Northumberlandia (Lady of the North)

You'll spot her from the A197 before you properly understand what you're looking at - a colossal earthwork woman stretched across 34 acres of rolling Northumberland countryside near Morpeth, her face turned skyward, her body moulded into the land itself. Northumberlandia is properly ambitious: Charles Jencks designed this land art piece to rise and fall with the contours of what was once a coal mining site, creating something between sculpture, landscape, and geological oddity.

Walking up the grassy slopes feels theatrical. You ascend one breast, descend into the waist, climb again toward the shoulders. The whole thing takes a decent hike to properly appreciate - you're talking a good hour to wander around and take it all in from different angles. The nearest decent vantage point is from the surrounding path system, though nothing beats standing on her and looking out across the Pennines.

This is absolutely for walkers and art enthusiasts who don't mind something left-field. Kids might find the topography fun for about twenty minutes, then get bored. History types will appreciate the reclamation angle - turning industrial wasteland into something genuinely odd and wonderful.

Admission is free and it's accessible year-round, though winter visits are muddy affairs. Allow time to approach from Tranwell Farm Holidays, just 5 miles away, which makes a solid base for exploring this corner of Northumberland. It's the sort of thing you do because it's there, not because guidebooks told you to.