Heatherslaw Cornmill - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

The Heatherslaw Light Railway is the most northerly steam railway in England. The railway runs along the banks of the River Till giving you wonderful views of the Northumberland countryside and Cheviot Hills. The railway operates an hourly service with steam trains from March to October and diesel trains in February half-term. Steam hauled Santa Specials run on selected weekends in December. The passenger coaches include facilities for transporting wheelchairs and buggies.

Etal Castle is a majestic castle is the ideal location for a family day out set in the charming village of Etal by a ford over the river Till. The castle was involved both in local feuding and the border wars between England and Scotland. There was a battle between the rival Manners and Heron families outside the walls in 1428, and in 1513 it was briefly captured by King James IV of Scotland during his invasion of England.

Lady Waterford Hall was once the village school. It was built in 1860 for the Marchioness Waterford. The main hall was decorated from 1861-83 by the Marchioness with a series of paintings, done on paper and stuck to the wall, like murals. They all represent biblical scenes. All the figures used in them are portraits of village people and castle servants.

Norham Castle was built in 1121 by Ranulph Flambard, Bishop of Durham to protect the extensive land owned by the church in the region. It is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The castle saw much action during the wars between England and Scotland.

Yeavering Bell is a hill on the very edge of the Cheviot Hills. On it lie the remains of the largest Iron Age hillfort in the region. The tumbled stone rampart would originally have been two-and-a-half metres high and more than three metres thick. The summit, 1158 feet above sea level, is encircled by the wall of a late-prehistoric hillfort, a tribal centre of the Votadini called in Brythonic and Old Welsh Din Gefron, from which the name stems.

The Union Chain Bridge links England and Scotland, crossing the River Tweed between Horncliffe in Northumberland and Fishwick in Berwickshire. This is supposedly the oldest suspension bridge in the world still in use by road traffic and at the time of its building was the longest suspension bridge in the world and the first to carry road traffic.