ON THE COVER A Great Day
Out In Northumberland Castles, gardens and wonder ful scenery
Icame to Northumberland in my 20s to work on an archaeological dig on Hadrian’s Wall and absolutely fell in love with the place. It’s a landscape of open skies and far views, wild uplands and sheltered valleys, hills and coast and more castles than any other county in England. Though I gave up one kind of digging for another, it’s no wonder I stayed!
Northumberland has a wealth of history from prehistoric sites and Roman forts to fortified pele towers and elegant 18th-century mansions. There’s exciting contemporary architecture at The Sill, the National Landscape Discovery Centre, a great place to learn about the Northumberland National Park.
With its plentiful wildlife, Northumberland has much for birdwatchers and walkers to enjoy. With luck, you might see red squirrels or glimpse a secretive otter. The nights are properly dark and you can marvel at the starry sky. Boat trips can take you to the Farne Islands to view seals and puffins while the uplands contain some of the best hay meadows in Europe. It’s an unspoilt county of incredible natural beauty.
I’ve gardened here for over 30 years, and wrote the book Gardens Of Northumberland And The Borders, so I know its many special places very well. David and I
recently revisited some of our favourite gardens, starting at Howick Hall near the coast.
In the Earl Grey Tea House we had a pot of the famous tea, blended with bergamot by a Chinese mandarin for the second Earl Grey and created specially to suit the spring water at Howick.
We wandered around the woodland garden to sit on benches in little glades, surrounded by towering rhododendrons, magnolias and rich with the scent of azaleas. In front of the house, terraces and borders drop down to a winding stream and the Arboretum has a world-renowned collection of rare trees and shrubs.
Nearby at Alnwick Castle, the location for the Harry Potter films, is the spectacular Alnwick Garden. Centrepiece is the Grand Cascade that spouts 120 jets of water to the excited cries of children. There’s a dramatic Poison Garden, a sublime Cherry Orchard planted with 300 pure white Tai-Haku cherry trees, and a restaurant in one of the largest wooden treehouses in the world.
The National Trust garden of Wallington is another favourite with its sunny walled garden and conservatory, or you can spend all day exploring the vast woodlands around Cragside, the first house in the world to be powered by hydroelectricity.