Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For other National Park Centres, see www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk.
Exploring the Area
NORTHUMBERLAND NATIONAL PARK
Covering almost 400 sq. miles of some of the least populated parts of England, this
National Park,
reaching up to the border with Scotland, is noted for its wild land-
scapes and weather and for its associations with the northern frontier of the ancient
Roman Empire. A buffer zone between the warring English and Scots in the 13th and
14th centuries, these borderlands are most famously home to
Hadrian's Wall
17
(www.hadrians-wall.org), extending 73 miles across the north of England from the
North Sea to the Irish Sea. It was built in a.d. 122 by legionnaires after the visit of
Emperor Hadrian, who was inspecting far frontiers of the Roman Empire and wanted
to construct a dramatic line between the Empire and the barbarians. The western end
is accessible from Carlisle in Cumbria, while the eastern end can be reached from
Newcastle, where relics include
Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths, & Museum
(p. 662).
The historic market town of
Hexham,
24 miles west of Newcastle is a good
jumping-off point for the Wall's most scenic section—the 10-mile stretch west of
Housesteads, which itself lies 2
3
⁄
4
miles northeast of Bardon Mill with its National
Park Centre. Only the lower courses of the wall were preserved intact; the rest were
reconstructed in the 19th century using original stones. Sights concentrated in this
area include
Housesteads Roman Fort & Museum
and
Roman Vindolanda
and
its sister site, the
Roman Army Museum
(see below). Within easy walking distance
of the museum,
Walltown Crags
(www.english-heritage.org.uk), free to visit, is one
of the wall's highest-standing and most impressive sections.
The 84-mile coast-to-coast
Hadrian's Wall Path
(www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrians
wall) takes you along sections of the wall as well as linking to more than 80 shorter
walks, some within the National Park, and, near Housesteads, with the long-distance
Pennine Way
(p. 535), which takes you north into the Cheviot Hills along the Scot-
tish border. Not for the faint-hearted walker, these hills—wrinkled by volcanic pres-
sures, inundated by seawater, scoured by glaciers, silted over by rivers, and thrust
upward during a series of geological events—are one of England's most tortuous
landscapes.
Unless you're a hardened trekker, the area is best visited in the form of
Kielder
Water & Forest Park
(
&
01434/220616;
www.visitkielder.com), a huge
natural playground with Europe's largest man-made lake, England's largest working
forest, and activities galore including mountain-biking, watersports, forest walking
trails, orienteering, and various adventure sports. There are visitor centers at Tower
Knowe (see “Visitor Information,” above), Kielder Castle, and Leaplish, plus an
Observatory
(
&
07805/638469;
www.kielderobservatory.org) running star-
gazing sessions—this area has the country's darkest night-skies—a salmon hatchery,
and a birds-of-prey center. About half of England's native red squirrels hide out in this
wildlife haven, where you may also spot otters, roe deer, and badgers, and the park is
dotted with quirky modern art and architecture, including Silvas Capitalis, a wooden
head you can climb in and peer out through the eyes.
Housesteads Roman Fort & Museum
HISTORIC SITE Britain's most
complete Roman fort, set where Hadrian's Wall climbs to a dramatic escarpment, was
a base for 800 soldiers, the remains of whose barracks blocks you can view, together
