The west of Northumberland contains part of the Cheviot Hills and North Pennines, while to the east the land becomes flatter before reaching the coast.

The other major rivers in Northumberland are, from south to north, the Blyth, Coquet, Aln, Wansbeck and Tweed, the last of which forms part of the Scottish border.

The Roman road Dere Street crosses the county from Corbridge over high moorland west of the Cheviot Hills to Melrose, Scottish Borders (Latin: Trimontium).

As evidence of its border position through medieval times, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England,[7] including prominent ones at Alnwick, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh, Newcastle, and Warkworth.

Being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, those found at Vindolanda look like leather bands dating back to 120 AD.

However, the West Saxon governmental structures were not extended beyond Tees, leaving the Earldom of Bamburgh and the Community of St. Cuthbert as contested buffer states with the emerging Kingdom of Scotland.

[9][10] After the battle of Nechtansmere, Northumbrian influence north of the Tweed began to decline as the Picts gradually reclaimed the land previously invaded by the Anglian kingdom.

However, the frequent cross-border skirmishes and accompanying local lawlessness largely subsided after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under King James I and VI in 1603.

The region's coalfields fuelled industrial expansion in other areas of Britain, and the need to transport the coal from the collieries to the Tyne led to the development of the first railways.

But as the county lies on the east coast, it has relatively low rainfall, with the highest amounts falling on the high land in the west.

[12] About a quarter of the county forms the Northumberland National Park, an area of outstanding landscape that has largely been protected from development and agriculture.

A second area of igneous rock underlies the Whin Sill (on which Hadrian's Wall runs), an intrusion of Carboniferous dolerite.

The most recent elections, in 2021, had the following results: Northumberland is divided into four parliamentary constituencies: Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth Valley, Wansbeck and Hexham.

Northumberland's industry is dominated by some multinational corporations: Coca-Cola, MSD, GE and Drager all have significant facilities in the region.

[26][27] Pharmaceutical, health care and emerging biotechnology companies form a very significant part of the county's economy.

[28] Many of these companies are part of the approximately 11,000-worker[29] Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) and include Aesica Pharmaceuticals,[30] Arcinova, MSD, Piramal Healthcare, Procter & Gamble, Shire Plc (formerly SCM Pharma),[31] Shasun Pharma Solutions,[32] Specials Laboratory,[33] and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The cluster also includes Cambridge Bioresearch, GlaxoSmithKline, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotech, Leica Bio, Data Trial, High Force Research, Non-Linear Dynamics, and Immuno Diagnostic Systems (IDS).

Newcastle's newspapers are as widely read in its Northumbrian hinterland as any of those of the wider county: the Northumberland Gazette, Morpeth Herald, Berwick Advertiser, Hexham Courant and the News Post Leader.

A Procter & Gamble factory in Seaton Delaval makes Hugo Boss aftershave and Clairol and Nice 'n Easy hair dye at a site formerly owned by Shultons, who originated Old Spice and were bought by P&G in 1990.

Shackleton's book was controversial when it was first published because chapter 9, named "The Average Director's Knowledge of Football", was produced as a blank page.

[42] Notable players after the Second World War included Joe Harvey, Jackie Milburn,[43] Brian Clough[44] and Newcastle's Bobby Moncur who led his team to win the Inter City Fairs Cup in 1969.

Great national players who played at Northumberland clubs in the 1980s and 1990s include Peter Beardsley, Paul Gascoigne, Chris Waddle and Alan Shearer.

It is a James Braid design which is widely acknowledged as a classic Northumberland links course;[53] so much so, that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) chose Goswick as a regional qualifier for the Open Championship for five years from 2008.

During the English Civil War of 1642–1651, King Charles played 'Goff' in the Shield Fields suburb of Pandon during his imprisonment in the town.

Thomas Percy, whose celebrated Reliques of Ancient English Poetry appeared in 1765, states that most of the minstrels who sang the border ballads in London and elsewhere in the 15th and 16th centuries belonged to the North.

William Morris considered them to be the greatest poems in the language, while Algernon Charles Swinburne knew virtually all of them by heart.

One of the best-known is the stirring "Chevy Chase", which tells of the Earl of Northumberland's vow to hunt for three days across the Border "maugre the doughty Douglas".

Of it, the Elizabethan courtier, soldier and poet Sir Philip Sidney famously said, "I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet".

The Bernician arms were fictional but inspired by Bede's brief description of a flag used on the tomb of St Oswald in the 7th century.

Mickley was the birthplace of Thomas Bewick, an artist, wood engraver and naturalist born in 1753, and Bob Stokoe, a footballer and F.A.