Sights in Northumberland
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walls
Berwick's superb walls were begun in 1558 to reinforce an earlier set built during the reign of Edward II. They represented state-of-the-art military technology of the day and were designed both to house artillery (in arrowhead-shaped bastions) and to withstand it (the walls are low and massively thick, but it's still a long way to fall).
You can walk almost the entire length of the walls, a circuit of about a mile. It's a must, with wonderful, wide-open views. Only a small fragment remains of the once mighty border castle, by the train station. The tourist office has a brochure describing the main sights.
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Cell Block Museum
The original jail cells in the upper floor of the town hall (1750–61) have been preserved as a museum devoted to crime and punishment. Tours take in the public rooms, museum, jail and belfry.
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Berwick Barracks
Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the oldest purpose-built barracks (1717) in Britain now house an assortment of museums and art galleries.
The By Beat of Drum exhibition charges through the history of British soldiery from 1660 to 1900, while the Regimental Museum is only really for those with a burning interest in the King's Own Scottish Borderers. The Berwick Museum and Art Gallery romps through the town's history and holds 400 works of art from the Burrell collection (the other 9000 make up Glasgow's famous museum). The Gymnasium Gallery hosts big-name contemporary art exhibitions.
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Farne Islands
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RNLI Grace Darling Museum
Born in Bamburgh, Grace Darling was the lighthouse keeper's daughter on Outer Farne who rowed out to the grounded, flailing SS Forfarshire in 1838 and saved its crew in the middle of a dreadful storm. This recently refurbished museum is dedicated to the plucky Victorian heroine and even has the actual coble (rowboat) in which she braved the churning North Sea, as well as a film on the events of that stormy night. Grace was born just three houses down from the museum and is buried in the churchyard opposite, her ornate wrought-iron and sandstone tomb built tall so as to be visible to passing ships.
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Norham Castle
Once considered the most dangerous place in the country, the pinkish ruins of Norham Castle are quiet these days, but during the border wars it was besieged no less than 13 times, including a year-long siege by Robert the Bruce in 1318. The last attack came just three weeks before the Battle of Flodden and the castle was once again restored to the prince bishops of Durham, for whom it was originally built in 1160 to guard a swerving bend in the River Tweed.
The castle ruins are 6.5 miles southwest of Berwick on a minor road off the A698; bus 67 regularly passes Norham Castle from Berwick train station on its way to Galashiels in Scotland (six daily Monday to Saturday).
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Lindisfarne Priory
The skeletal, red and grey ruins of the priory are an eerie sight and give a fleeting impression of the isolated life lead by the Lindisfarne monks. The later 13th-century St Mary the Virgin Church is built on the site of the first church between the Tees and the Firth of Forth and the adjacent museum displays the remains of the first monastery and tells the story of the monastic community before and after the Dissolution.
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Lindisfarne Heritage Centre
Twenty pages of the luminescent Lindisfarne Gospels can be flicked through on touch-screens here, though there's normally a queue for the two terminals. While you wait your turn there are fascinating exhibitions on the Vikings and the sacking of Lindisfarne in 793.
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Lindisfarne Castle
Half a mile from the village stands this tiny, storybook castle, moulded onto a hunk of rock in 1550, and extended and converted by Sir Edwin Lutyens from 1902 to 1910 for Mr Hudson, the owner of Country Life magazine. You can imagine some decadent parties have graced its alluring rooms – Jay Gatsby would have been proud. Its opening times may be extended depending on the tide.
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Dunstanburgh Castle
The dramatic 1.5-mile walk along the coast from Craster (not accessible by car) is the most scenic path to the moody, weather-beaten ruins of yet another atmospheric castle. The haunting sight of the ruins, high on a basalt outcrop famous for its sea birds, can be seen for miles along this exhilarating stretch of tide-thrashed shoreline.
Dunstanburgh was once one of the largest border castles. Its construction began in 1314, it was strengthened during the Wars of the Roses, but then left to crumble. Only parts of the original wall and gatehouse keep are still standing; it was already a ruin by 1550, so it's a tribute to its builders that so much is left today.
You can also …
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Berwick's Walls
Berwick's hefty Elizabethan walls were begun in 1558 to reinforce an earlier set built during the reign of Edward II. They represented state-of-the-art military technology of the day and were designed both to house artillery (in arrowhead-shaped bastions) and to withstand it (the walls are low and massively thick, but it's still a long way to fall).
You can walk almost the entire length of the walls, a circuit of about a mile. It's a must, with wonderful, wide-open views. Only a small fragment remains of the once mighty border castle, most of the building having been replaced by the train station.
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Bamburgh Castle
Northumberland's most dramatic castle was built around a powerful 11th-century Norman keep by Henry II, although its name is a derivative of Bebbanburgh, after the wife of Anglo-Saxon ruler Aedelfrip, whose fortified home occupied this basalt outcrop 500 years earlier. The castle played a key role in the border wars of the 13th and 14th centuries, and in 1464 was the first English castle to fall as the result of a sustained artillery attack, by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, during the Wars of the Roses. It was restored in the 19th century by the great industrialist Lord Armstrong, who died before work was completed. The castle is still home to the Armstrong family.
O…
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Bailiffgate Museum
The three floors at this often overlooked museum near the castle are taken up with interesting exhibitions on coal mining, the history of Alnwick, Border Reivers and the railways as well as locally themed temporary shows.
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Alnwick Garden
As spectacular a bit of green-thumb artistry as you'll see in England, this is one of the northeast's great success stories. Since the project began in 2000, the 4.8-hectare walled garden has been transformed from a derelict site into a spectacle that easily exceeds the grandeur of the castle's 19th-century gardens, a series of magnificent green spaces surrounding the breathtaking Grand Cascade – 120 separate jets spurting over 30,000L of water down 21 weirs for everyone to marvel at and kids to splash around in.
There are a half-dozen other gardens, including the Franco-Italian-influenced Ornamental Garden (with more than 15,000 plants), the Rose Garden and the particul…
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Alnwick Castle
The outwardly imposing ancestral home of the Duke of Northumberland and a favourite set for film-makers (it was Hogwarts for the first couple of Harry Potter films) has changed little since the 14th century. The interior is sumptuous and extravagant; the six rooms open to the public – staterooms, dining room, guard chamber and library – have an incredible display of Italian paintings, including Titian's Ecce Homo and many Canalettos.
A free Harry Potter tour runs every day at 14.30 and includes details of other productions – period drama Elizabeth and the British comedy series Blackadder to name but two – to have used the castle as a backdrop.
The castle is set in p…
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