County in England
Northumberland
Northumberland has more castles than any other English county, and it's the least crowded: it has the lowest population density in England and some of the darkest skies in Europe.
Key information
- County
- Northumberland
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 320,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Castles, Hadrian's Wall, Holy Island, dark skies, empty beaches
- What locals are called
- Northumbrians (and Geordies on the Tyneside edge)
- Famous people
- Capability Brown, Grace Darling, Jackie and Bobby Charlton, Sting
- Football clubs
- Blyth Spartans, Ashington, Morpeth Town
About Northumberland
England's county of castles and big empty skies
Northumberland is the northernmost county in England, and it feels like it. There are more than 70 castles, towers and fortified houses here, because for centuries this was the front line between England and Scotland. The county is also remarkably empty. It has the lowest population density in England, which is why Northumberland National Park and Kielder Water & Forest Park together form one of the largest protected dark-sky areas in Europe. Kielder was given Gold Tier status as a Dark Sky Park in 2013, and on a clear night the Milky Way is easy to see. Kielder Water itself is the largest man-made lake in the UK by volume, and the surrounding forest is the largest in England.
The wall, the castles and the border wars
Around AD 122 the Roman emperor Hadrian ordered a wall across the narrow neck of Britain, and its best-preserved stretches run through Northumberland. Housesteads fort, perched on a ridge, still shows you the layout of a Roman garrison, including the remains of its communal latrines. Vindolanda, just south of the wall, gave the world the famous wooden writing tablets, which include what is often described as a birthday party invitation. Later centuries brought the Border Reivers, raiding families who stole cattle and settled scores on both sides of the frontier. That is why even humble farmhouses in the county have thick walls and bastle-house defences. Bamburgh Castle sits on a basalt crag above the sea and was once the royal seat of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Alnwick Castle, home of the Percy family, the Dukes of Northumberland, is better known today as Hogwarts in the early Harry Potter films. Dunstanburgh, a ruin on a wild headland, is reached on a coastal walk from Craster.
Holy Island: a saint, a causeway and the tide
Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is cut off twice a day when the tide covers the causeway. Signs warn drivers to check the crossing times, and every year a few cars get caught and have to be rescued from the refuge box on stilts. St Aidan founded a monastery here in 635, and it became one of the great centres of early English Christianity. The Lindisfarne Gospels, a spectacular illuminated manuscript, were made here around the early 8th century. In 793 Viking raiders attacked the monastery, an event often used to mark the start of the Viking Age in Britain. Today the island is known for its priory ruins, its castle and Lindisfarne mead.
Grace Darling and other Northumbrian firsts
In 1838 Grace Darling, daughter of the Longstone lighthouse keeper on the Farne Islands, rowed out with her father through a storm to rescue survivors from the wrecked steamship Forfarshire. She became one of the most celebrated heroines in Victorian Britain. Her story is told at a museum in Bamburgh, where she is buried. The Farne Islands are also a wildlife stronghold, home to puffins in summer and a big grey seal colony, with pups arriving in autumn. Northumberland also gave the world Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the landscape gardener, born in Kirkharle in 1716. He went on to reshape hundreds of English estates. Cragside, near Rothbury, was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power, thanks to the inventor Lord Armstrong.
Pipes, pitmen and kippers
The Northumbrian smallpipes are the county's own instrument: a bellows-blown bagpipe that is quieter and sweeter than its Scottish cousin. Players still meet at festivals and competitions, and the tradition is closely tied to the area's folk music. Craster is famous for its oak-smoked kippers, cured in the same smokehouse for generations. Other local foods include stottie cake, a flat, heavy bread loaf, and pan haggerty, a layered dish of potato, onion and cheese. The south-east of the county was once coal-mining country, and the mining communities of Ashington produced the Pitmen Painters, a group of miners who studied art in the 1930s and went on to exhibit across Britain. Ashington also produced the footballing brothers Jack and Bobby Charlton, who were born there. Sting, the musician, was born in nearby Wallsend, on the north bank of the Tyne, the same side of the river as Ashington. In football, Blyth Spartans became giants of the FA Cup in 1978, when they reached the fifth round as a non-league side.