UK Travel Guide - Northumberland Info For UK Tourists

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4th June 2009 - by Julian Davis

Northumberland Info For UK Tourists

A county located in the North East of England is Northumberland. Morpeth and Alnwick, both pretend for the title of county town. It is a non metropolitan county of Northumberland and shares borders with County Durham to the south, Tyne and Wear to the south east and Cumbria to the west. It also joins a border with the Scottish Borders council regions in the north and has a coast line that is approximately eighty miles and is at North Sea.

Its boundaries have been altered many times since its adoption, under many rulers and under the Local Government Act 1972. As it is noted for untouched and natural landscape of high barren land, which is a God gifted for landscape painters. It later was recognized as the National Park and is the lowest populated county of UK. Its county flower is the Bloody Cranebill.

Northumberland has a big and unmerciful history and the density of castles there is more than anywhere else in England. It had witnessed many wars between England and Scotland. Northumberland is often called the cradle of Christianity as from here the spread of Christianity started.

Historical capital of Northumberland is Bamburgh, but county town of Northumberland is at present is Morpeth, as Northumberland County Councils offices are located in that town. Northumberland was a sort of wild county, where outlaws and Border Reivers used to hide from the law and escape. However, all these activities of cross border clashes were controlled after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England came under King James I.

Northumberland have played an important role during the industrial revolution. Coal mines were there in vast numbers in Northumberland and with collieries at Pegswood, Ellington and Ashington. The areas of coalfields further fuelled industrial expansion to other areas of the country. The need to transport the coal from the collieries to the other areas led to creation of the first railways. Armaments and Shipbuilding producers were other significant industries.

Most of the Northumberland is still largely rural. As the least populated county in England, it does not command influence in British affairs than it used to in the past. Recently the county has had a nice growth in tourism trade due to its scenic, natural beauty and the lots of evidence about its historical importance.

Northumberland has a diverse physical geography. It has low and flat landscape when near the North Sea coast and starts increasing upwards and becomes mountainous near the northwest. Located in the northwest of the county, the Cheviot Hills contains mostly resistant Devonian granite and andesite lava.

A second area that contains igneous rock lies at Whin Sill, on which Hadrians Wall stands, an interruption of carboniferous Dolerite. Lying near the coast of Northumberland are the Farne Islands, popular for their bird life.

There are many coal fields scattered in the southeast region of the county, and they further extend along the coastal area that lies north of the River Tyne. The word sea coal most probably originated from large pieces of coal, found drenched on beaches that waves had broken from coastal outhunting.