A tranquil place of great beauty with a forty-acre semi-ancient beech wood and two-acre lake,…
Our View
Created on the site of a former sandstone quarry in the Northumberland countryside, the tranquil gardens at Bide-A-Wee Cottage include hundreds of varieties of ferns, shrubs, perennials and grasses, including the National Collection of centaurea. A number of well-placed seats and benches make the garden a great place in which to relax and enjoy the peaceful setting. It’s hard to imagine that the site was originally bare and exposed to the elements apart from some rough grass, gorse and a boundary wall before owner, Mark Robson, set about creating it 25 years ago. Mark describes the garden as 'bold perennial plantings linked with a network of winding paths and steps, all associated with dramatic changes of level'. These are designed to create stunning views across the garden as well as into the surrounding countryside.
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Discover Northumberland
If it’s history you’re after, there’s heaps of it in Northumberland. On Hadrian’s Wall you can imagine scarlet-cloaked Roman legionaries keeping watch for painted Pictish warriors while cursing the English weather and dreaming of home. Desolate battlefield sites and hulking fortresses such as Alnwick, Dunstanburgh, Bamburgh and Warkworth are reminders that this, until not so very long ago, was a contested border region. The ruins of Lindisfarne bear witness to the region’s early Christian history.
Northumberland also has some of Britain’s best beaches. On summer days, and even in winter, you’ll see surfers and other brave souls making the most of the coast. Inland, there are some great walks and bike rides in the dales of the Cheviot Hills and the Simonsides – just hilly enough to be interesting, without being brutally steep. There's dramatic scenery in the High Pennines, where waterfalls plunge into deep valleys, and there are swathes of heather-scented moorland. Northumberland National Park covers over 400 square miles of moorland and valleys with clear streams and pretty, stone-built villages. It’s just the place for wildlife watching too. You’ll find flocks of puffins, guillemots and other seabirds around the Farne Islands, and seals and dolphins offshore.
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