Walk the 1900s Town at Beamish, the open-air museum first opened to visitors in 1972, with its tram routes, shops and bank

Visit the 1940s Farm, a North East farm on the wartime Home Front

Ride the historic trams and buses around the museum

Beamish, founded in 1970 and open to visitors since 1972, is an open-air museum of the North East: a 1900s town with shops, a bank and trams, a 1940s farm from the wartime countryside, and historic trams and buses to get between them.

Beamish: The Living Museum of the North

Jarrow, Bede and Beamish

Seven nights along Hadrian's Wall and what followed it, from Carlisle Castle and Birdoswald through Housesteads, Vindolanda and Corbridge to Bede's Jarrow, Warkworth, Dunstanburgh and the causeway to Lindisfarne.

Hadrian's Wall and the Edge of the Empire

Visit the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, in the converted flour mill on the Gateshead quayside, opened in 2002

Take the Victoria Tunnel tour under Newcastle, the 1842 waggonway tunnel that became a Second World War air-raid shelter

Cross the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the tilting footbridge opened in 2001

See Antony Gormley's Angel of the North, 20m tall with a 54m wingspan, beside the A1 in Gateshead

On the Gateshead quayside a converted flour mill opened in 2002 as the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, which tilts to let boats through, opened across the Tyne in 2001. Under Newcastle, the Victoria Tunnel was a waggonway of 1842 that became an air-raid shelter in the Second World War. Beside the A1 south of Gateshead stands Antony Gormley's Angel of the North, 20m tall with a 54m wingspan.

Newcastle and Gateshead: BALTIC, the Victoria Tunnel and the Angel

Visit Durham Cathedral, begun in 1093 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986 with Durham Castle, and climb its tower

Stand at the shrine of St Cuthbert and Bede's tomb in the Galilee Chapel

Tour Durham Castle, the Norman castle of the 11th century that is now part of University College

Walk the River Wear beneath the cathedral, from Prebends Bridge

Durham Cathedral, begun in 1093, and the Norman castle beside it above the River Wear have been a World Heritage Site since 1986. The cathedral holds the shrine of St Cuthbert and, in the Galilee Chapel, the tomb of Bede, and its tower can be climbed; the castle is now part of University College. Prebends Bridge, on the river path below, was built for its view of the cathedral.

Durham: The Cathedral and the Castle on the Wear

Find out where Dere Street crossed the Stanegate

Coria, two and a half miles south of Hadrian's Wall, stood where Dere Street, the great road north, met the Tyne and the Stanegate, the first east–west frontier line to Carlisle. A fort was built here around AD 84 as part of the Stanegate system, and it grew into the most northerly town in the Roman Empire. The Vindolanda tablets show that locals just called it Coria. English Heritage looks after the excavated town and its site museum.

Corbridge: The Most Northerly Town in the Roman Empire

Visit St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, founded in AD 674–5 by Benedict Biscop, one of the two churches of the double monastery that produced Bede

See the dedication stone of 23 April 685 above the chancel arch at St Paul's Church, Jarrow, the monastery's twin on the Tyne

Walk out to the seafront at Roker, north of the mouth of the Wear

Benedict Biscop founded St Peter's at Monkwearmouth in AD 674–5 and a decade later its twin, St Paul's at Jarrow, and the double monastery became a centre of learning that produced Bede. England had no masons, so Benedict brought them from Francia, and glassmakers to glaze the windows — the start of glassmaking on the Wear. St Peter's still stands near the north bank of the Wear, and at Jarrow the dedication stone of 23 April 685 is set above St Paul's chancel arch, one of the oldest church dedication stones in England.

Sunderland and Jarrow: The Twin Monastery That Made Bede

Walk the fort and find the gates that opened north of the Wall

Go down to the fort's baths by the North Tyne

Look across the river to the abutments of the Roman bridge

See John Clayton's collection in the 1890s museum

Chesters, the Roman Cilurnum, is thought to be the best-preserved cavalry fort on Hadrian's Wall. It was built across the Wall with its walls projecting north and three of its main gates opening on that side, so the cavalry could ride out fast. It guarded the bridge that carried the Military Way over the North Tyne, whose massive abutments still stand across the river; the fort's baths are on the riverbank close to it. The site museum was built in the 1890s for John Clayton's collection from the fort and elsewhere along the Wall.

Chesters: The Cavalry Fort on the Wall

Walk the Wall at Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicium), built around AD 124 on the Whin Sill crag, and find its well-preserved latrines, granaries and hospital, where the First Cohort of Tungrians garrisoned the fort from about AD 205

Visit Vindolanda just south of the Wall and see the Vindolanda tablets on loan from the British Museum, and the boxing gloves from around AD 120

Walk the stretch of Hadrian's Wall Path between Steel Rigg and Housesteads on the 84-mile National Trail, opened in 2003

Stop at Sycamore Gap, the dip in the Wall where the tree that stood there was felled in September 2023

The central stretch of Hadrian's Wall runs along the crags of the Whin Sill, and Housesteads, Vercovicium, built around AD 124, is the fort on top of it, with its latrines, granaries and hospital still laid out; from about AD 205 the First Cohort of Tungrians held it. Just south of the Wall, Vindolanda's museum shows a selection of the Vindolanda tablets on loan from the British Museum — more than 1,700 of these ink letters on wood have been found, and they were the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain — and a pair of boxing gloves from around AD 120. The Hadrian's Wall Path, a National Trail since 2003, runs along the crags past Sycamore Gap, where the famous tree was felled in September 2023.

Hadrian's Wall: Housesteads, Vindolanda and Sycamore Gap

Take a boat trip from Seahouses to the Farne Islands and land on Inner Farne, where St Cuthbert lived as a hermit

Look for puffins, Arctic terns and guillemots on the islands' cliffs in the nesting season from April to July

See Longstone Lighthouse, from which Grace Darling and her father rowed out in 1838 to rescue survivors of the Forfarshire

Visit the Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh, run by the RNLI

The Farne Islands lie off Seahouses. St Aidan came here in 651, and St Cuthbert lived as a hermit on Inner Farne, where he died in 687; the protection he gave the nesting eider ducks and seabirds in 676 is thought to be the earliest bird-protection law anywhere. Puffins, Arctic terns and guillemots nest on the islands from April to July. On the outer group stands the Longstone lighthouse, from which Grace Darling and her father rowed out in 1838 to rescue survivors of the Forfarshire; the RNLI's Grace Darling Museum is in Bamburgh.

The Farne Islands: Puffins and St Cuthbert's Island

Walk from Bowlees to Low Force and cross Wynch Bridge, the 1830 suspension bridge, to join the Pennine Way on the south bank

Visit the Bowlees Visitor Centre in the North Pennines

Drive up to Cow Green Reservoir and walk the 3km to Cauldron Snout, the long cascade below the dam

Walk to High Force, where the Tees falls about 21m over the Whin Sill

The Tees drops through upper Teesdale in a series of falls: Low Force, just above the 1830 Wynch Bridge, and High Force, where the whole river falls about 21m over the Whin Sill, both beside the Pennine Way, and Cauldron Snout, the long cascade below Cow Green Reservoir.