Northumberland, on the Northeast Coast of England has a sense of peace, quiet and beautiful softness.
When we took a week to visit, we never imagined how much it would stay with us and feel comforting. A friend of ours who is from near there had told us about the skies, but we didn’t quite imagine how dramatic they’d be until we arrived.
We both agreed after our time in Northumberland that there’s a sense that the landscape here soothes you and calms you down. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll know it when you visit.
The colours of the sky meeting the beaches and sea, the hills, the way the light illuminates the landscape. The softness of the grasses and the dunes. The expanses of beaches.
To say we had one of the best trips we’d had in a while in the UK when exploring the things to do in Northumberland is an understatement. Our guide below is based on our real experiences here, what we did and lots of local info and tips we picked up along the way.
We’ve got a balance of some of the iconic history that this area has in plentiful amounts alongside local artisan producers and peaceful, expansive beaches and nature.
So read on to get inspired to explore this beautiful coastline in a way that we think will stay with you for years to come.
Things to Do in Northumberland
There are so many things to do in Northumberland that will light you up! However, we loved that as Northumberland is quite a large area (5,013km squared), it is one of the least densely populated areas in the UK.
This meant that we never felt like there were too many people around, even visiting at the end of June on a mostly sunny week. This made exploring feel so much nicer – and it was very easy to feel like you had expansive beaches, historical castles and everything in-between pretty much to yourself.
We think the key to planning a trip to Northumberland is to keep in mind that whilst there are so many things to do, you don’t need to fit everything in. We know we’ll be heading back, and still able to experience completely different things to our first visit.
Our guide below covers some of the essential places we visited, and our aim is for you to be able to look through, get inspired and make a rough plan for your days based on your own interests, without over cramming your time.
Exploring Nature and the Iconic Walks in Northumberland
If you’re excited about long walks by the coast, then Northumberland has a lot to offer here. If you’re feeling drawn to experiencing nature and relaxing, then you’ll have no trouble doing this here either!
Whilst Northumberland does offer a lot of amazing coastal walks, there’s also sections of Hadrian’s Wall you can walk around here too. We loved this and it was a great addition to the trip we had planned (worth fitting in purely for the iconic offering).
The places we’ve listed below were some of the best scenic walks in Northumberland that we did. Most of these were also dog friendly too. If you wanted to, you could very easily put together a whole walking holiday in Northumberland based on these alone.
We’ve also included some of our favourite nature views and areas we really loved taking photographs into the mix below too.
Holy Island (Lindisfarne) Circular Walk
Difficulty: Moderate. Some distance but relatively flat walk on decent paths. If it’s a windy day, it can feel harder going.
Distance: 8.8km / 5.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 115m / 380ft. ascent and descent
When to do it: A great trail to enjoy year round but be sure to check Holy Island Causeway crossing times first!
We absolutely loved the day we spent on Holy Island! This coastal circular Holy Island walk was one of our favourite ways to see everything the Lindisfarne Coast Path had to offer.
Holy Island is a small island just up from Bamburgh and it’s well worth visiting. It’s full of history and was central to early Christian England, being involved in Viking raids, Celtic worship and offering really beautiful, stark views too.
The other thing that makes Holy Island interesting is that it is set off from the mainland via a causeway, which can only be crossed at certain times a day.
There are certain times at which you can drive over safely, and you can either plan your time around arriving and leaving before the tide, or choose to get cut off for a few hours and make the most of it.
When we visited, the tide times meant the only way we could go and explore Holy Island was to spend a whole day there and drive back once the causeway reopened in the evening. This gave us a great amount of time to explore.
This Northumberland Coast walk was one of our favourites and we loved that it gets you to see all the iconic views such as Lindisfarne Castle, The Priory, Emmanuel Head and the incredible beaches.
We’ve talked in more detail about Holy Island later on, but we’d highly recommend this route. There’s plenty of opportunities when you look at the map to make it shorter too.
Low Hauxley Beach and Dunes
This little quiet area tucked away off the main road was somewhere that felt like a real hidden gem when we arrived. In fact for the whole time we were there we didn’t see a single other person.
Low Hauxley was one of our favourite Northumberland beaches. The way the dunes stood higher as you walked over the top and revealed endless smooth sand, and the grasses from the dunes giving it a softness – perfection!
We saw that Low Hauxley Beach cut across the England Coast Path, so there are absolutely dune walks (if nothing else wanders) in this Northumberland spot. However, we didn’t do this as a walk, we enjoyed the peace and spent a lot of time photographing and watching the gentle waves.
So, if you’re looking for quiet beaches in Northumberland away from some of the slightly busier places like Seahouses, this is well worth checking out. If you’re coming from Newcastle, it’s pretty much on the way up the coast.
Low Hauxley also has a nature reserve nearby too (Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre). Sadly, we didn’t get to visit it on our way up to Northumberland as we arrived after it closed. But we’ll definitely be visiting the next time we visit and looked well worth exploring more.
Craster to Dunstanburgh Castle Walk
Difficulty: Moderate. Some distance with some uneven trails over undulating terrain. Some areas of rock can feel slippery underfoot depending on tide and rain conditions.
Distance: 5.1km / 3.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 90m / 298ft. ascent and descent
When to do it: This is a great low level walk that would be great all year. We would likely avoid it on a really windy day though.
The Craster walk was a little bit of a wildcard for us. We knew we wanted to do the Dunstanburgh Castle walk, but we weren’t expecting it to give as beautiful views as it did.
We started in Craster and headed down around the harbour, which was beautiful and almost felt like time had stood still here. We did this walk on our last day and needed to be out of our apartment really early.
At about 9:30am, we were the only people there, and by the time we were coming back from Dunstanburgh Castle, there were a few more people on the trail. However, it never felt crowded.
This was one of our favourite memories and one of the best coastal walks we did in Northumberland. Even if you don’t do the walk, we’d recommend going and checking out Craster Harbour and the views over to the castle.
The early morning light does something stunning here, and we would have spent hours looking at the light through the clouds moving shadows across the ground and onto the sea. This was yet another jewel of a place we won’t forget!
Hadrian’s Wall (Sycamore Gap)
Difficulty: Moderate. Longer distance with uneven terrain for most of the walk and a decent amount of up and down. Gates and stiles through fields and along paths. Steps and slippery surfaces when wet.
Distance: 10.9km / 6.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 316m / 1040ft. ascent and descent
When to do it: A good walk all year round. Fields would likely get boggy after heavy rain. Does feel exposed in strong winds.
Inland from the coast, in Northumberland National Park is Hadrian’s Wall. It’s a pretty iconic piece of Roman Empire history in England, put in place to deter invaders and somewhere we’d always wanted to visit.
The wall runs from coast to coast and opened in 122 AD and spans 117km/73 miles. It’s possible to walk the whole wall, or sections of it like we did on this trip.
A walk along a section of Hadrian’s Wall is a really lovely addition to your trip. We felt like the section we did was one of the best walks in Northumberland.
We decided to take a slight diversion when driving to Northumberland to break up the journey and do the Sycamore Gap and Steel Rig section of the Hadrian’s Wall walk.
We absolutely loved this section of the walk. The views as you get up onto the wall are incredible. We actually preferred the view out from toward Steel Rig looking toward Sycamore Gap for the view of the hills.
We had beautiful weather on the day we visited. We spent hours photographing the hills, the surrounding landscape and really taking in the history that happened here.
If you want to make the walk shorter, you can do – you can walk a section and return the same way, making it linear. Or park at the other end and only do the Steel Rig section on the map.
This trail was about 1.5 hours away from Seahouses/Beadnell where we were staying and made sense on the way. However, there are also other Northumberland walking routes that take in Hadrian’s Wall closer to the coast.
Closer walks to the coast are near Heddon on the Wall, however, if you can make the detour to Sycamore Gap like we did, we think you’ll really enjoy what this scenic walk in Northumberland has to offer.
Annstead Dunes & Bamburgh
The Annstead Dunes near Bamburgh Castle and the beaches around there were some of our favourite places to visit. There are plenty of sections of coast path around here, but going to explore on its own is worthy of a few hours.
We parked up just outside of Bamburgh Castle and took the path down to the beach from there. As we walked through the dunes, there was a real softness to the grasses and the light just felt so gorgeous that we immediately said we loved this place.
There were plenty of people doing a walk along Bamburgh Beach, but it never felt crowded. The expanse of sand and the calmness of the sea as you watched the dunes felt pretty iconically Northumberland.
We spent a good few hours just taking in and enjoying the beach here before our boat trip to the Farne Islands to see puffins in the afternoon. You could easily spend ages around here on a Northumberland coastal walk!
Other Walks and Nature Based Places to Explore in Northumberland
There are pretty much endless Northumberland nature trails. The coast path is long and sprawling for a start, but there’s so much else to explore too.
We reached the limit of what we had time for with the places we’ve suggested above, but the next time we visit, we’ve got lots of other walks planned. Considering how beautiful it is, exploring the nature of Northumberland is without a doubt one of the best things to do.
Some areas we didn’t get to check out this time but would have liked to were Bolam Lake Country Park, Plessey Woods, Thrunton Wood and Low Newton-by-the-Sea.
All of these areas above have plenty of options, but for other inspiration we’d recommend looking on AllTrails on the Northumberland Coast tab.
This also allows you to filter for things like easy walks in Northumberland or dog friendly walks in Northumberland, so you can find something that suits exactly what you’re looking for.
Castles and History
Northumberland is well known for its castles. Whether you’re particularly interested in history or not, they form a pretty big part of the landscape.
The great thing about Northumberland is that you can of course go into and explore all of the historical places we’ve listed below. Or you can also enjoy the views of many of them from the beaches that surround (which makes for some iconic photographs).
Being honest, we found that this section on our trip started to feel expensive. So, if you are going to visit, keep this in mind.
We found the fact that things alternate between privately owned, National Trust and English Heritage fairly frustrating as it would be great if you could get a pass to explore all of them.
That said, we don’t regret any of it, as it was great to explore this side of Northumberland in more detail.
Bamburgh Castle and Beach
When visiting, Bamburgh Castle feels pretty overwhelming – it’s huge. There is so much to explore here, if you want to do it properly, you need a whole day.
We wish we’d given ourselves a bit more time here to be honest, as we only factored in 2 hours, and that wasn’t enough. It’s one of the biggest castles in Northumberland.
There are endless state rooms, an armoury, archaeology museum and plenty of others to explore. If you reach your limit with historical overload pretty quickly, you may want to skip this one.
However, if you love it, then Northumberland Coast castles don’t really get much better than this. It’s currently £18.75 to enter and there are various other concessions too. We’d recommend looking at their website in advance for up to date costs.
If exploring castles in context is more your thing, take the route through the grounds (where you don’t have to pay) down through the dunes to the beach. From here you’ll have absolutely gorgeous views of the castle from the beach.
We loved the beach here (we’ve written about this in more detail above) and even if you don’t visit the castle, we think it’s well worth parking up in Bamburgh for a while to go explore it. The grassy dunes feel so soft and inviting.
Lindisfarne Castle
When we visited Holy Island, we did a walk around the island and had a good few hours to explore due to the closure of the causeway to the island. Lindisfarne Castle was one of our favourite places to explore.
There are lots of things to do on Holy Island to keep you interested for a whole day. Lindisfarne Castle should absolutely form part of it.
Even if only for the views out over the village and out to the sea and the rest of the island from the top of the castle.
However, if you don’t feel like paying the £12 adult entrance fee (National Trust website is worth checking for up to date pricing), you can still get great views of the castle from all around and avoid the actual castle interior itself.
We mostly take advantage of things like this when we can as we have a National Trust membership (worth it for the parking alone where we live in the Lake District). Would we say the actual castle itself is worth it?
Possibly not (just our personal opinion) but the views around it are iconic and more than make up for it. We spent quite a while walking around the surrounding area taking pictures of the castle and the coast and absolutely loved it.
Lindisfarne Priory
If you’re going to spend any amount of time exploring Holy Island (which we really hope you do), you’ll come across Lindisfarne Priory within this.
Lindisfarne Priory is one of the most significant English Heritage sites in Northumberland. Noted as a major centre of early Christianity in England, whether you’re religious or not, it’s hard to dispute its importance.
We actually found this a pretty fascinating place to explore and made our trip to Holy Island feel complete. As one of the significant historic sites in Northumberland, we thought it was worth the £14 adult entrance price.
We wish all the sites on the island were run under the same body, but you can get entrance slightly cheaper if you’re not an English Heritage member by booking online in advance here.
If you’re visiting from overseas, you can also get an English Heritage pass where you pay for a select number of days (currently 9 or 16 days), you can find out more about this here.
As an alternate, if you don’t feel like going into Lindisfarne Priory itself, or paying to enter, there are some great views of it from the beer garden of The Crown & Anchor pub.
We spent some time here after the recommendations from the owners we got chatting to at Pilgrims Coffee and was the perfect place to relax before we headed back to the mainland at the end of the day. The views of The Priory from here were an added bonus.
Dunstanburgh Castle
Dunstanburgh Castle, just down the road from Craster is actually listed in our walks section above. The Craster Castle walk is well worth doing.
The views from Craster Harbour and out toward Dunstanburgh Castle are well worth it. When we visited, it was so quiet and the light on the soft hills going out to sea made this one of our favourite memories.
Dunstanburgh Castle is obviously a feature on this walk, but you can visit the castle itself by driving straight to it and parking right there. So if you are a bit short on time, this is a good way to see it too.
Like many of the castles to visit in Northumberland, it’s looked after by English Heritage. It’s set currently at 10.50 per adult, and is cheaper if you book online in advance.
We think that Dunstanburgh Castle is well worth visiting along the Craster walk. However, we’re not sure if we’d specifically just visit the castle alone. Though that’s more our personal preference, as we love exploring things along our hikes.
Other Castles and Historical Places to Explore in Northumberland
There are so many historical places to explore in Northumberland, it would be impossible to see them all on one visit. We reached the limit of what we had time for (and energy for).
However, we would have loved to see Alnwick Castle and the things to do there, Chillingham Castle and also to have visited Ford & Etal too. These will absolutely be on our list for next time.
We also thought that this tour on GetYourGuide looked good when we were first doing our research, as it takes in Bamburgh Castle and Alnwick Castle in one go. So you may find that if you want to get a quick hit of history, this is a good way to do it.
If you’re really into your history, we think Northumberland has some of the best castles in the UK. Whether you’re looking for medieval castles or really, really far-reaching historical monuments, there is a lot to explore here!
See Incredible Coastal Wildlife
One of the main reasons we planned our trip to Northumberland is because Fay really wanted to see puffins. After a fairly lacklustre experience the previous year trying to spot them at Flamborough Head, we researched that the Farne Islands was an accessible way to do this.
Puffins we saw, 85,000 of them to be exact on our boat trip with a landing on Inner Farne, a National Trust protected site. However, aside from puffins, there is so much more to experience in the wonderful habitats that Northumberland offers to coastal wildlife.
Farne Islands Boat Trip – Puffins, Seals and Various Sea Birds
We had our boat trip booked in advance after having done quite a bit of research and decided to go with Billy Shiels boat trips. Their booking system was easy and something we liked about this online some of the other puffin boat tours in the UK was that you could change it up to 24 hours in advance.
This made it really easy for us to change it based on the weather as we wanted good conditions for photographing the Farne Island puffins. The experience was one of our favourites and we’re still buzzing from it all now!
Make sure you book a tour with a landing (they’re really reasonability priced). You also need to pay the National Trust landing fee as well. We were able to do this for free with our National Trust membership.
If you’re not a member, this is £15 per adult. You can’t get this in advance. Once you’ve picked up your ticket from Seahouses harbour, you just go and get it stamped at the National Trust office which is right next to the main companies. It was really easy on the day.
You get an hour on the Farne Islands as a landing. We were initially concerned this wouldn’t be enough time, however it was more than enough.
We had plenty of time to get lots of long lens and shorter lens shots with gave us portraits of the puffins doing their thing. After, we also spent some time just observing the birds and enjoying their cute personalities.
On our return to the boat, we also had a look at the iconic Northumberland, St Cuthbert’s Chapel which is at the end of the boardwalk you can walk around. This is a gorgeous little chapel and is one of the key Northumberland religious sites.
The best time to see puffins on the Farne Islands is between May and the end of July. We visited in late June and this was in full swing puffin season in Northumberland.
If you’re wondering where to see puffins in the UK, the experience of visiting the Farne Islands is worth the trip to Northumberland on it’s own. We’ll be writing a full guide to this experience soon, so make sure you come back!
Whilst puffins are a major draw between May and the end of July, the captain of our boat took us around the other islands in this cluster to see other sea birds. He also told us that if you visit in February you can see thousands of seals on the rocks.
We are planning to go and do another boat tour around this time to see the seals, so even if you’re not visiting in season, there is plenty of other wildlife see.
Something to be aware of when you visit the Farne Islands in puffin season are the Artic Tern’s. We were warned to wear a hat or hood when landing.
As soon as we did, and as everyone got off and walked past, these snippy birds come up to your head and try to peck it. You get used to it after a while, and just need to stay calm. However, make sure you bring some padding for your head!
We would also recommend bringing a raincoat that also works as a windshield. Whilst the mainland can be calm, as soon as you get out onto the North Sea, it can feel choppy and cold.
We made use of our Rab Downpour Plus 2.0 jackets pretty extensively on this section of our trip. We’ve tested these in detail in our best rain jackets for hiking reviews and they are still our favourites.
They’re perfect in these kind of conditions for sea spray and cold winds. This meant we were comfortable staying in one place whilst photographing too and the wind conditions never bothered us.
This trip to see puffins on the Farne Islands is one of the best things we’ve ever done and something Fay has wanted to do since a kid. The photographs we got are some of our favourite ever and have loved looking at all the close up detail of the puffins since we got back.
If you’re into photography, we’d recommend trying to rent a long lens for your Farne Islands trip if you don’t already have one. We rented a 600mm lens for our trip from our favourite Lenses for Hire and allowed us to get exactly what we wanted.
This allows you to get portraits and closer detail. Even though you can get very close to the puffins, a lens like this makes it easier and you’ll get some really memorable shots. Stick with a fast shutter speed as these birds move fast!
Other Coastal Nature Spots to Explore
The great thing about Northumberland is there are a lot of nature spots to explore particularly for enjoying wildlife. In our opinion, some of the best beaches the country has to offer are in Northumberland.
We really wish we’d had an opportunity to explore the Low Hauxley Nature Reserve near Low Hauxley Beach, but sadly when we arrived, it was closed. We are planning to visit here next time we visit.
We had heard this is a great Northumberland spot for wildlife watching and we’ve covered this area in more detail earlier on in our walks and nature section.
Whilst Holy Island is also well known for it’s history, there are plenty of opportunities to spot wildlife here. Around the island, there are plenty of wildlife viewing areas and you may well see seals if you’re lucky.
There are plenty of nature reserves dotted around on this area of the UK coast. If you’re interested in seeing what else is around here, it’s well worth looking at the Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s website.
Exploring Northumberland Villages and Seaside Towns
We loved exploring some of the seaside towns and villages in Northumberland in-between other things we had planned. Some needed more time than others, but each had their own charm.
You may well end up basing yourself in one of these areas (close to Seahouses is our recommendation) but aside from that, there is a rich local interest, produce and craft in each one which we loved learning more about.
Seahouses
Seahouses is one of the main base villages around Northumberland and it’s pretty well known as it gives access to boat tours to the Farne Islands. As soon as you arrive, you’ll see plenty of signs saying ‘Seahouses Puffin Tours here’.
Seahouses is a good base to explore a lot of the Northumberland Coast, as it puts you at a really easy distance to most things. However there are a number of things to do in Seahouses and we’d recommend spending a little time looking around the Seahouses shops.
As we were staying in the area, we dotted into Seahouses a few times, but spent a little longer looking around some of the shops that were closed in the evening just before our puffin tour.
We absolutely loved the Seahouses Independent Food & Drink shop. We always love places that sell locally produced beer, and this shop was full of local brews.
We had a hard time choosing what to bring back, but one of our favourites was the Tempest Brewing Company’s Helles Rauchbier Gently Smoked Lager. It reminded us of a beer we had in a little tapas place in Barcelona years ago.
We’d also recommend heading to some of the local fish and chip shops. Many of these sell very local and very fresh catch, such as crab, lobster and do hearty fried fish buckets.
Whilst there isn’t loads to do in Seahouses, we’d recommend giving yourself an hour to look around before you go out on a boat tour and see what local produce is on offer!
Holy Island (Lindisfarne)
We’ve covered quite a lot of the things to do on Holy Island earlier on in terms of its significance, walks and places to visit like Lindisfarne Castle and the Priory.
However, Holy Island and the village itself as well as all that’s there are absolutely worth talking about in more detail too. This was one of the favourite days of our trip.
We strongly advise putting aside a day to visit Holy Island on your Northumberland trip, it’s well worth it. As we’ve mentioned earlier, Holy Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway.
This is open at various times a day and you can drive over whilst the tide is out. Some people try to head over to Holy Island and back within a tide out time frame, but on the days we were visiting this just wasn’t possible.
The safe crossing times made it so that we had to be over the causeway by 12 noon and it was open again from about 5:30pm until midnight. We were a little worried this was too long, however, this actually felt perfect to take a relaxed pace and we felt like it was the perfect amount of time to explore all the things to do on Lindisfarne.
You do need to check (and stick to) the safe crossing times in advance. It’s nothing to worry about, if you do it safely, but don’t try to outrun the North Sea.
We started the day by parking up in the main car park. The drive over the causeway was beautiful and felt like an experience in itself for visiting Holy Island.
Our first stop was Pilgrims Coffee, which we’ve covered below in more detail, as well as looking around some of the other shops like the Lindisfarne Mead shop.
We then started out on our circular walk (the Holy Island walks we’ve covered earlier on in this article) and this gave us the opportunity to spend time looking at the historic sites, nature and everything in between.
We also loved spending some time at the old kilns just down from the castle and also spent some time in the Gertrude Jekyll Garden which was so lovely and peaceful away from the wind.
There was a real sense of peace and quiet on Holy Island that we absolutely loved. We never felt like there were too many people around us and the six or so hours we had here felt perfect.
We gently made our way back into the village and loved checking out Pilgrims Kitchen for ice cream. We had jaffa cake, banoffee, cinnamon bun and cherry. So good – and we got brownies to have later which were amazing as an after dinner sweet treat.
The guys at Pilgrims Coffee had also recommended that no Lindisfarne pilgrimage would be complete without a trip to the Crown and Anchor. So we headed there whilst we waited for the causeway to reopen.
As we mentioned earlier, the views of The Priory from the beer garden are pretty unmatched, and their local brews were pretty special too. We didn’t get to eat here, but the food sounded great too.
As we headed back over the causeway, we went to check out the dunes and beach called The Snook. As we walked through the dunes here it felt almost magical.
Matt had brought his large format camera with him, so we spent quite a while here. The green grasses from the dunes meeting the sand and the dramatic skies was just absolutely jaw dropping.
We don’t think we’ll forget our time on Holy Island in a hurry. We would really recommend you spend the whole day on the island to get a real sense of what this place means.
Not just in terms of its history, but how the light passes through the day and what that does to the different landscapes. We always look at things like this through a photographer’s mind, but we really feel that you wouldn’t get to truly appreciate its magic without that time and context.
Bamburgh
Bamburgh is a small village with one main street that runs through next to the castle and the beach. This is likely to be your main reason for visiting, but the shops are worth a quick look too.
It’s one of those Northumberland coast villages that feels like it’s a little lost in time. Most of the food options, tea rooms and other places are fairly old school. However, this is part of its charm.
We enjoyed spending about an hour having a look at Bamburgh when we were around there already. There are a few cute homeware shops to enjoy and if you’re hungry, a few places for refreshments.
We wouldn’t make a trip out to look at the village itself, as there is so little there. However, if you’re visiting the castle and the beach it really adds an extra layer to the experience.
Other Villages to Explore
There are plenty of other Northumberland villages to visit and we’d recommend trying to add some of these in whilst you’re visiting other places.
Some may not be worth a specific detour on their own, as some of them really are very quiet Northumberland villages. But when paired with other things, just adds an extra layer.
One place we really enjoyed was Beadnell. This was where we actually stayed, and Beadnell Beach felt like such a perfect taster of Northumberland – and felt it was one of the best villages to base yourself in if you like the quiet.
Craster was also gorgeous, well known for Craster Harbour and their famous Northumberland smoked kippers. Whilst there aren’t many things to do in Craster, it’s a gorgeous little fishing village and formed the start of our Craster to Dunstanburgh walk.
We would have loved more time to visit Berwick-upon-Tweed, and this will be one of our day trips in Northumberland next time. Alnmouth is also another place that will be making it onto our list too.
Food, Coffee, and Local Produce
When we travel, we love checking out the local food coffee, and artisan producers. We feel that these small producers are at the heart of what takes your connection to the places you visit further.
Below, we’ve covered a list of some of the notable places we visited that really stood out to us on our trip to Northumberland.
The great thing is that most of these can be visited easily on your way to and from places and part of the experience.
Pilgrims Coffee House & Roastery – Holy Island
One of the first things we do when visiting a place is research the coffee options beforehand. We love coffee and if you’ve read any of our other travel guides, you’ll likely have spotted this theme.
Pilgrims Coffee House & Roastery came up pretty quickly, and we were happy to see that it easily fits into a visit to Holy Island and the cafes there. After visiting, we’re confident to say they offer some of the best coffee in Northumberland.
The shop is easy to find in the village after you’ve parked. They roast their own beans on site and offer some of the most beautiful cups. Their various roasts are available to try before you buy and as a cup to really get the flavour.
We ended up bringing back some of their beans (Fire and Brimstone) to add to our collection. We’ve been enjoying this as iced americanos recently as the dark roast really holds up perfectly in this style.
The owners are all incredibly friendly too and gave us lots of local suggestions (like The Crown & Anchor pub). They also stock a lot of cake from Pilgrims Kitchen next door, which was all really tasty.
We both tried the Cuthbert Cake with our first round of coffee (there were many) which got us fuelled up ready to explore Holy Island. Thinking about it, we ate quite a lot of cake and ice cream on this day (what a hard life).
Pilgrims Gelateria
Right next to Pilgrims Coffee is Pilgrims Gelateria. We asked if they were part of the same small company, but they said they were almost more like a sister business. Not related but close, and you can eat their product in the Pilgrims Coffee garden.
We loved exploring Pilgrims Gelateria after our walk around Holy Island, and it’s very hard to miss. The shop was full of ice cream (which is all made with oats, so no dairy and gluten free too).
We tried the jaffa cake, banoffee, cherry and cinnamon bun. They were all really lovely and we think the jaffa cake was our favourite. Their brownies and cookies are all vegan too.
If you’re a bit hesitant on vegan cake or ice cream, we would really say, don’t be. Most of the time it’s actually impossible to tell the difference and things are often given a bad rap for no reason. We saw some reviews just pulling it down ‘just because it’s vegan’ and for no other reason.
This vegan cake spot in Northumberland is exceptional. The large groups of school kids on a trip raving over their ice cream was a good sales point in its own right! Try it – you won’t regret it!
Seahouses Independent Food & Drink Shop
We’ve talked about the Seahouses Independent Food & Drink Shop earlier on when talking about Seahouses shops and the local produce in the area. However, this place deserves another mention.
If you’re looking for local produce, local beer and anything in between, you should absolutely head here on your trip. We loved looking around everything on offer and picked up some great local beer (more detail on this in our Seahouses section above).
If you’re staying around Seahouses, it’s a great alternative to get stocked up on a few items if you’re looking to make lunches or are self catering. There aren’t a huge number of supermarket options in the area, so this adds a lot of value to the area.
The staff were super friendly too and had a lot of knowledge about the products they stocked, which is always something we love to see. The smell of fresh strawberries when we walked in was incredible!
Lindisfarne Mead Shop
The Lindisfarne Mead Shop is admittedly quite touristy, but then we are tourists, so, you know. It’s worth mentioning as Holy Island is well known for producing Northumberland Mead.
If you don’t know what mead is, it’s a honey wine made via a process of fermentation and in the context of Holy Island, is a traditional drink of the area dating back to the 7th century.
The Lindisfarne Mead shop holds various flavours and mead related products produced in St Aidan’s Winery on the island and is a pretty iconic Holy Island produce.
We’d never tried mead before and so visited on our day on Holy Island. At first taste, it was very sweet, but after a few minutes, it starts to become moreish.
We didn’t end up buying any as it wasn’t quite to our taste, but it’s incredibly popular and well worth a visit to taste some of the samples they have on offer.
Good to Know: The Hints and Tips We Picked Up on Our Trip
Whilst visiting Northumberland, we picked up quite a lot of tips and hints that will come in useful for you when planning your trip.
Our aim with this section is to help you feel better prepared and be able to make the most of your time to just enjoy rather than needing to excessively plan.
Tide Times for Holy Island
When visiting Holy Island, which, if you haven’t figured by now, we really recommend you make time for in your trip, you’ll need to consider the crossing times.
As we’ve mentioned earlier in our walking sections and villages sections, Holy Island is connected to the mainland via a causeway. There are a couple of times a day to which you can take a safe crossing to Holy Island via this.
Some people choose to plan their visit around the causeway being open for the entire time. However, when we were visiting, there was no way we could really do this and give the island the time it needed.
So, we arrived just before the cut off for safe crossing and went back to the mainland in the evening once the causeway was open again. This gave us about six hours on the island and we felt this was perfect to explore in summer at a relaxed pace.
You do need to respect the Holy Island tide times as there have been a lot of incidents where people have tried to cross when the tide is rising and trying to outrun the North Sea just isn’t possible!
We’re not saying any of this to scare you, it’s just an important consideration to make a trip to Holy Island work. If you plan it in advance, you won’t really even need to think about it, and it’ll go smoothly like it did for us.
The crossing times for Holy Island are actively published online and you can find them here. We’d recommend giving yourself the full day, if possible, but four hours would be the minimum we’d suggest.
Memberships and Entry: National Trust / English Heritage
If you’re thinking you’ll visit many of the historical and cultural places in Northumberland, it can get quite expensive when you add up the entry costs.
You’ll also have to pay a fee to access the Farne Islands via National Trust Northumberland too. Though we do think this is well worth it.
We think with this in mind, it’s worth considering a National Trust and/or English Heritage pass or membership. We already have a National Trust membership as we find it really good value for car parking for hiking in the Lake District where we live.
The monthly cost paid for itself pretty quickly on this trip. We wished we’d had an English Heritage pass too, but it just wouldn’t really be worth it for us otherwise.
If you know you’ll be visiting a lot of places on your trip then it may work out better value for you to do this, so we’d advise you roughly price up how much it’ll come to.
This can add a fairly hefty extra amount to your trip, so it’s worth trying to save some money where you can.
If you’re visiting from overseas, you can actually get a 9 or 16 day English Heritage Pass, which you can find out more on here. This is actually a really good idea if you plan to visit more than a couple of historic sites in England.
Not all of the castles are looked after by bodies like National Trust or English Heritage – some are privately owned. So this can add up too.
We do wish there was something like a Northumberland Castle pass that got you access to everything with a one-off fee, as this would make it so more accessible to visit. However, this is our best advice for trying to see as much as you want for the least.
Getting to Northumberland
Getting to Northumberland was pretty easy for us from Cumbria, which made it the perfect break in the UK. If you’re coming from the South, you’ll likely drive up to Newcastle and along the coast from there.
In fact, Northumberland is so easily accessible from Newcastle that we were able to take advantage of this and spend some more time in Newcastle too. It only took us about an hour from Newcastle to head up to around Beadnell.
Our article on the things to do in Newcastle is a great way to extend your trip. Whether you add an extra day to explore our a couple, you won’t be dissapointed.
If you’re coming from the North, you’ll probably come down from Edinburgh, past Berwick-upon-Tweed and along the coast. Getting to Northumberland is pretty easy by car and the roads are pretty much all really good.
In terms of public transport, Northumberland has a few options. We found out that there is a bus (X18) that runs from Newcastle and passes through Morpeth, Alnwick and Seahouses. From Newcastle you could easily catch a connecting train from your start point and do this without a car.
This would make it really possible to visit and do some of the local things to do around Seahouses, like coastal walks, a puffin trip, a Holy Island boat tour from Seahouses and various others by public transport.
If you’re visiting and want to hire a car in Northumberland, you will easily be able to pick one up from your arrival airport. We always use Rentalcars.com when hiring a car anywhere around the world. This allows you to put your landing destination and compare prices and companies easily.
Where to Stay in Northumberland
We think that the best areas to stay in Northumberland will depend on what kind of trip or holiday you want to have. If you want something really relaxed and quiet, areas like Beadnell (where we stayed) or Craster can work well.
If you want something that gives you a good bounce point for so many of the things to do in Northumberland, then Seahouses is well positioned. Seahouses is also handy as it has a number of restaurants and local food shops to pick up groceries.
We stayed at a self catered apartment in Beadnell through Booking.com and this was perfect for what we needed. It was right next to Seahouses for our puffin tour, easy to visit everywhere else we had planned and great for quiet evening walks to the beach.
We generally book most of our accommodation through Booking.com now as we find that the more we book, the cheaper the rates become for us. We’d recommend switching to the map view with filters on to see prices around the whole area.
There did seem to be a lot of caravan parks and camping sites around too. This isn’t something we really spent any time looking into, but it would be worth checking out the Camping and Caravanning Club if this is the kind of accommodation you like the sound of.
Best Time to Visit Northumberland
One of the great things about Northumberland is that it’s a great place to visit all year round. There is beauty in this kind of landscape even in the bleak of winter too.
In fact, we can’t think of anything better than cosy days in Northumberland in winter and are already planning a trip back in February to and see seals our near the Farne Islands.
However, we visited this time round in June and it was perfect with the long days (it didn’t really get dark until after 11pm most nights which was magical). The weather was perfect for exploring (about 18-20c).
It was also pretty much bang in the middle of a perfect time to go and see puffins on the Farne Islands (they are there between May and the end of July).
We planned our trip for June mostly down to our puffin trip, and this will be the draw for a lot of people. We’d recommend looking outside of the main UK school holiday times too (summer holidays etc) as prices can ramp up then too.
What to Bring to Northumberland
Northumberland is a pretty wild place, and with that in mind, it’s just a good idea to be prepared for the variances the weather can hit you with. Here are the essentials we think are worth bringing.
We’d also say it’s worth tailoring this based on the kind of trip you’re planning to have. We also go into more detail about what to pack and what to expect in our UK hiking essentials guide, what to wear hiking and our day hiking checklist articles which are well worth reading too.
Windproof and Rainproof Layers
We made a lot of use of our Rab Downpour Plus 2.0 (which we’ve reviewed in detail) on this trip as they gave us a great, lightweight shield from intermittent rain and coastal wind.
We found these pretty much vital when we went out on a boat to the Farne Islands. Even though conditions were calm on land, the sea was much windier and cold in places, so these really helped keep any chills off our backs without having to layer up and become too hot.
As the weather can be quite unpredictable on this area of coast, we think a rain jacket is pretty important. We’ve written a whole guide where we’ve put the best rain jackets for hiking to the test and this also covers what to look for in more detail – well worth a read.
Likewise, we both wore our puffy jackets at points too. This will be more or less important depending on what time of year you visit.
We wore our Rab Xenair Alpine Light Jacket and Salewa Puez Catinaccio 2 Tirolwool Responsive Hooded Jacket. These worked perfectly out at sea on our boat trip to the Farne Islands where it was even colder. We’ve gone into detail on these two jackets in our best down jackets guide – our hiking jacket round up that covers six options we’ve tested for years and years.
Hat or Protective Hood for The Farne Islands
We were warned before we set off on our boat tour to make sure we had a hat or a hood we could put on as soon as we landed on the Farne Islands. This was to prevent any damage from being pecked by Artic Terns.
As soon as we landed, everyone started to have their heads pecked, and to be honest, they do actually feel quite abrasive. So, we couldn’t imagine what it would be like without a hood on.
It’s nothing to worry about, and if you stay calm, they will leave you alone, but again, this is why our Rab Downpour Plus 2.0 jackets worked well for us as the drawstring means the hood fits perfectly and doesn’t fall down in the wind.
Hiking Shoes or Boots
If you plan on doing much walking on your trip, then we’d really recommend you bring along hiking shoes or boots – preferably ones that are waterproof.
If you get caught in the rain, this means you’ll be protected from soggy feet. It also means that you will have protection from wet sand and water from beaches too – meaning you can explore really easily.
On this trip to Northumberland Fay brought the Keen Hightrail Hiking shoes, which we’ve tested in full detail and featured in both our best waterproof hiking shoes and best budget hiking shoes guides. They are incredibly comfortable and made a great option for exploring all day.
Matt brought his Salewa Men’s Alp Trainers, which are his go to at the moment after reviewing in detail for our best hiking boots guide. He’s worn these boots for countless miles all over the world and comes back to them time and time again.
Layers
Layers make all the difference when exploring the coast. They’re a great way to add or take away without feeling too bulky and get your internal temperature just right.
We go into a lot more detail on layering for these kind of coastal conditions in our UK hiking essentials article. Whilst you might not be hiking all the time, a lot of it follows the same principles and is well worth checking out.
Camera
There is so much to see in Northumberland that, if you can, we’d recommend you bring a camera that allows you a lot more range than your phone alone.
This is especially so if you’re planning to visit the Farne Islands, as a camera with a longer lens will allow you to get some really incredible shots of the puffins in their natural environment.
Photography forms such a large part of what interests us when travelling, so we made the most of it on this trip and rented a 600mm lens to add to our Nikon Z8 camera.
It allowed us to get some photographs that we’re truly happy with and we’ve spent so long since we got back looking at all the detail on these curious little birds. Aside from that, the light you get in Northumberland is truly beautiful and you’ll want to photograph it all.
If you’re thinking about bringing a camera but aren’t sure, we’d recommend checking out Lenses For Hire as they offer lens and camera rental. This can be a really good way to test out gear for much smaller price point, get what you want and return it with no further fuss.
Daypack
A daypack will give you a place to keep everything you need for your days out exploring. Fay made use of the Helly Hansen Generator backpack that we just finished testing for our best daypacks for hiking guide earlier this year.
This is such a comfortable pack and allows you to keep everything you’ll need for a day exploring in one place. It was great for holding camera and layers as well as snacks and bigger meals.
Matt was using the Osprey Stratos 24 which we reviewed a while ago now, and he loves it for that bit extra space it gives for carrying more camera gear in lens wraps to keep everything safe – a pretty vital consideration for us on this trip.
Enjoy the Things to do in Northumberland
Northumberland amazed us – there’s no other way to describe it. The way the light and shadow hit the beaches, the dunes and everything in between feels kind of spellbinding.
Whilst we’d been told the skies were incredible in advance, nothing compares to seeing it, breathing in the air and taking it in yourself. The sense of peace, drawn out distances and far reaching calmness just hit differently.
We had an incredible time in Northumberland, and we hope our guide has shown you all the amazing things there are to do here that are well worth exploring.
You’d need a long time to explore everything Northumberland has to offer, and that’s the beautiful thing – there’s plenty of opportunity to return.
What we’ve included in this guide to Northumberland is based on our real, honest insights. We hope it’s left you feeling inspired to see what a trip to Northumberland has in store for you too!
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