Northumberland stretches out from Kielder Water in the West to Berwick upon Tweed in the far North, with the North Sea on the East Side supporting what in my opinion is the finest coastline in the country, mile after mile of deserted beaches. To the South, Northumberland has Durham and Tyne and Wear as its neighbours.

The Romans made it the northernmost frontier of their empire. They too must have thought it a bleak place. After the Romans left Britain there began a series of invasions from Northern Europe. The Saxons conquered the South of Britain, but the middle and East of Britain was settled in by a German tribe known as the Angles. The merging of two Angle kingdoms in the early 7th century led to the formation of a new Kingdom named "Northumbria". This stretched from Edinburgh in the North to Hull in the South, with its capital at Bamburgh.

The history of Northumberland is that of wars, bitter feuds and battles over many centuries and this is reflected in the many fortified Castles, Pele towers down to Bastles (small fortified farmhouse with living accommodation for humans on the first floor and for livestock below). The border violence eased in 1603 when England and Scotland were united under one King (James 1st of England, James 6th of Scotland).

Northumberland has more strongholds than any other region in Britain. It is still to this day England's empty quarter with the population of the National park just 2200, which includes Hadrian's Wall country, Simonside Hills and the Cheviots in the far North (405 square miles (1049 square km). The Northumberland National Park is one of the smallest of the parks, with only Exmoor and the Pembrokeshire Coast being smaller.

The number of visitors (estimated to be one million) is also the least of all the eleven National parks. So as you can gather there is certainly enough room for everybody. You can quite often walk for a full day in Northumberland without seeing a single person. It is certainly the next best place to heaven.