Tynemouth Priory
Overlooking the North Sea, the mouth of the River Tyne and having one of the most beautiful views of the coast, Tynemouth Priory and Castle was once one of the biggest fortresses and religious sites in England.
Little is known of the early history of the site. Some Roman stones have been found there, but there is no definite evidence that it was occupied by the Romans. The Priory was founded early in the 7th century, perhaps by Edwin of Northumbria. In 651 Oswin, king of Deira was murdered by the soldiers of King Oswiu of Bernicia, and subsequently his body was brought to Tynemouth for burial. He became St Oswin and his burial place became a shrine visited by pilgrims. He was the first of the three kings buried at Tynemouth. In 792 Osred II, who had been king of Northumbria from 789 to 790 and then deposed, was murdered. He also was buried at Tynemouth Priory. Osred was the second of the three kings buried at Tynemouth. The third king to be buried at Tynemouth was Malcolm III, king of Scotland, who was killed at the Battle of Alnwick in 1093. (This is the same Malcolm who appears in Shakespeare's Macbeth.) The king's body was sent north for reburial, in the reign of his son Alexander I, at Dunfermline Abbey, or possibly Iona.
In 800 the Danes plundered Tynemouth Priory,and afterwards the monks strengthened the fortifications sufficiently to prevent the Danes from succeeding when they attacked again in 832. However, in 865 the church and monastery were destroyed by the Danes. At the same time, the nuns of St Hilda, who had come there for safety, were massacred. The priory was again plundered by the Danes in 870 and was destroyed by the Danes in 875.
This is a multi-cache and can be found a short walk away at N 55 00.ABC W 001 25.DEF by working out the coordinates from the clues below. Reminder : you do not need to enter the Priory to get the answers or the cache..
You should be standing in front of an information board
A = From the sign in front of you, how many letters are in the 3rd word from the top?
B = From the sign in front of you, what is the second number shown when reading from the top?
To the right of the sign along the fence there is a blue plaque. Walk over to that to get the answers to the following clues
C = Last number shown on the plaque
D = There are three years in brackets. what is the last number of the second year that is shown within brackets.
E = The third number of the last year shown in brackets
F = Finally, number of letters in the last word on the plaque
Checksum is 27
Please use stealth when retrieving the cache and please cover it back up with the stones/sticks so that it cannot be seen. Cache is a small clip lock box in camo bag large enough for TB's
****************** ********************
For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
****************** *******************