The Word

Site of a large Roman fort: the west gatehouse, barracks and commander's quarters have been reconstructed. This was the supply base for Hadrian's Wall, which began at Wallsend on the north riverbank and marched westward up hill down dale to the Solway beyond Carlisle. It was also the depot for expeditions further north against the Picts or Scots. "Arbeia" means "of the Arabs". In the 2nd and 3rd century it was garrisoned by recruits from Singara, now Sinjar in Iraq. One grave monument mourns the British wife of Barates, a merchant from Palmyra in Syria. Another commemorates Victor, a young Moorish freed slave. Castra canis amica est: the fort is dog-friendly.

Depicting the life and times of the monastic author the Venerable Bede (672-735). There's a museum, a replica Saxon farm and village, the Georgian hall and herb garden, and the ruins of Bede's monastery now within the grounds of St Paul's Church.

This lighthouse, completed in 1871, was the first to use AC electricity, from its own generator. It closed in 1988 without being automated, so its living arrangements are well-preserved. Climb the 76 steep steps up to the light and see for miles on a clear day. St Mary's is the equivalent lighthouse north of the Tyne. One of the keepers' cottages shows early 20th-century household life, and the others are available as holiday lets.