might see horses around from the riding stable.
When you reach the road, turn right, and the car park is a short distance along. The cafe up the hill is worth a visit, with outside seating and views of the country park.
As you walk round the park, you will see several information boards about the coal mines that once were here, and how the miners lived. Mining in the area started in the 19th century in Walker Collier a little to the south-east. Walker is just south-west of Wallsend, and the name means the marsh beside the wall. The wall, of course, was the Roman wall. The Rising Sun Colliery was sunk in 1906, and produced coal until 1969. It is said that for every ton of coal raised, seven tons of water was pumped from the mine. Once the mine closed, the area was landscaped into Rising Sun Hill. The park also held a brickworks and a quarry. Swallow pond was formed in the 1950s, when some of the old mine workings collapsed. The Waggonway that runs along the bottom of Swallow Pond was used to transport coal from the local collieries to the river using horse-drawn wagons.
Back in the 17th and 18th Centuries, a steeplechase used to run from Murton to Benton, and Scafold farm to the north of the park may have been named after a scaffold raised to view the racing. Of course, it could also have been an execution scaffold. The area also contained the old Scaffold Hill Isolation Hospital that was opened in 1914. Way back then, scarlet fever and measels were serious infectious diseases that often killed children. The hospital was used to isolate infected children for several weeks, to prevent the diseases from spreading. Their families were not allowed to visit, but had to view the children through the hospital railings. Some of the people who were kept in there remember that they were unhappy that they could not see their parents, but the food was better than they ate at home.
Children were also treated for diphtheria and tuberculosis, but all these diseases are now controlled by innoculation. This meant that an isolation hospital was no longer needed, so the hospital was closed down in 1986 and the building is now used by the countryside centre.
Cafe nearby
poo bins available
toilets available
wheelchair accessible
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