Walking in Northumberland - Circular Day Walks

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A.C. Swinburne, The Sisters

Northumberland

Roman inability to subdue the rebellious Picts and Scots and extend their empire in and around AD 81 was in many ways instrumental not only in the conception but also the birth of Northumberland as a frontier region. For when their great Wall was abandoned at the end of the fourth century and they retreated to their dwindling empire, the Romans left the land to a volatile mix of Celtic tribes. This wild and lonely, history and blood soaked, land continued for the next sixteen centuries in a pulsating mix of violence and peace, family feuds, Christian conversion, agrarian reform and forest decimation.

The Northumberland we see today, a much smaller land mass than Northumbria, was created in AD 1080, not by the inhabitants of Northumbria but by invading Scots who defeated the Northumbrians at Carham by the River Tweed. The victors declared that all lands lying between Tweed and Tyne were to be named ‘Northumberland’.

Northumberland is an extensive county that rises and ripples to wide horizons, where space and solitude are in abundance and time is measured by the seasonal cycle. Unusual rugged lands with a population to match, like no other in the UK, with perhaps the exception of the Scottish Borders to whom Northumberland is bonded by blood and a shared history. It has remained one of the most sparsely populated in England since the days of the Domesday Book; when one square mile carried but five people, expanding in the thirteenth century only to recede in the fourteenth, to 17 people per square mile. This was principally due to the ravages of the Black Death, an unstable economy resulting from the Battle of Bannockburn, and the onset of the Border Wars. Change has been slow and memorabilia of conflict still predominates; to quote B Long from Castles of Northumberland - ‘Northumberland has more castles, fortalices, peles, bastles and barmkins than any other county in the British Isles’.

With the advent of the eighteenth century Northumberland was to experience the extraction, by whatever means, of its rich seams of coal in its south-east corner and lead and silver from its southern dales. Essential, basic raw materials fed the insatiable appetites of the industrial revolution, and with the revolution a new breed of landowners and landlords transformed Northumberland. From the Dukes of Northumberland to coal and lead lessees such as the families of Blackett and Beaumont, estates were transformed, new model villages were constructed, fields drained, stone steadings built, hedges set and plantations raised; in addition to the construction of many miles of new roads and the improvement of old ones. Such activity raised the coal and heavy engineering capital Newcastle to its zenith of industrial achievement, due in no small measure to men such as Lord Armstrong, engineer, inventor and arms manufacturer, who also fathered the grand gesture of Cragside and subsequently fashioned the restoration of Bamburgh Castle.

Bounded by the Tweed to the north, and the Tyne, Derwent and an assortment of dalesheads to the south, with Cumbria binding its western marches and the restless North Sea its eastern flanks, this most northerly of English counties is big in every sense. With some 2020 square miles, the fifth largest county in England, its rural population is however as sparse as any. Only 10 per cent of the total population dwell outside the south-east corner of Tyneside’s industrial triangle; the one time heartland of the Northumbrian coalfield and the Tyne’s shipyards, cradle of the Mauretania and Queen Elizabeth 2 - alas no more.

Excluding the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the urban conglomeration of Tyneside there are few townships of any size in the county. Berwick-upon-Tweed, much fought over, Alnwick, the county town, Morpeth, seat of the county council, Hexham with its stately abbey, the old lead mining centre of Allendale Town, and Rothbury, capital of Coquetdale, all have a character of their own with much to offer the walker.

The majority of the county’s acres are still privately owned and managed, with 398 square miles (1031sq km), of the wildest and most remote areas under the guardianship of The Northumberland National Park. Granted National Park status in 1956 the Park authorities have been working to maintain the essential character of the county. Traditional farming practices are encouraged and support is given for the conservation of natural and semi-natural habitats, whilst introducing wild, scenically attractive areas to the general public by improving amenities and wildlife conservation. There exists today, within the National Park, a network of accessible public and permissive paths, thanks in no small measure to the unceasing efforts and enthusiasm of the Park’s Public Rights of Way Officers.

Within the Park’s perimeters there are vast tracts, mainly in North Tynedale, owned by the Forestry Commission, who hold one-fifth of the total area, as do the Ministry of Defence above Otterburn and Redesdale.

The Forestry Commission created, from 1926, Kielder Forest, Britain’s largest forested area of 60,000 hectares, of which some 50,000 hectares are planted, yielding 400,000 cubic metres annually for the construction industry, particleboard and paper making. Within the forest area floats Europe’s largest man-made lake, Kielder Water Reservoir, holding 44,000 million gallons (200,000 million litres) of water in an area of 2800 acres (1335 hectares), 7½ miles (12km) in length and a shoreline in excess of 27 miles (43.2km). Both Forest Enterprise and Northumbrian Water have provided amenities and encourage all lovers of the great outdoors.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD), who own Otterburn and Redesdale Training Area, occupy 58,000 acres of moorland wilderness and are wanting more. The announcement of their intentions not surprisingly brought forth a clamour of angry voices, not least among them the National Park. Although such is a thorn in the county’s side let us not lose sight of the fact that Northumberland provides some of the best unfettered hill, dale and coastal walking in Britain.