Earth Balance

You'll spot Earth Balance before you realise what it is - a massive steel globe tilted at an impossible angle near Ashington, looking like it's either about to topple over or has already defied gravity. It's a public art installation that's become something of a landmark for the area, the kind of thing locals drive past regularly without thinking much about it, but visitors find genuinely striking.

The sculpture itself is the main draw here. You can walk right up to it, photograph it from various angles, and spend a few minutes trying to work out the engineering. There's a decent vantage point from the road, though the piece rewards a closer look. It's the work of Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, and it marks the landscape in a way that few things do - unashamedly modern and a bit weird, which is refreshing.

If you're staying at Sandy Bay or Church Point just down the road, it's easily worth the short drive. Not somewhere you'd plan a whole day around, mind you - fifteen minutes covers it - but the kind of stop that breaks up a park holiday nicely. Walkers and photographers will find it more interesting than families with very young children, though kids do find the sheer scale of the thing rather impressive.

There's no visitor facility or entrance fee that we're aware of. Just turn up. The sculpture sits there, doing its thing, and you can look at it for as long as you fancy. Best visited in good light, when the steel catches properly.