The Northumberland National Park was approved as a National Park is 1956 and is the most northernmost national park in England. The area offers walkers and hikers over 400 square miles of countryside between the Scottish borders whilst covering almost a third of the county of Northumberland.
The park offers walkers several distinct areas to enjoy in peace and quiet given that the area does not contain many towns there are very little walkers in this area.
In the North are the Cheviots region of hills that mark the border between England and Scotland, whilst the south is a key area of rolling moorland which have largely been covered by forestry plantations to form the Kielder Forest, however this location also contains the central section of Hadrian's Wall which dates back to Roman times.
The borderlands in this area were fought over for hundreds of years with Hadrian constructing this wall to control the empire and stop Scottish raiders either from the North or those that tried to enter by sea. Hadrian’s wall is a site to be seen and explored and a key attraction for walking in this area.
If you’re not interested in exploring assient wall’s, this county has further sites of history to include historic castles and houses such as Cragside House which was home to the Victorian Inventor and Industrialist Lord Armstrong or Linisfarne Castle which is a 16th Century Fort and Castle located on Holy Island which is only accessible by foot a low tide.
The area offer walkers and hikers some fantastic footpaths and open grassland walking from interesting day-walks to long distance footpaths to include Pennine Way which runs northwards along the border from Tyne Gap to Kirk Yetholm. In between the short and long distance walks, you can also explore The Aln, Coquet and Breamish Rivers or some of the many towns and villages such as Wooler or Rothbury.
One of the best things about this area is that it does not border many large cities or town and therefore suffers very little from overcrowding even in the summer holiday periods. In the past we have hiked across the Cheviots region over the August Bank holiday weekend and seen no more than a handful of over people.
