Northumberland

This is a landmark, coffee-table book celebrating over a century of rock climbing in one of Britain’s wildest landscapes, known to climbers simply as 'The County'.

Now, for the first time, its full climbing history has been brought together in a richly illustrated and deeply researched new book: Northumberland – The Story of Climbing in the County.

Written by Steve Blake and John Spencer, and illustrated with photographs by award winning photographer Mark Savage, the book is both a comprehensive history and a love letter to a unique landscape and the people who shaped it. The book explores not only the routes and achievements but also the traditions, community and understated spirit that make climbing in Northumberland unlike anywhere else.

Mark Savage’s extraordinary photographs, taken over more than two decades, capture the essence of climbing in Northumberland with rare intimacy and atmosphere. From bold ascents on remote sandstone outcrops to solitary moments of stillness in the hills, his images reveal not just what climbing here looks like, but what it feels like to be there.

The book takes you on a journey through Northumberland; eastwards along Hadrian's Wall, then up through the central crags until we get to the granite crags in the Cheviot Hills and the sandstone outcrops scattered throughout the north.

The book also contains chapters on the coastal crags, the geology of the area and the archaeological  history of the rock.