Northumberland National Park

55° 17' 10.66" N 2° 15' 37.88" W [55.2863, -2.2605] (KML)

There are two main geographical areas within the park. The Cheviot hills [S] to the north and Kielder Forest to the South West. The park is generally very quiet, it gets very few visitors compared to some of it's more famous neighbours like the Lake District National Park [M].

The park was designated in 1956 and since then has steadily become more and more user friendly with visitor centres and programs to involve and educate visitors.

The landscape is typically moorland, heather and conifer plantations. The Kielder reservoir is the largest body of water. Just over 70% of the area is open moorland. Heather is very common and approx 20% of the park is heather moorland which gives beautiful autumn displays.This heather moorland is largely unique to the United Kingdom and recently there has been considerable habitat improvement with grouse moor management schemes.

The park has deer,fox,badgers and other small animals are very common. However the bird population is truly amazing. The open habitats host many different species including Black grouse, Curlews, Merlin, Red grouse. Along the valleys are heron and king fisher.

Generally wet and windy. The north easterly gales sweeping in off the Atlantic are a common feature of the area.

From the north. A1 from Edinburgh [M]. From the south. Either the A68 from Corbridge or the A1 trunk road From the east. Many small roads providing access into the park. From the west. A69 through to Corbridge and then the A68 north. By plane into Newcastle [S] airport. By train , north east line to Newcastle and stations north.

None

Since May 2005, large areas of Northumberland [S] National Park [M] are accessible to the public as a result of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW). This means that you can now walk feely on designated ‘Access Land’ without having to stay on rights of way.

There are also visitor centres at Ingram [S], Once Brewed [S], Alnwick [S], Bellingham [S], Berwick-upon-Tweed [S], Brampton [S], Carlisle [S], Newcastle [S], Hexham [S], Morpeth [S], Wooler [S].

Hadrian's Wall [M], UNESCO site from Roman times. Cheviot hills and surrounding area with Hill forts and wide open moorland. Redesdale valley and Border reiver history. Visit the many medieval castles.

• Walking
• Riding
• Visit markets and fairs
• Bird watching
• Shooting and hunting
• Cycling

There are many craft shops and some woolen mills converted to sell clothing and related items.

Local food as expected centres around the rich landscape and game. So you get meat and fish dishes.

Northumberland [S] brewery [2] provides local ale.

The area has plenty of b&b as well as self catering accommodation [3] . There are hostels and camping barns [4] There are local businesses offering green accommodation [5] and of course self catering accommodation throughout Northumberland [S] [6]

The official National park details are here [7].

Text content was last edited at 14:12, on 8 December 2009 by Chris Playll. Based on work by Mark Sheffield, Colin Corlett, Ann, Ravikiran Rao, Colin Jensen, Ian Kirk and Evan Prodromou. A list of contributors is available at the original article on Wikitravel. This text content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.