Book Trails in the North East

The BookTrail is a literary travel agency which maps out locations in novels. Trails that you can include in your walks up and down the UK and indeed across the world!

Exploring on foot means you can see parts of the fascinating landscape that you perhaps may otherwise not see. If you go with a book too, it’s amazing what else you might discover about the place you are exploring in real life. That’s why we’re excited to be partnering with The Outdoor Guide (TOG).

Take the North East, a region where there are many great books set. Ann Cleeves’ Vera novels are well known but don’t forget the series of novels by L J Ross. Her books are actually set in and around some of the region’s most iconic sites. From Sycamore Gap to Holy Island, this series is in fact a set of literary guides which carefully and skillfully showcase the stunning landscape but in fiction!

Here’s a small selection of what you can discover with the L J Ross books set around the region

Holy Island
thebooktrail.com/book-trails/holy-island-dci-ryan

“Winter was an unforgiving time on Holy Island. Harsh Winds from the North Sea whipped through the cobbled streets and wove through the squat, stone cottages which huddled together as if for warmth”

Immortalised in the very first novel of the series, the historic Lindisfarne Priory in Northumberland features prominently in the book and this is a key site in the Outdoor guide walk highlighted below. The island is small and is largely accessible to most people.

It’s also the island where Ann Cleeves’ Vera lives so you could always wander around the beach and see if you can spot her or her famous green jeep somewhere nearby.

High Force
thebooktrail.com/book-trails/high-force-dci-ryan

This novel is one you have to take on Julia’s walk to the place of the same name. High Force is England’s biggest waterfall, spectacularly drops 70 feet (21m) into a plunge pool below.

It’s a very impressive sight and sound – the noise of the water is akin to a giant’s roar and is something you will never forget..

You could always go and visit this lovely place and take the gentle route by taking the book and settling down at the end of the woodland walk which leads you to view the base of the falls.

Dark Skies
thebooktrail.com/book-trails/dark-skies/

We head up to Kielder Forest with this book and there is so much to explore in this vast and stunning landscape. It’s THE place for walking and all manner of fitness activities.

This countryside really is as spectacular as it is in the books. This time the action goes to a time before Kielder Water, a large man-made lake, even  existed and was instead  a small village surrounded by Kielder Forest.

Back then it was the kind of place you’d want to go camping and certainly now, so it’s the perfect place for a story such as this. The trees, the landscape, the feeling of remoteness, being at one with nature is very  atmospheric, calming in parts but a rumbling of foreboding in others.

Heavenfield
thebooktrail.com/book-trails/heavenfield-dci-ryan

Whilst in Northumberland, you will soon discover that there are plenty of stunning places to walk. It’s the perfect area in England for the best scenery, coastal views and  wildlife.

Heavenfield is on the site of what is believed to be the location where King Oswald raised a large wooden cross and called his troops to pray before the battle of Heavenfield (AD 633) Heavenfield  is significant as it lies in the re-establishment of Celtic Christianity which led to the Golden Age of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The place of battle is now a tranquil hilltop church, and a place of pilgrimage for centuries.

Just along the wall there is Plaintrees Hadrian Wall and of course Chesters Roman Fort which is where the atmosphere and the history really come to life. St Oswald’s Gate is at Bamburgh Castle

I hope you will find something to inspire you via the books of LJ Ross and Julia’s walks. Both together, you will discover a very unique side to the wonders of North East England and Northumberland.