Alnwick

Alnwick is home to the magnificent Alnwick Castle and the inspired Alnwick Garden. It also has one of the largest second-hand bookshops in the UK - Barter Books, which is housed in the town's old railway station - and the House of Hardy, makers of fishing tackle since 1842 and now also a fishing shop and museum.

Alnwick originally prospered as a medieval market town, and it still retains many of its cobbled streets, narrow alleys and fine stone buildings which now house a range of specialist shops, family businesses and some of the original coaching inns.

Alnwick’s Market Place is a centre for local events including an international music festival and its own food festival. The town also has a lively nightlife scene with its own theatre and pubs which often host live music.

The castle dominates Alnwick and is well worth a visit. It has been home to the Percy family for seven centuries and boasts beautiful state rooms with Italian renaissance design, paintings by Canaletto, Van Dyck and Titian and spacious grounds designed by Capability Brown.

Nearby lies The Alnwick Garden, one of the most exciting contemporary gardens on earth, which features one of the world's largest treehouses and even a poison garden packed full of rare and dangerous plants. There's also Hulne Park, a stunning walled park that contains the ruins of the former Alnwick Abbey.