Bishop Auckland, Binchester, Vinovia Roman Fort and Escomb

Victorian St Anne's Church, built in early English style, is the fourth place of worship on the site (the first well established by the late 14th century for overflow from the bishop's own chapel). The route into town follows Newgate Street, built over Dere Street, retaining its straight Roman course.

The massive Gothic gatehouse of the castle is flanked by old cream-washed stone cottages with Dutch gables and red pantile roofs, crowned by a turreted clock and weathervane built for Bishop Richard Trevor in the 1760s (with a fake upper floor on the porter's lodge). A battlement screen wall built by James Wyatt in 1796 separates Auckland Castle from the park. Begun by Bishop Hugh Pudsey in the 12th century as a Norman manor house, it has been embellished by succeeding bishops, and adjoins St Peter's Chapel (converted from the Great Banqueting Hall in 1665 with tall arcades, marble arches, 17th-century baroque screens, and an ornamented ceiling).

Undulating parkland leads to the Deer Shelter (an 18th-century grassy quadrangle with crenellated cloisters and tower where fallow deer once sheltered and were fed, though none have been seen since 1856). The 800-acre castle grounds contain magnificent specimen trees and birdlife, while the River Gaunless meanders through the trees. You skirt the golf course to join Auckland Walk (a disused railway line) and cross Bishop's Bridge, lined with trees planted so arriving guests wouldn't have to gaze upon the unsightly railway.

Passing through Bellburn Wood you visit the Roman fort of Vinovia at Binchester (built around AD 80 to guard Dere Street with a 500-man garrison). Excavations display the commandant's house and the most complete Roman bathhouse in Britain, heated by a remarkably well-preserved hypocaust system of underfloor tunnels and tile stacks.

From Vinovia the route leads to the River Wear (whose banks feature yellow loosestrife, monkey flower, Himalayan balsam, dippers, oystercatchers, sandpipers, and water vole tunnels). Passing under the 13-arch Newton Cap Viaduct of 1857, you come to Escomb, a former pit village sheltering a circular churchyard and the smoke-blackened stones of Escomb Church — one of the most complete Anglo-Saxon churches in the world, supporting a large breeding colony of whiskered bats in its ancient roof space. From Escomb, fields and railway underpasses lead back to the River Wear path and the start.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.