For England's northeastern region - in particular the counties
of Northumberland and Durham - the centuries between
the Roman invasion and the 1603 union of the English and Scottish
crowns were a period of almost incessant turbulence. To mark the
empire's limit and to contain the troublesome tribes of the far
north, Hadrian's Wall was built along the seventy-odd miles
between the North Sea and the west coast, an extraordinary military
structure that is now one of the country's most evocative ruins.
When the Romans departed the northeast was plunged into chaos and
divided into unstable Saxon principalities until order was restored
by the kings of Northumbria, who dominated the region from 600
until the 870s. It was they who nourished the region's early
Christian tradition, which achieved its finest flowering with the
creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels on what is now known as
Holy Island. The monks abandoned their island at the end of the
ninth century, in advance of the Vikings' destruction of the
Northumbrian kingdom, and only after the Norman Conquest did the
northeast again become part of a greater England.
The Norman kings and their immediate successors repeatedly
attempted to subdue Scotland, passing effective regional control to
powerful local lords. Their authority is recalled by a sequence of
formidable fortresses, most impressively those at Bamburgh,
Alnwick and Warkworth , and also by Durham
Cathedral , the magnificent twelfth-century church of the
prince bishops of Durham, who ruled the whole of County Durham.
Long after the northeast had ceased to be a critical military zone,
its character and appearance were transformed by the Industrial
Revolution . Coal had been mined here for hundreds of years,
but exploitation only began in earnest towards the end of the
eighteenth century, when two main coalfields were established - one
dominating County Durham from the Pennines to the sea, the other
stretching north along the Northumberland coast from the Tyne. The
world's first railway , the Darlington and Stockton
line, was opened in 1825 to move coal to the nearest port for
export, while local coal and ore also fuelled the foundries of
Middlesbrough and Consett, which in turn supplied the
ship-building and heavy-engineering companies of Tyneside. The
region boomed, creating a score of sizeable towns, amongst which
Newcastle was pre-eminent - as it remains today.
Most visitors dodge the industrial areas, bypassing the towns
along the Tees Valley - Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough
and Hartlepool - on the way to Durham . From Durham it's a
short hop to Newcastle , an earthy city distinguished by
some fine Victorian buildings, the revitalized Quayside and a
vibrant cultural scene and nightlife. North, past the old colliery
villages, the brighter parts of the Northumberland coast boast some
fine castles, as well as Holy Island , the extravagant
ramparts of Berwick-upon-Tweed , a string of superb, if
chilly, beaches, and the desolate archipelago of the Farne
Islands . Inland there are the scenic Durham dales and
the harsh landscapes of Northumberland National Park , a
huge chunk of moorland and tree plantations that edges the most
dramatic portion of Hadrian's Wall. The wall itself is easily
visited from the appealing abbey-town of Hexham , just half
an hour from Newcastle.
If there are two or more of you, it's well worth getting hold
of a Northumbria Tourist Board Powerpass (£1) from any of
the region's tourist offices, which gives two-for-the-price-of-one
entry to many attractions, including Beamish, Bede's World and
Segedunum. For all public transport enquiries in the
northeast, contact Traveline (daily 7am-8pm; tel 0870/608 2608, );
or log onto Nexus, the local transport's website, which has a
useful journey planner option ( ). The Northeast Explorer
Pass (1-day; £5.25) gives unlimited travel on local buses - buy
it on board any bus. The main long-distance footpath through the
northeast is the Pennine Way , which crosses Hadrian's Wall
and climaxes in a climb through the Northumberland National Park
and Cheviot Hills. Less demanding is the 63-mile St Cuthbert's
Way , which links Holy Island with Melrose, where St Cuthbert
started his ministry, just across the border in Scotland.