As featured on 'Matt Baker: Travels with Mum and Dad' (More 4, Series 3, Episode 3: Cragside).
Winners of The Custodian Prize 2023, and runners up in The Collection Award with Historic Houses. Experience Northumberland’s great contribution to saving the planet at Cragend Farm, with its unique buildings, arguably one of the finest purpose-built eco-agricultural buildings in the world and a brilliant example of Lord Armstrong of Cragside’s engineering innovations.
This pioneering farm houses original Victorian machinery was seen as the cutting edge of technology in its time. It was a demonstration centre for hydraulics to showcase the value of water powered machines on modern Victorian life, by showing that even agricultural work, seen as the hardest of all labour, could be made simpler. This 150 acre farm was created out of the mountain countryside landscape of Cragend Hill where Cragside Estate sits, by inventor and arms manufacturer Lord William Armstrong, with his wife Lady Margaret Armstrong, who also renovated Bamburgh Castle in his dotage.
HISTORIC TOUR OF THE FARM:
On your visit for the tours (run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) you are taken on a walking tour around the farm looking at its history throughout the ages from its earliest recorded settlers of the Iron Age, examining the buildings and the history they unfold from border Reivers to visiting Royalty. Seeing and touching the machinery is part of the tour, as well as the award-winning collection of artefacts and research linked to this amazing farm.
If you are visiting with kids, we also have rare breed animals in the surrounding fields that always put a smile on their faces. Budding young eco-warriors and engineers will be amazed by the size and the history of the machinery.
If you're feeling hungry on your adventures, there are plenty of places to take a picnic in the surrounding fields and courtyard. There's also a selection of hot and cold refreshments for those on the tour as well.
Take home our souvenir brochure or find a gift for a loved one from our farm produce. Please wear sturdy footwear and weather appropriate clothing on your visit. The terrain at Cragend Farm is hilly, with steep drops in places. Some of the walking routes are uneven with many on gravel and stone paths.
There is a collection of non-native coniferous trees, planted especially for their scale and size at Cragend Wood, as well as many unusual deciduous trees. These were all planted as part of Lord Armstrong’s carriage drive scheme, which you can walk through after the tour, down to the River Coquet, where you can bird watch and go wildlife spotting, you may see a kingfisher or an otter. You can enjoy a burn-side walk and hear the peaceful sound of the water burbling as The Blackburn rushes down to The Coquet, and birds tweet in nearby trees, before climbing to the Scots Pine stand and seeing The Coquet Valley in all its glory, as Upper Coquetdale’s panorama spreads out before you. The woodland is filled with rhododendron, flowering in June. Experience the change in seasons with all the beautiful trees and our Victorian Fernery.
Cragend Farm is open all year with 3-hour group tours running on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11.00am to 2.00pm from May to October. The last tour in 2024 ran on 30th October. Tours will return on 6th May 2025. Please contact Cragend Farm direct if you’d like to arrange a private tour outside of these dates and times.
Booking is essential. Dogs are welcome.
Accessibility: The access road is rugged and a steep incline. Suitable for capable adults and children. Limited access. Grounds are not accessible for wheelchair users. Bus route X14.
Tours £15pp, Self-catering accommodation and Bed and Breakfast rooms ensuite from £165pn.
T: 01669 621533
E: [email protected]
W: www.cragendfarm.co.uk