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Almost 300 million years of geological time are ‘missing’ in Northumberland, so the rock types and formations are mostly very old. The region was scoured during the ice age, within the last couple of million years, and many parts are covered with glacial detritus, in the form of boulder clay, sand and gravel.

Today’s visitor looks at the landscape to see the rounded, resistant humps of the Cheviot Hills, rocky gritstone edges on lower hills and moorlands, and the jagged crest of the Whin Sill often flanked by gentler countryside.

WILDLIFE

Northumberland is good cattle country, and cattle rearing, and cattle rustling naturally, is part of the region’s heritage. In 1270 a herd of wild cattle was enclosed within parkland at Chillingham, and since then has had no interaction with other cattle, or much interaction with human beings either, so visitors can observe how the habits of the ‘wild’ Chillingham herd differ from those of domesticated cattle.

The Reivers Way runs almost all the way round Northumberland, which is excellent cattle country