Northumberland National Park
Northumberland National Park is the emptiest and most remote of England's national parks, a vast landscape of moorland, ancient woodland and river valleys covering over 1,000 square kilometres of the Cheviot Hills and the moorland between them and Hadrian's Wall that is home to the smallest permanent population of any English national park and contains some of the most completely rural and least disturbed countryside in England. The park has been designated an International Dark Sky Park, reflecting the almost complete absence of light pollution in this thinly populated region and making it one of the finest places in England for observing the night sky.
The Cheviots form the principal topographic feature of the park, a broad massif of rounded, peat-topped hills rising to 815 metres at The Cheviot itself and extending across the Anglo-Scottish border into the Scottish Borders. The hills provide excellent upland walking of the open, trackless variety that rewards navigation skills and the ability to manage moorland conditions, and the combination of complete solitude, wide views and the historical resonance of this borderland gives Cheviot walking a character quite different from the more frequented national parks to the south.
Hadrian's Wall forms the southern boundary of the park, and the central sector of the Wall traversing the Whin Sill escarpment at Housesteads, Vindolanda and Steel Rigg represents the finest and most complete section of the Roman frontier. The combination of the Roman military landscape, the medieval castles and peel towers scattered through the valleys and the prehistoric hillforts visible on every ridge creates an archaeological layering of exceptional depth.
Kielder Water, the largest man-made lake in England by capacity, occupies the western section of the park and is surrounded by the largest planted forest in England.