Northumberland: The Story of Climbing in the County

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.