Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with the commandant's house. The museum holds a model of what the intact fort
would have looked like.
Housesteads Farm, Haydon Bridge.
&
0870/333-1181.
www.english-heritage.org.uk. Admission £5
adults, £3 children 5-16. Daily 10am-6pm (4pm in winter).
Roman Vindolanda & Roman Army Museum
HISTORIC SITE The
well-preserved fort of Vindolanda is believed to have been built around a.d. 85 and
includes the excavated remains of a pre-Hadrian bathhouse, an officer's residence
and some barracks, and a Romano-Celtic temple to an unknown god, plus a post-
Roman mausoleum and Christian church. The museum, a sister site to Vindolanda a
few miles to its west, added a 3-D film to its displays on Roman life and the wall's
garrisons in 2011.
Vindolanda: southeast of Twice Brewed, just off the B6318; museum: west along the B6318, close to the
village of Greenhead.
&
01434/344277.
www.vindolanda.com. Admission Vindolanda £5.90 adults,
£3.50 children 5-18; museum £4.50 adults, £2.50 children. Daily 10am-4/6pm, depending on season (in
bad weather call ahead to make sure Vindolanda is accessible).
ALNWICK, THE COAST & HOLY ISLAND
Spectacular, often-deserted beaches (some only accessible on foot), a landscape
punctuated by truly breathtaking castles, and a relative lack of crowds make Nor-
thumberland's coast one of England's loveliest corners.
Heading up from Newcastle or Hexham, stop just inland to discover
Alnwick,
the
gateway to the coast but with several attractions in its own right: Medieval
Alnwick
Castle
(see below),
The
Alnwick Garden
(see below), and
Barter Books
(
&
01665/604888;
www.barterbooks.co.uk), one of Europe's largest secondhand
and antiquarian bookstores, set in the former railway station and boasting a model
train doing the rounds of the shelves, a kids' room, and an honesty cafe in the old
waiting room.
From the Coquet Estuary just southeast of Alnwick right up to Berwick-upon-
Tweed, this coast is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with stunning
beaches plus mud-flats that provide a home for waders, geese, and ducks. The
Nor-
thumberland Seabird Centre
(
&
01665/710835;
www.rspb.org.uk) on the
Quayside at Amble shows CCTV footage of the roseates and other terns and seabirds
on Coquet Island itself, a bird sanctuary.
Starting at Cresswell, south of the Coquet Estuary, the
Northumberland Coast
Path
is a 64-mile section of the North Sea Trail that also takes you as far as Berwick-upon-
Tweed. The best-known beach on this stretch is Bamburgh, recognizable as the fore-
ground for many photographs of the impossibly romantic
Bamburgh Castle
17
(
&
01668/214-515;
www.bamburghcastle.com). Perhaps England's most impres-
sive fortress of all, this seat of the kings of Northumbria sits proud on a volcanic
outcrop overlooking the wave-battered coast. It's stunning enough from the outside,
but you can go inside to explore 14 public areas (part of the castle houses private
apartments). There are also live archeological excavations. The castle is open to visi-
tors daily 10am to 5pm February to October, the rest of year Saturday and Sunday
11am to 4:30pm; adults pay £8.50, children £4.
Great beaches can be found at
Beadnell,
Alnmouth,
and
Low Newton by the
Sea.
The latter, a picturesque National Trust-owned 18th-century fishing village with
cream-washed cottages, looks out to sea across the beach of Newton Haven and
Embleton Bay to yet another wonderful fortress,
Dunstanburgh Castle
