Welcome to Northumbria

For this look at one of our great National Parks, we headed to the most northerly of England's Parks, Northumbria National Park, nestled neatly between Hadrian's Wall to the south and the border of Scotland which, despite some people's protestations, are not one and the same thing!

Covering an area of 410 square miles (1050 square kilometres), and said to be the least populated area in England, it is at odds with the last of the Parks that we featured, being entirely contained within just one county, the district that lends the Park its name. Somewhat erroneously, the county name translates as meaning 'North of the River Humber' and while it is geographically true, it's more than 'just' north of the Humber, being about 150 miles away from the Humber Bridge, to give an example, and there actually is another entire National Park that sits directly between the two!

While it lies within just one county, it does cover nearly a quarter of Northumberland, stretching out to the border with Cumbria, and northwards to the Southern Uplands of Scotland, including much of the Cheviot Hills, and a large part of Kielder Forest, which itself covers 250 square miles and is the largest manmade woodland within England.

Things you (possibly) didn't know about Northumberland

One of the most iconic images of Hadrian's Wall was that of the tree at Sycamore Gap. The tree that gave the place its name was originally planted by John Clayton, a lawyer from Newcastle, around 150 years ago, and was felled in the early morning of September 28, 2023. A 16-year-old and a 68-year-old were subsequently arrested. The tree had won England's Tree of the Year award in 2016, and also appeared in the video for Brian Adam's song 'Everything I Do I Do It For You', which was included in the soundtrack to the film Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves, in which the tree appeared, despite it being 170 miles away from Sherwood Forest, where the film was based!