The Red Mount is the highest point of The Walks. It offers elevated view points of the landscape from the structure itself and from the mound which partially surrounds it. The structure is unique.
The Chapel of St Mary on the Mount, known as the Red Mount Chapel, was built between 1483-85 by Robert Curraunt for William Spynke, the Benedictine prior of Lynn. It was for use by pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham.
Watch this interesting video before your visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3YfmwUTW5I
You can download the guide to the Red Mount Chapel.
To log this cache you need to message me the answer to the following
1. How many of the buttresses have open windows.
2. At the back there is a door. How many windows are high up above the door.
3. How much did the new key cost in 1560 (answer in text)
4. How far away from the Red Mount did the WW2 bomb land? (Optional - answer in video)
5. Post a photo in your log of yourself with the Chapel in the background or a photo of a personal item at the location ie a trackable or a piece of paper with your geocaching username.
Brief History of Red Mount Chapel
- 1485 Prior William Spynke, the Benedictine (black) prior of St. Margaret’s granted lease of land upon which chapel stood. Per Lynn Priory return chapel cost £38.4.0d to build
- 1506 Upper chapel completed at a cost of £14.11.0d – possibly by John Wastell the master mason for King’s College, Cambridge
- 1560 Chapel defaced and new key made for 2d
- 1571 6 loads of roof tiles and 3 loads timber (roof) spars removed from site
- 1573 2 women carry bricks from mount over 2 days. Red Mount defaced and roofless
- 1586 12 shillings spent creating a study at Red Mount for Mr House, vicar of St. Margaret’s
- 1608 John Parkes and Robert Wright plus 2 or 3 labourers spent 11 weeks working at Red Mount at a toatl cost of £10.18.0½d. Loads of mortar brought from council’s storehouse. Parks & Wright paid 1/1d per day and labourers paid 9d per day. All plus 6d per week for beer
- 1641 18 barrels of gunpowder stored at Red Mount during Civil War
- 1665 Red Mount possibly used as a charnel house during plague
- 1754 Land and building leased to Alderman Mixon but he is not allowed to build ‘public house’
- 1828 £250 raised by public subscription by Reverend Edward Edwards and John Blencowe. Upper windows to outer octagon restored; pinnacles added to buttresses; floors and stairs re-instated plus other works including installation of stained glass from St. Nicholas chapel into windows of upper chapel
- 1942 ½ ton German bomb fell in The Walks adjacent to Red Mount Chapel
- Chapel opened as place of inter-denominational worship on 50 years lease to RC church but lease surrendered on 1st December 1988 as terms ‘too onerous’
- 2008 Chapel (listed grade 1) and The Walks (listed grade 2 open landscape) restored and chapel opened to public
- Note: Interestingly the chapel was only used as a religious building for some 50 years of its 530 year existence
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.