Athens in County Durham
A reduced Doric temple with no roof and no walls, built in 1845 to be seen from the whole valley.
A roofless Greek temple on a green hill in the north of England, where nobody ever worshipped and nothing was ever stored: it was built purely to be seen from far away. Penshaw Monument is a reduced copy, usually described as half-scale, of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, raised in 1844-45 by the architects John and Benjamin Green in memory of John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, author of the Durham Report that shaped modern Canada. Eighteen Doric columns of local gritstone, 30 metres long and about 21 metres high, stand on a summit with views over the Wear valley and the Durham coast; floodlit at night, the temple is visible from the motorway several kilometres off. Locals treat it as their emblem before anything else, and Sunderland AFC has carried it on its club crest since 1997. The visit is as simple as it gets, and free: hill and monument are open around the clock, looked after by the National Trust, and from the free roadside parking at the foot of the hill on Chester Road (with more space in Herrington Country Park across the road) a short but steep flight of steps reaches the top in five to ten minutes. Pushchairs only work here with strong arms behind them, and the ground turns to mud after rain, so wear proper shoes. The wind on the summit never really drops, even in July, so bring a layer; in winter the sun sets before 16:00, and the floodlit monument after dark makes up for the short day if you have a car. What stretches the stop beyond half an hour hides inside one of the columns: a narrow, unlit spiral staircase of 76 steps (the National Trust's count) climbing to a walkway along the top of the colonnade. It was sealed in 1926 after a boy fell to his death and reopened by the National Trust in 2011 for escorted «Tours to the Top», which run on selected dates between spring and late September rather than every weekend, in 20-minute slots (the most recent run was 11:00 to 15:00). Tickets are £5 per person, National Trust members included, five people per slot, advance online booking essential for everyone, children must be at least one metre tall, and everyone is handed a head torch because the stair has no handrail. On a clear day the top shows you Durham Cathedral and the Cheviot Hills. Getting there from Newcastle: the monument sits about 18 km south-east of the city, a 25-35 minute drive via the A1(M) or A19, which is the practical choice for families. Public transport takes longer: Metro from Newcastle to Sunderland (about 25 minutes), then bus 2, 2A or 78 to the «Penshaw Monument» stop on Chester Road at the foot of the hill, roughly an hour all in. It does not justify a day on its own, but it is an excellent pause on the way to Beamish open-air museum or to Durham, each about fifteen to twenty minutes away by car.
A reduced Doric temple with no roof and no walls, built in 1845 to be seen from the whole valley.
76 spiral steps inside a single column lead to the top, opened to five people at a time on selected summer dates.
From the summit the eye reaches Durham Cathedral and the coast, and after sunset the lit monument becomes the motorway's landmark.
Chester Road, Penshaw, DH4 7NJ
Only as a stop. The visit is 30 to 60 minutes and the monument is more beautiful from afar than up close, so fold it into a trip to Beamish or Durham, or come deliberately on one of the summer tour dates with a pre-booked climb to give the outing a point.
The hill is short but steep and muddy after rain, so a pushchair is a burden and a carrier is easier. Children from about four or five love running between the columns; the climb to the top requires a minimum height of one metre, infants are not allowed, and under-18s must be accompanied by an adult.