Durham Arts and Gardens

We depart mid-morning by train from London Kings Cross (regional rail connections, first-class up-grades and/or overnight accommodation in London before or after the tour available on request) to Newcastle, where on arrival, we will be met by our comfortable coach.
We then travel to Belsay Hall, a classical brown stone mansion, built in the 19th Century in Greek revival style to the design of its owner, Sir Charles Monck. The hall was built from rock carved from Belsay's very own quarry, which was later transformed into an exciting and dramatic garden – creepers twist up sheer rockfaces while, thanks to its own microclimate, rare trees grow in the meadows in the ravines.
We continue to our comfortable four-star accommodation at the Durham Marriott Hotel Royal County, conveniently situated on the banks of the River Wear within walking distance of the city centre. The hotel was developed from a series of Jacobean town houses once owned by the Bowes-Lyon family. All air-conditioned rooms are en-suite with telephone, TV, trouser press, minibar and tea/coffee-making facilities. The hotel has full leisure facilities including a swimming pool, sauna, steam room Jacuzzi and a gymnasium.

After breakfast we will travel to Alnwick for a visit to the Alnwick Garden, one of the world’s most ambitious new gardens. The Duchess of Northumberland’s vision for a forgotten plot is now a truly 21st century experience full of imagination, inspiration and fun. Designed by Jacques and Peter Wirtz, The Garden is a wonderful combination of spaces, themes, quirkiness and play. From the tranquillity of the Cherry Orchard, the excitement of the Grand Cascade and the mysteries of the Bamboo Labyrinth, to the Serpent Garden’s spell-binding water sculptures, the intrigue of the Poison Garden and one of the world’s largest tree houses – there is plenty to surprise and delight. The Garden is a space designed to be enjoyed by all your senses, with a collection of over 4,000 plant varieties to discover and thousands of seasonal blooms. Lunch is available here (not included).
We continue to Cragside House and Garden at Rothbury. Cragside was designed by Norman Shaw for the millionaire industrialist, inventor and philanthropist Lord Armstrong and was built in 1870. The very name makes one think of a Grimm’s fairy tale and the appearance of the house rising high above a rocky bluff overlooking the Debdon Valley has more than a touch of Wagner. This was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity and it is crammed full of ingenious gadgets – most of them still working. It is also home to a notable and extensive collection of British art, furniture and ceramics. We will also have time to explore the grounds, which include a precipitous rock garden, one of the largest in Europe, which cascades down the slopes to a formal garden.

We depart this morning for the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, where we begin with a visit to the Laing Art Gallery, designed in Baroque style with Art Nouveau elements. The gallery collection contains paintings, watercolours and decorative historical objects, including Newcastle silver and enamelled glass. The gallery's collection of seminal paintings includes John Martin's dramatic The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as important works by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edward Burne-Jones and William Holman Hunt. There is also an extensive collection of 18th- and 19th-century watercolours and drawings, including work by J. M. W. Turner.
There is a complete contrast with our next visit, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, housed in a vast converted flour mill on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne. There is no permanent collection here, rather a frequently changing programme of exhibitions and events, so we don’t quite know what to expect but it is sure to be up-to-the-minute and thought-provoking.
Our final visit today takes us to the more traditional world of Dutch and Flemish painting, for which the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead is especially noted, although all the main European schools from the 16th to the 19th centuries are represented. Pride of place, however, is given to a painting depicting something closer to home: William C Irving’s Blaydon Races.
On the way back to the hotel we will take a closer look at Antony Gormley’s iconic sculpture Angel of the North, usually only glimpsed from the motorway or railway line. Up close one realises what a massive structure this is, built of concrete and steel to withstand the high winds of its hilltop location, with a height of 20 metres and a wingspan of 54 metres. The work faced considerable opposition during its design and construction phases, but is now widely recognised as an iconic example of public art and as a symbol of Gateshead and of the wider North East.

Before we leave our host city of Durham we visit two of its University-owned attractions. The first is the Oriental Museum, the only museum in the North of Britain devoted entirely to the art and archaeology of the Orient.  The museum boasts galleries devoted to China, Ancient Egypt, Japan, India and Tibet, the Islamic World and South East Asia and the collection includes some fascinating objects.
The next is the Botanic Garden, where we will see their plant collections from around the world, including China, Japan, North America, South Africa, New Zealand and Chile, as well as a woodland garden, alpine garden and bamboo grove. In the glasshouses you will find a collection of tropical rainforest plants, desert plants, and more familiar plants from the Mediterranean.
We continue to the Bowes Museum, situated on the edge of the town of Barnard Castle in a magnificent building designed (somewhat incongruously) in the French style of the First and Second Empires. The museum contains paintings by El Greco, Goya, Canaletto, Fragonard and Francois Boucher and the galleries hold a large collection of decorative art, ceramics, tapestries and textiles. 
Following this, our final visit, we return to the railway station at nearby Darlington for our mid-afternoon train back to London Kings Cross, where the group will disperse or make onward connections.