Regional Guide
The Market Towns of Northumberland
Inland from the coast, Northumberland’s market towns are among the most characterful in England — stone-built, steeped in history, and still centred on their old market squares and independent shops. Alnwick, Hexham and Morpeth each make a superb day out, and the wider county holds plenty more. Here is our guide, with what to see in each and where to plan your visit.
The great market towns
The three we cover in depth — each with its own local visitor guide.
Alnwick
north Northumberland
Castle · Garden · Barter Books
A handsome medieval market town of cobbled streets and stone buildings, gathered around its square. Alnwick Castle — the Percy family seat and a Harry Potter filming location — sits alongside The Alnwick Garden with its Grand Cascade, Treehouse and famous Poison Garden. In the old Victorian railway station you'll find Barter Books, one of Britain's largest secondhand bookshops and the place the wartime “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was rediscovered. The Bailiffgate Museum tells the town's story.
Plan a day in Alnwick→Hexham
Tyne Valley
Abbey · Old Gaol · Hadrian's Wall
One of the North's most rewarding market towns, with more than 1,300 years of history in a compact, walkable centre. Hexham Abbey, founded in 674 AD, dominates the market place — its Saxon crypt, built partly from stone robbed from Roman forts, is among the oldest intact structures in Britain. Nearby stand the 14th-century Old Gaol, England's oldest purpose-built prison, and the medieval Moot Hall. The town is the natural base for Hadrian's Wall and Kielder Water & Forest Park.
Plan a day in Hexham→Morpeth
on the River Wansbeck
Carlisle Park · the Chantry · Sanderson Arcade
A riverside county town wrapped around the Wansbeck. Carlisle Park has formal gardens, a boating lake, a rare 17th-century floral clock and the William Turner Garden, named for the Morpeth-born “father of English botany”. The medieval Chantry houses the Bagpipe Museum, with more than 120 sets of pipes from across Europe, and the smart Edwardian-style Sanderson Arcade anchors the shopping, alongside the town's landmark clock tower.
Plan a day in Morpeth→Further afield
More Northumberland towns worth the drive, from the Tyne Valley to the border.
Corbridge
Tyne Valley
Roman town · boutique shops
The jewel of the Tyne Valley — a honey-stoned village of Roman origins with independent boutiques and celebrated places to eat. On its edge, Corbridge Roman Town preserves the remains of a garrison town on the road behind Hadrian's Wall, with a fascinating museum of finds.
Rothbury
Coquetdale
Cragside · Simonside Hills
The capital of Coquetdale, a handsome stone town beneath the Simonside Hills, loved for its riverside greens and independent shops. On its doorstep is the National Trust's Cragside, the extraordinary hillside home of the Victorian inventor Lord Armstrong — the first house in the world lit by hydroelectric power.
Berwick-upon-Tweed
the Scottish border
Elizabethan walls · three bridges
England's northernmost town, dramatically walled at the mouth of the River Tweed. Its complete Elizabethan ramparts, three great bridges and much-fought-over border history make it unlike anywhere else in the country — and the light on the Tweed famously drew the painter L. S. Lowry back again and again.
Amble
the Northumberland coast
Harbour · Coquet Island
A lively little fishing town at the mouth of the Coquet, with a marina, a row of small “Harbour Village” craft pods and boat trips out to Coquet Island, an RSPB reserve famous for its puffins and terns. A friendly, salty counterpoint to the inland market towns.
Closer to Newcastle
On the edge of the city, Ponteland is a historic village rather than a true market town, but its Saxon-founded church and the Blackbird Inn — built into the remains of a medieval castle — make it worth a detour on the way to or from the airport. See ponteland.live for more.
Make a day of it
The market towns pair beautifully with the county’s great castles and coastal beaches and its best days out. Browse the full Visit the North East guide for local tips, or see what’s on this weekend.