County town: Newcastle upon Tyne
Northumberland was not part of the Domesday survey of 1086, being border territory beyond the effective reach of the Norman state. It developed as a county from the 12th century, always defined by its frontier character against Scotland.
Northumberland is England's most northerly county and its largest by area, stretching from the Tyne to the Scottish border. Its defining feature is the landscape of moorland, peel towers, and fortified farmhouses that reflect centuries of border warfare and Scottish raiding. Hadrian's Wall, built in the 120s AD, traverses its southern portion — the most complete section of Rome's great northern frontier. Bamburgh, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Northumbria, crowns a basalt crag above the North Sea. Lindisfarne (Holy Island), the cradle of Northumbrian Christianity founded by St Aidan in 635, lies off its coast. The county remains one of England's most sparsely populated.
Northumberland was not surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The survey covered most of England south of the Tees, but the northern border counties — including Northumberland — lay outside the effective reach of the Norman administration at the time of the survey.
England's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Northumberland. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Read in-depth research reports on notable historical places across the UK — explore →
Northumberland contains 1,021 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in EnglandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Northumberland draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.