Luxury Coastal Retreats in Northumberland
Northumberland
Once part of the Roman Empire Northumberland was the scene of many wars between England and Scotland. As evidence of its violent history, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England, including the castles of Alnwick, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Warkworth.
The region of present-day Northumberland once formed the core of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which was later united with Deira south of the River Tees to form Northumbria. Northumberland is often called the "cradle of Christianity" in England, because it was on Lindisfarne, a tidal island north of Bamburgh, also called Holy Island, that Christianity flourished when monks from Iona were sent to convert the English. Lindisfarne was the home of the Lindisfarne Gospels and Saint Cuthbert, who is buried in Durham Cathedral.
Bamburgh is the historic capital of Northumberland, the "royal" castle from before the unification of England under one monarch. In contemporary times, although Northumberland County Council's offices are in Morpeth, Alnwick and Morpeth contest which of the two is the county town.
The lords of Northumberland once wielded significant power in English affairs because, as the Marcher Lords, they were entrusted with protecting England from Scottish invasion.
Northumberland has a history of revolt and rebellion against the government, as seen in the Rising of the North in Tudor times. These revolts were usually led by the then Dukes of Northumberland, the Percy family. Shakespeare makes one of the Percys, the dashing Harry Hotspur, the real hero of his Henry IV, Part 1.
The county was also a centre for Roman Catholicism in England, as well as of Jacobite feelings after the Restoration. Northumberland became a sort of wild county, where outlaws and Border Reivers hid from the law. However, the frequent cross-border skirmishes and accompanying local lawlessness largely subsided after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under King James I.
Northumberland played a key role in the industrial revolution. Coal mines were once widespread in Northumberland, with collieries at Ashington, Bedlington, Choppington, Netherton, Ellington and Pegswood. The region's coalfields fuelled industrial expansion in other areas of the country, and the need to transport the coal from the collieries to the Tyne led to the development of the first railways. Shipbuilding and armaments manufacture were other important industries.
Today, Northumberland is still largely rural. As the least populated county in England, it commands much less influence in British affairs than in times past. In recent years the county has had considerable growth in tourism due to its scenic beauty and the abundant evidence of its historical significance.
This Month in Photo of the Day: Travel Photos
For generations people in the region have marked cave walls with stenciled handprints. These prints were made with clay-based paint, but in other caves, crimson stains tell the story of a bloody initiation ritual for young men.
See more pictures from the February 2012 feature story "Last of the Cave People."
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A man climbs at sunset in Peak District National Park, England.
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Walking along one of the many canals in the ancient city of Suzhou, a stall worker mounts her bike for her commute home, creating a pleasing silhouette set against bold Chinese writing and illuminations on a centuries-old dwelling. Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
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Against the soaring backdrop of Arizona's Vermilion Cliffs, the 1929 Navajo Bridge, now used for foot traffic, crosses the Colorado River beside its 1995 counterpart.
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Treat yourself to an award-winning self-catering cottage in coastal Northumberland
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Floral flourishes decorate Nurzhol Boulevard, or "Radiant Path."
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Kambala is a simple sport played in parts of Karnataka, India. The “track” used for Kambala is a paddy field filled with slush. It is a race of buffaloes controlled by a whip-lashing farmer. This is a shot taken at Vandar village near Mangalore.
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Djibouti's Lake Assal is one of the world's saltiest lakes. Intense heat and strong winds fuel rapid evaporation, leaving a bathtub ring of minerals around the lake's shore.
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On a moonlit night, herders bring the reindeer into temporary tarp-enclosed corrals called gárdi to separate the pregnant females from the rest.
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Overhead snapshot of the Belgrade riverbank—summer love, I guess!
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Elephants have miles of unbroken savanna to roam inside Uganda's Queen Elizabeth Park, where their numbers total 2,500, a dramatic rise after heavy poaching in the 1980s. Outside the preserve villagers kill elephants that trample and eat crops, though attacks have diminished with the digging of trenches to protect fields from wild trespassers.
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Aerial view of Iguazu Falls, Brazil-Argentina border
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Lake Malawi, Africa. A stargazer looks into the endless cosmos as waves lap along a beach in Southern Malawi.
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Icelandic horses are out all year, even through the winter. I captured these in-foal mares in southern Iceland in December 2011.
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A farmer is beginning his day, walking along the rice terraces at dawn.
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Golden fields in Bandarban, one of the hill districts in southeastern Bangladesh
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Unique luxury self catering holiday cottages near Bamburgh
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For a thousand years, music and ceremony have celebrated the Christian Gospel in Westminster Abbey in London. As the place where generations of English kings and queens have been married, crowned, and buried, this great medieval building embodied King James's cherished fusion of glory and regal authority—a visual and aural richness of which the new Bible was to be an integral part.
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While island hopping around the Bahamas in a Cessna C172 aircraft, I made this aerial of a Curtiss C-46 that ditched on November 15, 1980. It crashed while it was on a drug smuggling mission for the Colombian Medellín drug cartel and lies in shallow water east of the Norman's Cay airport in the Exumas, Bahamas. My preflight Internet research paid off!
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The 15th-century church of Rodel on the Isle of Lewis, built for the warlike chiefs of the MacLeods, towers over the sea lochs of Scotland's Outer Hebrides. Nothing in early modern Britain, from its cities to its remotest corners, was more political than religion. The church in every parish—nearly always the most imposing building—was as much a symbol of worldly control as a shrine to God.
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A woman rests on Jiankou Great Wall, a section of the Great Wall of China near Xizhazi Village.
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A photo shot in the Netherlands, in a small town called Boskoop. September mornings usually look great, because on many mornings beautiful mist appears. The kid on the bike was on his way to school and had no idea what kind of beautiful display of light took place right behind him.
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One of the highlights of the interior of Iceland: a hot-water pond, charged with silica, glowing in the middle of nowhere.
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Five star award-winning self-catering holiday cottages on the Northumberland Coast
Five star coastal cottages in Alnwick
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I had planned a recent trip to Thailand in November to coincide with the Loy Krathong celebration because I had seen pictures of the floating lanterns being launched into the sky. However, nothing I had seen prepared me for the incredible magic of experiencing thousands of these lanterns floating into the night sky at once while monks chanted at the Lanna Meditation Center in Chiang Mai. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
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I saw this scene through the glass in my car. I noticed that a couple was walking toward the scene. I waited for them to get into the frame and clicked the shutter. Shooting through the glass gives the image a real wet feeling.
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This image was made on the afternoon of October 20, 2011, just before sunset, near Lake Champlain in Vermont.
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The vertiginous "infinity pool" at the Marina Bay Sands resort offers a sweeping view of Singapore, a country that's achieved success while building up instead of out.
See more pictures from the December 2011 feature story, "The City Solution."
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