Northumberland Holiday Guide 2009
area for the best views and, if the foot path is open, take the historic Norham was besieged at least 13 times during the
short walk to the Chew Green Roman Camp and the Brownhart Anglo-Scottish wars and once kept Robert the Bruce at bay for
Law Signal Station. an entire year. The castle Walls were finally pummelled to rubble
in 1513 by the Scottish canon of James IV but his victory was
Kielder Skyspace: to the west of the A68 is Kielder Forest
short lived. He was killed by a vengeful English army at nearby
Water Park, the largest commercial forest in England. There is
Flodden. Today the castle is in the care of English Heritage and
a public toll road, open to motor vehicles, which leads through
the Norman keep and 16
th
century artillery breastworks are
the forest from the A68 at Byrness to Kielder village and the
particularly well preserved.
Kielder Water reservoir. West of Kielder, another forest track
leads to Cat Cairn and the unique James Turrell artwork called
Skyspace. This interactive installation is a cross between a
“the wildest and most
sculpture and a camera obscura so step inside for a unique
romantic situations in
‘optical experience’ that shows you the sky like you have never
seen it before!
the land,” Sir Walter Scott
Lindisfarne & Bamburgh: were the London and Canterbury of
Steel Rigg: Hadrian’s Wall skirts the southern edge of Kielder
the Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. Whilst the rest of Britain
Forest and the Northumberland National Park. Half a mile north
lingered in the shadow of the Dark Ages, learning and literature
of the Visitor Centre at Once Brewed, there is a gap in the crags
where an unclassified road crosses the Wall. Well preserved
flourished in Lindisfarne’s monastery and the magnificent
sections extend either side of this road and there is a car park
Lindisfarne Gospels were written here around 700AD. Today
on the northern side of the stones. To the east a path follows
the tidal island still attracts those looking for spiritual solace
the Wall along the Whin Sill to Housesteads Fort and to the west
and artistic inspiration and even if you don’t paint, the curiously
the path climbs a steepish hill. The top of this hill marks the
shaped Tudor Castle, fishing quay piled high with lobster pots,
midpoint of the Wall and from the top it is said that you can see
golden sands and ever changing blue-grey sea provide a feast
both the Irish Sea and the North Sea – weather permitting.
for the camera lens.
Berwick-upon-Tweed: Turner painted Berwick in 1832 and
Dunstanburgh Castle: Turner painted Dunstanburgh Castle three
a century later another highly influential English artist, LS
times and the ruins still guard a port that was never built. Instead
Lowry, was moved to pick up his brush and immortalise this
of building a harbour beneath the castle Walls, the English found
it easier to seize Berwick’s docks and quays from the Scots!
handsome Border town. Though Lowry is more famous for his
Today the castle can only be visited on foot after an easy, but
matchstick men shuffling through Salford’s factory gates, he
dramatic, mile long walk along the cliff tops from Craster village.
spent many holidays in the area and began painting Berwick,
The wide expanse of the sea, the open skies and the sweeping
Spittal and Tweedmouth as early as 1935; he would go on
empty beaches are much as Turner left them.
to produce more than thirty major works inspired by Berwick
before his death in 1976. Many of the landmarks that feature
Norham Castle: each of Turner’s seven paintings of in his paintings still exist today and there is a walking trail
Norham, shows the artist’s progression from Romanticism around the town that visits 18 of his favourite Berwick and
to impressionism long before these terms were coined. The Tweedmouth subjects.
Dunstanburgh Castle, Gail Johnson Berwick-upon-Tweed, Mario Czekirda
www.visitnorthumberland.com 13
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