Byreside Caravan Site
County Durham
Small working farm site at Hamsterley Mill, around 12 miles from central Newcastle
About Byreside Caravan Site
Byreside is a small, family-run site attached to a working farm at Hamsterley Mill, on the County Durham side of the Derwent Valley and about twelve miles from the middle of Newcastle. It has been in the same hands for a long time and the atmosphere is quiet and rural rather than commercial, with somewhere around thirty touring pitches spread across gently sloping grass and a separate group of longer-term seasonal vans tucked away at the edge.
Tents, caravans and motorhomes are all taken, and electric hook-ups are available on the touring pitches. Facilities are simple but well maintained: a heated shower and toilet block with an accessible room, fresh water points, chemical disposal and a motorhome service area. There is no shop, no bar and no swimming pool, and the mobile signal can be patchy in the dip of the valley, which for a lot of regulars is exactly the point. Dogs are welcome. The site stays open all year, which is unusual in this part of the country and makes it a useful base out of season. It is popular enough that booking ahead is sensible in school holidays.
What you get in return for the lack of frills is the countryside. The Derwent Walk and the Waskerley Way run within easy reach and give miles of level, traffic-free cycling on old railway alignments, and the North Pennines rise to the west. Beamish is about eight miles away, Gibside a similar distance north, and Hadrian's Wall around forty minutes by car. Newcastle itself is a straightforward run in on the A694 and A1, or you can drive as far as the Metro at Gateshead and let the trains take the strain for the city centre.