Category: NORTHEAST ENGLAND

It’s difficult to imagine that there would be such a thing as ‘undiscovered’ country in a place so populated, so thoroughly modern, as England. But Northumberland is it: utterly wild and stunningly beautiful, with ne’er a trace of Man save the fortified houses and friendly villages that speckle the rugged interior, itself protected by the boundaries of a huge national park. Along the magnificent and pale sweeping coast to the east are long, stunning beaches bookmarked by dramatic wind-worn castles and tiny islands offshore that really do have an air of magic about them. To the west is Kielder Water, an astoundingly huge yet secluded lake, with land on all sides enveloped by forest. The most strikingly evocative part of Hadrian’s Wall slices through the south.

Welcome to the last great English wilderness: 398 sq miles of natural wonderland spread about the soft swells of the Cheviot Hills, the spiky moors of autumn-coloured heather and gorse, and the endless acres of forest guarding the deep, colossal Kielder Water. Even the negligible human influence – even today, there are only about 2000 inhabitants here – has been benevolent: the finest sections of Hadrian’s Wall run along the park’s southern edge and the landscape is dotted with prehistoric remains and fortified houses – the thick-walled peles were the only solid buildings built here until the mid-18th century.

Bamburgh is all about the castle, a massive, imposing structure high up on a basalt crag and visible for miles around. The village itself – a tidy fist of houses around a pleasant green – isn’t half bad, but it’s really just about the castle, a solid contender for England’s best.

This salt-crusted fortress town is England’s northernmost city and the holder of two unique honours: it is the most fought-over settlement in European history (between 1174 and 1482 it changed hands 14 times between the Scots and the English) and its football team, Berwick Rangers, are the only English team to play in the Scottish League – albeit at the low-level 3rd division in 2006–7.

Picturesque, peaceful villages and unspoilt market towns dot the lonely, rabbit-inhabited North Pennine and the gentle ochre hills of Teesdale. At the heart of it all is County Durham’s simply exquisite capital, one of England’s most visited towns and an absolute must on your northern itinerary.

The best way to arrive in Durham is by early-morning train on a clear day. As you emerge from the train station, look across the River Wear to the hilltop peninsula, and you’ll see the main reason for coming in all its resplendent glory. England’s most beautiful Romanesque cathedral, a masterpiece of Norman architecture, rates pretty high on our brilliant Britain list. Consider the setting: a huge castle, the aforementioned cathedral and, surrounding them both, a cobweb of cobbled streets usually full of upper-crust students attending Durham’s other big pull, the university. It’s all so…English.

One of England’s most incredible sea-bird conventions is to be found on a rocky archipelago of islands about three miles offshore from the undistinguished fishing village of Seahouses. There’s a tourist office (01655-720884; Seafield Rd; 10am-5pm Apr-Oct) near the harbour in Seahouses and a National Trust Shop (01665-721099; 16 Main St; 10am-5pm Apr-Oct) for all island-specific information.

What exactly have the Romans ever done for us? The aqueducts. Law and order. And this enormous wall, built between AD 122 and 128 to keep ‘us’ (Romans, subdued Anglo-Saxons) in and ‘them’ (hairy barbarians from Scotland) out. Or so the story goes. Hadrian’s Wall, named in honour of the emperor that ordered it built, was Rome’s single greatest engineering project, a spectacular 73-mile testament to ambition and the practical Roman mind. Even today, almost 2000 years after the first stone was laid, the sections that are still standing remain an awe-inspiring sight, proof that when the Romans wanted something done, they just knuckled down and did it.