Exploring Northumberland; England’s forgotten corner?

Sometimes at key times during the year it can feel like everyone has had the same bright idea as you. Our national parks are beautiful and do a fantastic job of encouraging people to visit them. Even on the busiest weekends there are always pockets of peace and tranquility (some of them I’ve even written about – Not going up Snowdon anyone?). But just imagine if there was a whole national park that only a select group of people seem to visit. Imagine no longer because I think Northumberland might just be that gem.

This was my first visit to the area and we chose to go over what I would say is fairly peak tourist season; New Year. We stayed in Craster which is a fishing village approximately 45 minutes south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and about an hour north of Newcastle. The A1 becomes single lane and every brown tourist sign seems to contain at least three castles, that’s when you truly know you’ve hit Northumbrian honeypot destination.

What I liked most about the area, apart from is outstanding seascapes and castles was the fact that in contrast to North Norfolk it seemed to have resisted fancification. Here was a region full of working market towns and seaside villages that still had people living in them who just wanted to live by the sea and did so 365 days a year. It was also steeped in history and criss-crossed with footpaths and even a couple of long distance walking routes.

We visited Lindisfarne, walked around Rothbury, took in the coast path from Craster to Alnmouth and explored Alnwick. I could give you extensive details on each but the official website does a very good job of the doing that. Instead I am going to show you some of my photos hoping that I’ve captured some of the special magic in the air in this beautiful region that I cannot wait to explore further.