North Pennines

The North Pennines was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1988 for its moorland scenery, the product of centuries of farming and leadmining. At almost 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi) it is the second largest of the 49 AONBs in the United Kingdom. The landscape of the North Pennines AONB is one of open heather moors between deep dales, upland rivers, hay meadows and stone-built villages, some of which contain the legacies of a mining and industrial past. The area shares a boundary with the Yorkshire Dales National Park in the south and extends as far as the Tyne Valley,