Northumberland’s historic ducal town, Alnwick (no tongue gymnastics: just say ‘annick’) is an elegant maze of narrow cobbled streets spread out beneath the watchful gaze of a colossal medieval castle. Not only will you find England’s most perfect bookshop, but also the most visited attraction in the northeast at Alnwick Garden.
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 [...]
The mellow commuter town of Corbridge is a handsome spot above a green-banked curve in the Tyne, its shady, cobbled streets lined with old-fashioned shops. Folks have lived here since Saxon times when there was a substantial monastery, while many of the buildings feature stones nicked from nearby Corstopitum.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Long famed for its fine Augustinian abbey, handsome Hexham was awarded Country Life’s Best Market Town award for 2005, a fitting tribute to this bustling town interlinked with cobbled alleyways. It is the most substantial of the wall towns, with more restaurants, hotels and high-street shops than anywhere between Newcastle and Carlisle. The tourist office [...]
‘A strange and mystical island, ’ a local might whisper solemnly in your ear, suggesting even the possibility of magic. Holy Island is often referred to as an unearthly place, and while a lot of this talk is just that (and a little bit of bring-’em-in tourist bluster), there is something almost other-worldly about this [...]