A turbine rotor blade with a thin thermal skin bonded to a spar to form a near-wall cooled blade, the blade having a near-wall cooling circuit formed by plurality of multiple pass serpentine flow cooling circuits that have cooling channels formed within the airfoil walls and the platform, and with a row of cooling air exit slots that connect to the last leg of the serpentine flow cooling channels and open onto an upstream side of the tip edge so that cooling air is discharged to form a blockage for the blade tip. The airfoil walls include radial extending cooling channels that form the airfoil legs of the serpentine cooling circuits.