The easiest way to get your bearings is to walk Berwick’s Elizabethan walls. At a little over a mile it’s a low impact way of getting a feel for the history and geography of Berwick.
Berwick’s town walls are its most famous piece of architecture and still stand strong today, 450 years after they were built.
The Elizabethan Walls are a mile and a-quarter in length. The ramparts completely surround the town, with four gates through which entry to the town is enabled.
Berwick’s Elizabethan Walls are the only example of bastioned town walls in Britain and one of the best preserved examples in Europe. When built in 1558 – designed to keep out the marauding Scots who regularly laid claim to the town – it was the most expensive undertaking of England’s Golden Age.
The walls were built to an Italian design and contained bastions which were designed to allow gunfire covering every part of the wall. Outside the curtain wall and bastions, there were wide water-filled ditches to deter potential invaders.Walking around the town walls takes about 45 minutes and is a great way to discover Berwick’s turbulent history You can also take in stunning views over the town and look out towards the wide sandy beaches of the North Sea and the Tweed estuary with its colony of mute swans.