The Lort Burn is a subterranean
burn
A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ionizing radiation (such as sunburn, caused by ultraviolet radiation). Most burns are due to heat from hot fluids (called scalding), soli ...
in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
. It used to flow through the centre of the city into the
Tyne but was essentially used as an open sewer, particularly unpleasant since the meat markets backed onto it. The name may derive from the Old Norse 'lortr' meaning 'filth' or 'excrement'.
[{{Cite web, url=http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/html/oi_cleasbyvigfusson/b0398.html, title = Cleasby/Vigfusson, page b0398] In 1696 it was put underground, and in 1749
Dean Street was built following its course (hence the street name, from
dene
The Dene people () are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...
); as was its extension,
Grey Street, in the 1830s.
The burn starts in
Leazes Park.
Geography of Newcastle upon Tyne