Tynemouth North Pier

You may have been lucky and managed to head down to Tynemouth when the pier was open for a wander. It tends to only be open during clement weather which isn't too often up north!

We got lucky in the summer and found the gates open to the North Pier, so headed over to the lighthouse. The first thing we realised was that the pier is much longer than we expected at 900m and took us around 10 minutes to saunter to the end. The South Pier is even longer at 1,570m.

The North Pier is split onto two levels and the public can only walk on the top with the lower level being for boat owners and people looking to dangle their rod and tackle.

Let's regale you with some history we found on the information board.

The North Sea can be a bit of a beast and lots of ships were wrecked trying to enter the Tyne, so in the early 19th century plans for north and south piers were drawn up. The foundation stones were laid in 1854 and they were eventually completed 41 years later in 1895.

However 2 years later there was a breach in the North Pier and it was repaired and reconstructed by 1909. So just over 55 years from beginning to end for the creation of these piers and recorded as one of the most difficult engineering undertakings in the UK.

The lighthouse at the end of the North Pier stands at 26m high and its light can actually be seen 26 miles away!

On the pier you may notice some rails and these are from the Mamoth Crane, a huge steam powered, wooden and iron behemoth whose job was to lift 40 ton blocks to act as wavebreaks to protect the harbour wall.

It was installed in 1883 and lasted only 10 years before being washed overboard in a storm in 1893. A rescue effort was mounted and divers salvaged the crane and it was reinstated 2 years later in 1895.

The Mamoth was finally replaced in 1969 by a new diesel powered crane and this was too dismantled in 1988.

The North Pier, South Pier and the rad Herd Groyne lighthouse are still in use today, guiding ships into the Tyne.

Heading back to shore you can see the Lord Collingwood statue, the cliff re-enforcements and also Tynemouth Priory.

Back at the start of the pier, we managed to get a photo through the gate onto the lower level.