The Northumberland Coast: Castles, Causeways and Empty Sand

A coast defined by its castles

Between Alnmouth and Berwick the shoreline carries one fortification after another, most of them visible from the next. Bamburgh sits on a basalt outcrop directly above the dunes and is the most dramatic castle silhouette in England. Dunstanburgh is a ruin reached only on foot along a mile and a half of coastal path from Craster, which keeps it quiet.

Warkworth guards a loop of the River Coquet with a keep of unusual cross-shaped plan and a hermitage upriver reached by boat. Lindisfarne Castle sits on its own crag on Holy Island. Each has its own opening arrangements, and several reduce hours substantially in winter.

The causeway to Holy Island

Holy Island is tidal, joined to the mainland by a causeway that floods twice daily. Safe crossing times are published well ahead and posted at both ends, and they are not advisory. Vehicles are recovered from the causeway every year because someone judged the water by eye.

This shapes the whole visit. You cross, you stay for the window, and you leave before it closes, which means the island effectively sets your schedule for half a day. The priory ruins, the castle and the Gospels story are worth that constraint, but it needs planning around rather than fitting in.

• Check published safe crossing times for your date before travelling
• Allow the full window rather than arriving at its edge
• Parking on the island is limited and outside the village
• Nothing about the crossing is negotiable once the tide turns

Alnwick, its garden and the film trail

Alnwick Castle is still a family seat and has been used repeatedly on film, most famously for broomstick lessons, which brings a steady family audience. The state rooms are genuinely fine and often overlooked in the rush to the courtyard. The Alnwick Garden next door is a separate modern creation with a cascade, a treehouse restaurant and a walled poison garden shown only on guided tours. Its cherry orchard is one of the largest collections of its kind and flowers for a short window in spring.

Birds, seals and the Farne Islands

Boats run from Seahouses to the Farne Islands, where puffins, guillemots and terns breed through late spring and early summer and grey seals haul out year round. Landing arrangements vary with conservation restrictions and weather, and sailings are cancelled readily in swell. The bird season is short and specific, roughly late spring into July for the puffins. Outside it the trips still run for the seals and the coastline, but the reason most people go is nesting season.

Hadrian's Wall and the country inland

Half an hour inland the landscape changes to open moor and the central section of Hadrian's Wall runs along a volcanic ridge with the best surviving stretches. Housesteads is the most complete fort and Vindolanda has an active excavation with a museum of extraordinary organic finds. Further west, Kielder holds the largest man-made forest and reservoir in England and is designated a dark sky park, with an observatory. Northumberland is the least populated county in England, and after dark that becomes obvious.

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