Camping in Northumberland

Northumberland is good camping country, but it is exposed camping country. The coast is largely dune and links land, which drains well and pegs easily, though the wind comes straight off the North Sea with nothing to slow it down between Norway and your porch. Bring proper pegs rather than the wire ones supplied with most tents, and pitch with the low end facing east if you have the choice. Inland, the ground rises quickly into moor and forest, and pitches around Hadrian's Wall and Kielder sit at 200 metres or more, where nights are noticeably colder than the forecast for Newcastle suggests.

Rain is a fact of life, though the eastern side of the county is drier than the Pennines to the west. May, June and September are the sweet spot: long daylight, fewer midges than Scotland, and manageable prices. July and August are warmest but coastal sites fill months in advance and bank holiday weekends are effectively fully booked by spring. Winter camping is possible on the handful of year-round sites, but plan for frost and short days.

Wild camping is not legal in England without the landowner's permission, and that includes Northumberland National Park. In practice, discreet high-level backpacking on the Cheviots is tolerated if you arrive late, leave early, use no fire and take everything out, but it is a courtesy rather than a right, and it does not extend to the coast, where the dunes are fragile and heavily protected. Northumberland Coast National Landscape actively discourages it.

Pack layers, a windbreak and midge protection for the forest sites around Kielder in high summer. Because the county sits inside a Dark Sky Park, a red-light head torch is worth having. Glamping has expanded fast — shepherd's huts, wigwams and pods now appear at most of the larger parks — and makes real sense in shoulder season, when a heated pod turns a wet October weekend from an endurance test into a comfortable one. Book electric hook-up if you want it; the better-placed pitches go first.