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North Shields
Town in Tyne and Wear, England

North Shields

North Shields is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England.

Plan a trip to North Shields→From Leeds, West Yorkshire

It is 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. The population of North Shields at the 2021 census was 6,137.

Get in

Getting to North Shields

There are no mainline trains to Tynemouth and the nearest train station is Newcastle Central in Newcastle Upon Tyne about 10 miles away.

  1. 01
    Newcastle Central

    Has frequent trains from London King's Cross and the Midlands via York, Edinburgh, and Carlisle.

  2. 02
    Cullercoats
  3. 03
    Tynemouth
See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Tynemouth Aquarium

    Large walk-through aquarium, with sharks, stingrays, seals and, er...

  2. 02
    Tynemouth Castle and Priory

    Apr-Oct: daily 10AM-5PM; Nov-Mar: Sat Sun 10AM-4PM.

  3. 03
    Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade Museum

    The Volunteer Life Brigades were founded in the mid 19th century, and at their peak there were 40 around England.

  4. 04
    Black Middens
  5. 05
    Tynemouth Pier Lighthouse stands at the end
Do

Things to do

Beaches are sandy. King Edward's Bay is just north of the Priory and Castle, Long Sands is the half-mile strip north, then beyond is a grassy headland then Cullercoats Bay. There's a sea arch on the headland, and caves cut into the bluffs overlooking the bay. It's unclear which King Edward the first bay is named for - local legend says Edward II, perhaps frolicking in the surf with Piers Gaveston.

Eat

Where to eat

  1. 01
    Riley's Fish Shack

    King Edward's Bay, NE30 4BY (by Priory and Castle),.

  2. 02
    Little Lobo
How locals move

Getting around North Shields the local way

  • Get inThe district has three Tyne and Wear Metro stations on the northern loop of the Yellow Line: Trains run M-Sa every 15 min and Su every 30 min from St James and Monument in Newcastle city centre via Wallsend and Percy Main (for Royal Quays and Port of Tyne), taking 25 min to North Shields Metro (for Tyne ferry), Tynemouth Metro (for the town centre) and Cullercoats Metro.
  • Get inBus 19 runs hourly from Ashington via Bedlington, Cramlington, Northumberland Park Interchange, Cobalt Business Park and Silverlink shopping centre to North Shields town and ferry pier.
  • Get inis served by the Shields Ferry across the Tyne from South Shields.
  • Get inShuttle Bus 333 links the pier to North Shields Metro Station and is included in the ferry fare.
  • Get inWhen a previous ferry was replaced in 1987, she went to operate boat trips on Loch Ness.
  • Get inhas nightly DFDS car ferries from IJmuiden near Amsterdam.
  • Get inRoyal Quays is half a mile northwest of the ferry terminal.
  • Get inPercy Main is 1.5 miles northwest of the ferry terminal.

From Wikivoyage: Tynemouth, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Dietmar Rabich (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.