Designated 6 April 1956
A sparsely populated wilderness, a place of border wars and struggle, yet home to the largest outdoor art experience in the UK and a striking observatory, Northumberland National Park is a place that richly rewards the time you dedicate to it. Climb its windblown peaks, discover its wooded valleys and stand on the wall that once drew a line between civilisation and barbarism, although which side was which you can debate for yourself.
In this guide, we pick out some testing hikes along with some riverside strolls and a time-saving ferry, find fabulous food, tell you where best to marvel at the park’s Dark Sky status and discover how tragedy almost literally became the sycamore seeds of hope.
Start/endpoints: Walltown Visitor Centre
Start/endpoints: Walltown Visitor Centre
Distance: 2 mi, elevation: 300ft, difficulty rating: 1/5
Start/endpoints: Walltown Visitor Centre
If you’re in the south of Northumberland National Park, you’ll almost certainly make a stop at Hadrian’s Wall, the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire, aside from the roughly twenty years when Antoninus built his own doomed wall between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. A walk up Walltown Crags helps bring home what a vast undertaking and imposing statement Hadrian’s Wall must have been. The section that snakes along the top of the cliffs is one of the best preserved of the whole length and you can almost feel your gaze turning uneasily to the north, as you listen for the sounds of baleful barbarians approaching. It’s not a challenging route, so you’ll have plenty of time to stop in at the Roman Army Museum, then retreat to nearby Haltwhistle for lunch.
Start/endpoints: Walltown Visitor Centre
Start/endpoints: Walltown Visitor Centre
Distance: 3 mi, elevation: 350ft, difficulty rating: 2/5
Start/endpoints: Walltown Visitor Centre
Embrace your inner billy goat and cross six old bridges as you wind through the woods to the head of the gorge where a stream crashes through a narrow defile. As you go, you pass through the industrial heritage of the area – old ironworks and marks of quarrying – before nature claims the trail back, tracking the mossy banks of the Hareshaw Burn.The site is SSSI with over 300 species of lichens and mosses, as well wildlife like red squirrels and woodpeckers that are worth watching and listening for. Apart from being occasionally muddy and slippery, it’s an easy walk out and back, with plenty of places to stop and picnic along the way and the rushing of the falls calling you on long before you see it.
Hareshaw Linn Waterfall © Stewart Prince
Start/endpoints: Elsdon Village Hall car park
Start/endpoints: Elsdon Village Hall car park
Distance: 3.5 mi, elevation: 452ft, difficulty rating 2/5
Start/endpoints: Elsdon Village Hall car park
Elsdon was once a very important settlement in the area and you can still see the earthworks of Mote hill, as well as a Motte and a Moot, all relics of fortifications and places for trade and gathering. After setting off on the road signed Newcastle (don’t panic, you’re not going that far) you’ll climb Gallow Hill where you can look down on miles of the surrounding landscape. Watch for scattering hares and copper butterflies as you walk through the fields, with little to trouble you except a gentle climb and the occasional rutted farm track. Before you leave or after you get back to the village, be sure to investigate the 12th Century Church, said to hold many of the dead from the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. You could also take a look at The Bird in Bush Inn, although for less purely historical reasons.
Start/endpoints: Wedder Leap National Park Car Park
Start/endpoints: Wedder Leap National Park Car Park
Distance: 5.5mi, elevation: 823ft, difficulty rating: 3/5
Start/endpoints: Wedder Leap National Park Car Park
This walk, in one of the wildest parts of the park, has a little bit of everything. The challenging but rewarding route passes through moorland, green hills and quiet woods, with remarkable views across the Cheviots every time you crest a ridge or find a gap in the trees. The climb might be tricky for some and the ground can get muddy, but navigation is simpler than you’d imagine, with well-worn forest tracks and footpaths to follow. You might not pass as much history as on some hikes and there’s no neatly placed halfway pub, but this is the quiet heart of Northumberland National Park and you’ll find yourself marvelling at the blissful peace.
Start/endpoints: Roadside parking near Langleeford
Start/endpoints: Roadside parking near Langleeford
Distance: 11mi, elevation: 2343ft, difficulty rating: 4/5
Start/endpoints: Roadside parking near Langleeford
Make no mistake (certainly not with your weather checks, gear or navigation) this is a proper hike. There’s a lot of climbing, trackless sections and even rock scrambling, if you’re determined to make it right to the very top. For all that, you start off crossing a burn on a lovely old wooden bridge, following mossy walls as you begin to ascend. As you cross Housey Crags and Long Crags, you can often see Lindisfarne Castle in the distance, while the hills and rocky peaks roll out for miles around you. Once you’ve reached the top, you can come back exactly the same way or veer off towards Harthope Linn waterfall, then follow the stream back to where you started.
The Cheviot from Long Crags © Jessica Davison
Start/endpoints: Car park near Barrowburn
Start/endpoints: Car park near Barrowburn
Distance: 7.5mi, elevation: 1500ft, difficulty rating 3/5
Start/endpoints: Car park near Barrowburn
Considering the elevation gain, this is an easier hike than it might first appear. From the car park, you simply follow a track past Shorthope Hill then begin a slow, steady ascent with decent footing, all the way to the top of Windy Gyle. Once there, you’re treated to stunning views and the rare chance to hop between countries in a single bound, as the fence near the summit marks the border between England and Scotland. Of course, something about the name suggests that you might not be hanging around on the peak of Windy Gyle for a picnic. There’s a handy depression in the ground where a few people can shelter, but this isn’t a place to set out a fine spread unless you want to be chasing your food downhill.
The Drake Stone © Jessica DavisonDID YOU KNOW?
Northumberland National Park is the least populated of all the UK’s National Parks, with around 2,000 permanent residents in an area of roughly 400 square miles - only five people per mile. For context, the South Downs is relatively stuffed, at 183 people per mile!
The Sill is a cafe, gift shop, visitor centre and information point that makes a great base for a day in the area. The on-site coffee and bakehouse can set you up for the day or reward after an outing, with sections of Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap within walking distance.
This lovely old pub has been serving travellers since about 1800 and still retains a certain timeless charm. The addition of a wood-fired pizza oven rounds out a menu of solid pub classics and the courtyard garden is a lovely place to unwind after a walk to the Drake Stone or round Harbottle Lake and Castle.
You may have to dip out of the park boundaries to visit the butchers in Rothbury if you’re not based in town, but it’s worth it. As well as the obvious range of local meat you could pick up for evening meals in, they can also provide you with some fine picnic ingredients for the ridge walk on Simonside Hills.
The little cafe on the park’s eastern border is a lovely early morning stop if you’re about to climb Brough Hill and look down on the Cheviots. It’s dog-friendly, although that’s pretty common in Northumberland, and does a good range of homemade food to keep you powered up all day.
A lovely old pub near Henshaw with an on-site brewery steeped in the area’s 2000 years of beer making history. The food is seasonal, simple, superb and served in a laid-back atmosphere. As is standard with country pubs these days, there’s also a mini observatory, where you’ll find expert guides and top-notch to help you look deep into the night sky.
DID YOU KNOW?
After the famous tree was illegally felled in 2023, the National Trust’s Plant Conservation Centre has cared for new shoots and saplings. Now each of the UK’s 15 National Parks has been gifted a “Tree of Hope” sapling as symbols of nature recovery and shared stewardship for the landscape.
Despite its famous wall and its place in large-scale clashes of nations and cultures, many of the remains of fortifications you’ll see in the park were built during the period when Border Reivers, a term first coined by Walter Scott, robbed and pillaged across the land. Reivers (meaning raiders, via an old English word for rob or plunder) were groups often organised along family lines, who emerged in the embattled period from the 14th century to the 17th century. During this time, constant skirmishes between Scottish and English forces made farming untenable and reiving became the only way to survive. Of course, reiving itself then caused more instability and the cycle continued. English raided Scots, Scots raided English and they both raided their own in a vicious cycle that led to some considering the rebuilding of Hadrian’s Wall. Eventually, James VI and I enacted a brutal suppression of reivers and brought the borders, if not under control, then certainly to a less destructive state. If you want to make a dedicated trip to see a piece of reiver era history, try Woodhouses Bastle (not a typo for castle, in case you were wondering) a fortified farmhouse that shows how terrifying a time it must have been to live through. It’s tempting to wonder if so much devastation for so long is one of the reasons that the park is sparsely inhabited to this day.
Hadrian's Wall © Daniel KayDID YOU KNOW?
It’s highly likely that Hadrian never even saw his own wall. While he did make his single visit to Britain in AD122, the wall’s construction certainly wasn’t completed until years later. Perhaps he laid a foundation stone, gave orders for the rest of the work and left for other frontiers, never to return.
If you’re feeling particularly martial and historic, you could make a full day’s patrol along a section of Hadrian’s Wall, if you start early. At Twice Brewed Inn, a big breakfast will set you up for duty, before you head off west along the wall in the direction of, fittingly, the Roman Army Museum. Here you can see a snapshot of the area’s history, before pushing on to Walltown Crags for a look at one of the best-preserved stretches of your beat. Retrace your steps all the way to the inn for dinner and, after a good ten miles of walking, go heavy on the salt if you like, you’ve earnt it.
For a cultural, informative and awe-inspiring couple of days, stay right at the heart of the park and explore around Kielder Water. A walk all the way around the vast reservoir would be a serious undertaking, but thankfully there’s a seasonal ferry that will allow you to cut across the middle either to or from the waterfront cafe on the south shore. As you walk, keep an eye out for the bizarre and brilliant array of art and architecture projects which are scattered in the surrounding land, from giant faces in the woods to angular buildings, curved silver chairs and even a playable mini golf course. The art is fantastic, but when night falls, the real show begins. Book one of the nighttime experiences at Kielder Observatory (which is itself one of the works in the Art & Architecture programme) and stargaze with the help of incredible experts and a serious telescope. Follow that rather full day with a stroll along the Elsdon Burn and up Gallow Hill for some lovely views, before heading over to the Bird in Bush Inn, located conveniently close to the start point.
The north is the wilder section of the park, although no part of it can be said to be exactly metropolitan. Start a good full day with fuelling up at Ingram Cafe before taking on the climb of Hedgehope Hill and looking out into Scotland from its lofty peak. The next day, if there’s not too much thigh ache slowing you down, make another climb, up Yeavering Bell to the remains of the vast Iron-Age hillfort. When you descend, drop into Ad Gefrin, the museum of Anglo Saxon history, to see the period brought to life. After all that walking, reward yourself with a tour and tasting at the on-site distillery, letting the warming whisky do its work as your mind wanders back over your trip, the hills and thousands of years.
We held an event in Westminster this week to discuss our recent report on National Park Authority governance with Mary Creagh, the Minister for Nature.
We’ve launched our new report ‘Leading National Parks into the Future: Modernising National Park Authority Governance’.
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