Gallipoli Memorial

The memorial sits on the clifftop at Whitley Bay, a solemn stone structure overlooking the North Sea where you'd half expect some great naval battle to have unfolded. What you're actually looking at is a tribute to the men of the Tyne who sailed to Gallipoli during the First World War - a quieter kind of remembrance than you might expect, but all the more powerful for it.

It's not a sprawling visitor centre or interactive museum. This is honest stonework and names etched into rock, the sort of place that makes you pause mid-walk and actually think about what happened a century ago. The view across the bay is properly impressive too - grey-green water, the long stretch of beach below, and on a clear day you can see right along the coast.

Worth allowing twenty minutes, though walkers often stop longer. There's no admission fee to speak of, and it's essentially a monument you find on the clifftop path - no visitor facilities, so bring what you need. Best visited outside peak summer weekends when it's quieter and you can actually hear yourself think.

If you're staying at Parkdean Resorts Whitley Bay or the Old Hartley Campsite, this fits naturally into a coastal walk. Combine it with the beach itself or the wider clifftop path towards Tynemouth and you've got a solid half-day out. History enthusiasts will get more from it than those just passing through, but anyone with an interest in the area's wartime heritage should make the short detour.