Overview
The Rising Sun Country Park is located in North Tyneside, between Newcastle and Whitley Bay, off the A191 Gosforth to Whitley Bay road, just southeast of the Asda Superstore. It comprises Swallow Pond (a small lake formed by subsidence of former mine workings), Dukes Pond (a smaller artificial pond), areas of mostly fairly young trees, agricultural land, and rough grass covering the remains of the former pit heap. Facilities include a Visitor Centre toward the north side, and a farm and riding stables toward the south side. Much of the site is overrun by poorly controlled dogs, which can hamper wildlife viewing opportunities markedly.
Birds
Notable Species and rarities
The two small artificial islands and raft in Swallow Pond hold a small mixed breeding colony of Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns. The pond is also much used by visiting gulls for bathing, and frequent checking produces Mediterranean Gulls regularly and an Iceland Gull or two on occasion. Red-crested Pochard, Black-necked Grebe, Common Redstart, Whinchat, Northern Wheatear, Ring Ouzel, Garden Warbler, and Spotted Flycatcher are all occasional on either spring or autumn passage. In the past, Swallow Pond had an excellent reputation for passage waders, but the former mud areas now hold dense vegetation and passage waders are now limited to the occasional Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers dropping in for an hour or two at most. Jack Snipe are probably always present in winter, but nearly impossible to see. A few Curlew winter in the horse paddocks; in spring the late-remaining immature birds sometimes attract a Whimbrel or two down to stay a few days. Woodcock can be seen on passage, and in winter when heavy snow drives them out of upland woods. Little Owls formerly bred in the farm buildings, but disappeared in 2013, probably as a result of over-zealous rodent control measures. Long- and Short-eared Owls can still be seen hunting the rough grassland at dusk in most winters. The areas of alder Alnus and pine Pinus trees regularly attract flocks of Siskins and Lesser Redpolls, and occasionally Crossbills in winter; these flocks are well worth checking for the occasional Mealy Redpoll, and Arctic Redpoll has been recorded once or twice. Other notable rarities have included Black-winged Stilt, Lesser Yellowlegs, Red-rumped Swallow, and a Pallas's Warbler which spent a week singing on spring passage in 2008.
Check-list
Birds you can see here include:
Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Eurasian Wigeon, Gadwall, Eurasian Teal, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Common Goldeneye, Common Pheasant, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Water Rail, Moorhen, Coot, Lapwing, Common Snipe, Curlew, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Stock Dove, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Long-eared Owl, Short-eared Owl, Common Swift, Eurasian Skylark, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Grasshopper Warbler, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Common Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Starling, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting
Other Wildlife
A Red Deer stag of unknown origin (but probably escaped from a deer farm) has been present (as of 2020) at the site for about 12 years, becoming a local celebrity, very popular with families with children. Although shy at first, it has become habituated to people and often comes within 4 or 5 metres of people. It can usually be seen grazing with the horses in the fields just below the visitor centre. In recent years, its antlers have become very deformed.
Site Information
Access and Facilities
The Rising Sun Country Park is signposted from the A191 Whitley Road. The road to the visitor centre is just east of the Asda Supermarket car park. The car park at the Visitor Centre is locked in the evenings so in that case, park at the Supermarket and walk in via the Old Killingworth Wagonway (bridle path) just west of Asda car park.
The Country Park is about a kilometre from Palmersville Metro Station. Bus services run by Arriva and Stagecoach North East go along Whitely Road; alight at Asda. There is pedestrian access to the Country Park from many of the surrounding estates.
The Visitor Centre contains a restaurant, toilets and exhibition rooms.
There is one bird watching hide, on the Killingworth Wagonway, looking northeast across Swallow Pond towards the Visitor Centre. This is a steel hide with a roof and steel bench but no back; it offers only poor shelter in N to E winds. There is room for a wheelchair beside the bench. The bench is usually muddy, and the hide is also often used as a latrine by local kids at night, so is not clean - bring a plastic bag or similar to sit on.
There is also a viewing screen looking across Swallow Pond from the woodland path that runs near to the northwest side of the pond. It is a simple masonry screen with viewing holes and no roof or seats; the view is currently (2016) very overgrown, offering only limited views of the pond. One of the viewing holes is designed for wheelchair users.
A new hide has been added (2019) at the southeast corner of the site overlooking a couple of small pools; to date few birds of note have been seen from it.
History and Use
The Country Park was created on the former sites of the Rising Sun Colliery and the Scaffold Hill Isolation Hospital.
The Rising Sun Colliery produced coal from 1914 until 1969. The original shaft was southeast of Rising Sun Hill with secondary shafts near the Visitor Centre. After the colliery closed, the pit heap was landscaped into Rising Sun Hill.
Scaffold Hill Isolation Hospital opened was built to care for patients suffering from infectious diseases such as Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria. By the 1950s, isolation hospitals were no longer needed and the hospital became Holystone Hospital and was used to care for the elderly until it closed in 1986 for conversion into the Park's visitor centre.
Contact Details
- Visitor Centre phone: 0191 2007841
- Visitor Centre email: [email protected]
