The Gardens of Northumberland by Annie Bullen

The wide open spaces of Northumberland, with its rushing streams and high moorland, are punctuated by great castles, grand houses and their gardens. The most sparsely populated county in England has a bloody history, where the borders were repeatedly fought over. Here is where the Roman Emperor Hadrian built his great wall in AD122 to defend his northernmost boundary from marauding Picts. Today you’ll find tranquillity and unspoilt countryside.

Cragside, the home of arms manufacturer and relentless innovator William Armstrong, is notable for its gardens as well as the extraordinary house. Wallington, a much more comfortable prospect, has beautiful gardens too.

Belsay Hall offers exotic specimens in a wild and romantic landscape while Alnwick is one of the most ambitious gardens in the country. Don’t ignore nearby Howick Hall, home to the Grey family for seven hundred years.

Cragside

The 1st Lord Armstrong was an extraordinarily energetic man. Cragside, his ‘palace of a modern magician’, built into a steep hillside overlooking a wild landscape, is full of invention. He harnessed water power to run a new-fangled lift in the house and a roasting spit in the kitchen. Central heating (coal-fired) was vented through the floor and walls by hot water pipes. When he wanted to convert the turbines to run on gas, he simply bought the gas works in nearby Rothbury.

But, most miraculous of all, Cragside was the first house in the country, in 1880, to be lit by hydro-electric power. Electricity was used for fire alarms and the dinner gongs.
The steeply terraced gardens are laid out with the same zeal. More than a million trees (mainly conifers) were planted to clothe the hillside and rock gardens were laid out with collections of heather, alpines and dwarf rhododendrons. Here you’ll find red squirrels.

The formal gardens are laid out on three terraces. In October the main colour comes from the spectacular Dahlia Walk which contains more than 700 plants linking the terraces. Pools and a cast-iron loggia give an Italian feel to the lower terrace.

Contact: Cragside, Rothbury, Morpeth NE 65 7PX; 01669 620333 or visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk and follow links.

Wallington

Wallington, once home to the Blackett and, later, the Trevelyan families, all clever, artistic and idealistic men and women, was one of the first properties in the country to be given, entire, to the National Trust, although family still live in this surprising place.

There are 100 acres of lawns and terraces but there is also a handsome walled garden, filled with colourful herbaceous borders, thickly planted climbers, a Tuscan-style garden house (designed by Daniel Garrett), a restored Victorian peach house and a wonderful Edwardian conservatory.

Contact: Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth NE61 4AR; 01670 773967 or visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk and follow links.

Belsay Hall

Formal terraces lead you to the garden at Belsay Hall, build in the quarry from which the sandstone was hewn to build the 18th century house. Here are luxuriant trees and shrubs, many of which are rare and unusual, as well as climbers and ferns. You can walk on through to seven hundred year old Belsay Castle. There’s a woodland walk, a winter garden and a beautifully looked-after croquet lawn.

Contact: Belsay Hall, Belsay, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE20 0DX; 01661 881636

Alnwick

Further north, the Alnwick Garden is the dramatic brainchild of the Duchess of Northumberland. The Wirtz-designed cascades are now the well-established backbone of the garden which also features a massive treehouse, a lovely walled garden and a well-thought out rose garden.

A sinister enclosure contains poisonous plants, while the Serpent Garden features water sculptures inside a sinuous holly hedge.
Don’t miss nearby Howick Hall, home to many Earl Greys and a lovely garden with many late-flowering plants, trees and shrubs.

Contact: The Alnwick Garden, Alnwick NE66 1YU; 01665 511350
Howick Hall, Alnwick NE66 3LB; 01665 577285