Northumberland National Park
Beautiful Northumberland National Park
A jewel just waiting for you to discover, Northumberland National Park is a place that just beckons you to visit, again and again. Officially designated as a National Park in 1956 the Northumberland National Park encompasses an area of 1049km or 405 square miles of some of the most breathtaking terrain and scenic vistas in all of the United Kingdom. The Cheviot at 815m is the highest peak in the National Park and affords some beautiful photographic opportunities for all of the visitors to the park.
The least populated of all of the National Parks in Wales and England, with around 2,000 people, if you do the math that is only about 2 people per square kilometer. With 1,100 km of walking, cycling, and horseback riding paths where you can go for miles without seeing another human being - now that's solitude! Plan on staying for a while as the park offers:
- 3 National Nature Reserves
- 6 Special conservation areas
- 31 Sites covering over 10,000 ha of special scientific interest
- 432 Ancient monuments
- 3,883 Historic environmental records
With so many things to do and places to see, you can only touch on a few of the high points within the constraints of this article, but the great outdoors awaits anyone that is interested. Fishing, boating, miles of hiking trails, cycling and horseback riding paths, all winding through the hills, valleys, rivers, lakes, boughs, and peaks offer something for everyone. There are many places offering accommodations and restaurants nearby like Haltwhistle to the Southwest, Hexham to the Southeast, Wooler to the Northeast, and many, many more communities surrounding the park just waiting for you to call them home for your visit. Conveniently located near larger urban areas like Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and seaside resort areas like Holy Island (Lindisfarne), Amble, and Blyth one can easily commune with nature during the day, take a quiet stroll along the beach in the evening while breathing in the fresh sea air, and then go out to enjoy some nightlife.
For the historian, there's a wealth of things to discover while in Northumberland National Park, as without a doubt, the historic environment is just one of the parks many qualities. Providing rich reminders of a turbulent past, the park contains a large portion of Hadrian's Wall in the South and the wonderfully prehistoric landscapes of the Cheviot Hills and Breamish Valley's ancient hill forts in the North. Offering up over 2,000 years of military history as well as a number of ancient castles, there is more than enough history to go around for the history lover.
Unmatched in the U.K., Northumberland National Park provides a home for the native red squirrel in the conifer forests of the North Tyne. Heather moors host the parks emblematic curlew, golden plover, ring ouzel, and black grouse. The park is a mix of terrains offering hay meadows and endangered peat mires.
One cannot do justice to the beauty of Northumberland National Park and all that it has to offer in an article, so please, continue examining what the park has to offer by visiting the following resources provided:
A 32 page visitor's guide is available for your review at:
http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/visitorguide2011.pdf
A site map is available for your review at: