The beaches, stretching as far as the eye can see and beyond, are unspoilt and unpeopled - wonderful for walking, watching birds or just being.
Not surprisingly, a 63km (39 miles) section of this magic coastline - from just south of Berwick down to Coquet estuary - has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Complementing the scenery, the imprint of history and human activity add further interest.
Mighty castles, built against Viking raiders and marauding Scots, are reminders of a war zone past. Harbours and quaysides recall an era that looked to the sea for its livelihood. And then there is Holy Island, a focal point for visitors since time out of mind.
Originally called Lindisfarne, this tidal island became a cradle of Christianity in the 7th century when St Aidan founded a monastery here and set about evangelising northern England. His most famous successor as prior was St Cuthbert, renowned for his holiness and his love of wildlife; he was particularly protective towards eiders and to this day they are known locally as Cuddy's (Cuthbert's) ducks. Cuthbert died in 687 and in his honour the monks created the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels, now in the British Library.
Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice every day,
The pilgrims to the shrine find way;
Twice every day the waves efface
Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace.
In turn this priory was destroyed by Henry VIII who then used much of its stone to build a castle overlooking the island's harbour.
Today both the castle - restored by a young Edwin Lutyens in 1903 - and the priory ruins are open to the public. Visitors can also look around Gertrude Jekyll's walled garden - close the gate against the sheep - and explore the island's story at the Lindisfarne Heritage Centre; don't miss the 'turn the pages' virtual Gospel. Also look out for upturned herring boats, now storage huts, and disused lime kilns - leftovers of the island's livelihood in Victorian times.
Windswept
But to see Holy Island at its best and experience it as 'a place apart', stay over when the tide is in. Most tourists will have dashed back across the causeway and, if you take the waymarked trail around the island - alongside hawthorn hedges whipped by the wind and restless dunes anchored with marram grass - you are unlikely to see a soul. However you will see, and hear, abundant birdlife, especially during migration periods, and in winter when the island is home to thousands of waterfowl, waders and, famously, a flock of pale-bellied brent geese.When Aidan settled in Lindisfarne he was within signalling distance of his earthly protector, King Oswald, whose cliff-top castle at Bamburgh punctuated the southern skyline. Nothing remains of that first fortress. The massive stone pile that stands in its place, dominating both sea and land, has Norman origins and, for centuries, served as an impregnable bastion against the Scots.
The Wars of the Roses, however, brought disaster: in 1464, Warwick the Kingmaker's cannons smashed Lancastrian Bamburgh into submission - and into the record book as the first English castle to be captured by artillery. Subsequently, the building suffered long-term decline until 1894 when the industrialist Lord Armstrong bought it, undertook a major restoration and, somewhat controversially, gave the interior a contemporary makeover. Visitors who have not done their homework are surprised to find more Victorian mansion than medieval fortress.
In the lee of the castle, Bamburgh village clusters around its green. Nearby stands the parish church of St Aidan, much visited for its churchyard memorial to local girl crowned national heroine, Grace Darling. Discover the full story across the road in the Grace Darling Museum.
Perhaps the most evocative exhibit here is the coble - 6.5m (211⁄2 feet) long - in which Grace, aged 22, and her father, keeper of the Longstone lighthouse in the Farne Islands, carried out their courageous mission. On 7 September 1838, braving the fury of storm-force winds and seas, they rowed out to rescue survivors from the wrecked steamer Forfarshire, a round trip of 3.2km (2 miles).
When the dramatic exploit became public, Grace instantly acquired celebrity status: her image decorated mugs and vases; artists visited Longstone to paint her portrait; requests flooded in for locks of hair; poems were written in her honour; and a memorial fund, supported by Queen Victoria, raised over £700. Grace, used to the lonely lighthouse life, disliked this excessive attention but did not have to endure it for long as four years later she died of TB.
Amazing birdlife
The Farnes - a scattering of desolate rocky islets - still receive boatloads of visitors, but the main attraction today is the archipelago's amazing birdlife. Owned by the National Trust and maintained as a nature reserve, the guano-streaked outcrops are home to thousands of sea birds during the breeding season. Among the most numerous are eiders, guillemots, kittiwakes and puffins - sure to raise a smile with their crazy-coloured beaks and 'dinner jacket' plumage. Other species to look out for include terns (arctic, common, roseate and sandwich), razorbills, fulmar petrels, cormorants and the slightly sinister all-black shags.
The Farnes are also famous for their grey seals, the UK's largest carnivores. These bulky creatures, measuring up to 3m (9 feet), are often seen basking on the low rocks - especially around Longstone - or hovering vertically in the water with only their heads visible.
Boats for the Farnes set out from Seahouses, once a working port and now a family resort: lines of B&B signs with, in summer, 'No vacancies' tagged on, and shop windows full of buckets and spades, fishing nets, beach mats, frisbees, lettered rock and - every season's must-have - windbreaks.
A stroll around Seahouses, stopping at the detailed information boards, gives a fascinating glimpse of the village's previous incarnation. From the mid-1700s lime was the main source of income - the kilns still stand on the quayside.
A century later herring had taken over, with as many as 300 fishing boats crowded into the harbour.
Except for lobster and crab, fishing has gone. But the herring heritage lives on... as kippers. Seahouses claims to have produced the world's first kipper and, for decades, smoking was a major activity in the village. Today, just one traditional smokehouse remains - Swallow Fish. Here herrings - mostly from Iceland - hang for up to 15 hours in the warm darkness over dim-glowing fires of wood shaving and oak sawdust. No dyes or additives are used. Buy them next door in the Fisherman's Kitchen or by mail order - Rick Stein does.
For a warm welcome and a wallow in times past, call in at the Olde Ship where the walls are crammed with maritime memorabilia, including a nameboard from the Forfarshire, and where you'll hear firsthand reminiscences about how, for example, Scottish herring boats leaving harbour used to be played out by a piper - as recently as the 1960s.
Turbulent geology
Beadnell, just south of Seahouses, boasts more lime kilns, the east coast's only west-facing harbour, and some fascinating rock formations and fossils - best explored with the Beadnell Geotrail leaflet, one of a series focusing on Northumberland's turbulent geology. Beadnell Bay, a spectacular sweep of sand 3.2km (2 miles) long, is popular in summer.A curlew's cry southwards, Embleton Bay is as lovely but lonelier, ending in a rocky promontory and the eerie profile of Dunstanburgh castle.
Built in the early 1300s, Dunstanburgh had a short life. Like Bamburgh, it was a Lancastarian stronghold and, during the Wars of the Roses, was similarly devastated and left derelict. The skeletal ruins - painted several times by Turner - are in the care of English Heritage and can be visited. Access is by foot only: an easygoing 2.4km (11⁄2 miles) from the old fishing village of Craster. Huddled above its harbour, Craster rivals Seahouses for kippers, oak-cured in Robson's Victorian smokehouses. Enjoy them instantly in the restaurant across the yard.
Below Craster the beach becomes more rugged until you reach Alnmouth, a dazzling expanse of sea-edged sand or sand-edged sea, depending on the tide. Originally a port on the Aln estuary, the village was traumatised in 1806 when a great storm changed the course of the river: Church Hill became an island and the harbour started to silt up. So Alnuth reinvented itself as a holiday centre: peaceful, picturesque and proud of its two golf courses, one being the second-oldest in England.
Five miles further on, another estuary, another river - the Coquet. Just inland, a horseshoe loop in the Coquet encloses Warkworth and its impressive castle, slandered by Shakespeare in Henry IV as "this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone".
In fact, the remains - towering over the village - are well-preserved and certainly worth a visit. So is the village. Historic highlights include the rare fortified bridge; St Lawrence's church, scene of a barbarous massacre in 1174; the Market Place, where the Old Pretender was proclaimed King of England; and a hermitage, cut into the riverside and reached by ferry.
Neighbouring Amble, on the estuary itself, is very different. This workaday port, initially developed for the coal trade, is now known for its marina, still-in-use fishing vessels, year-round car-boot sales, first-class cod n' chips and, offshore, Coquet Island's colonies of seals and seabirds.
But there is no need to take a boat trip to catch up with that most companionable of seabirds, the eider. Cuddy's ducks bob happily around Amble Harbour. Friendly, fearless, everybody's favourite - and fittingly an emblem of the Northumberland coast.
Credit: all photos by Catherine Dell