Breathtaking views are on offer on the "world's most beautiful marathon course".

Walkers can enjoy the stunning scenery on a gruelling walk along the shoreline of Kielder Water in the first event of its kind on the newly opened Lakeside Way.

The 26-mile Kielder challenge is just one of the walks making up this year's widely anticipated Kielder Walking Festival.

He was a visionary who is widely accepted as the genius behind the stunning success of Kielder Water, and yesterday tributes were paid to Edward Wrangham who has died aged 81.

The Northumberland landowner, environmentalist and mountaineer who was awarded the OBE passed away on June 23.

Mr Wrangham, of Harehope Hall near Alnwick, was widely known as Ted and was instrumental in making plans for Kielder Water, Britain's biggest artificial lake, a reality.

Three rare osprey chicks have taken flight for the very first time.

The chicks, which fledged over the past few days, are the first born in the North East of England for at least 200 years.

Forestry Commission rangers were guarding their nest at a secret location in Kielder Water & Forest Park in Northumberland.

Wallabies have escaped from a North East animal centre after vandals targeted the site for the second time in a matter of weeks

Two wallabies escaped from Kielder Water Birds of Prey Centre in Northumberland in the early hours of Sunday after mesh fencing surrounding the centre was snapped with wire cutters.

Mother Glenda, who is two years old, and her rare albino joey Casper, who is one, were not there when centre owner Roy Lowden opened up and discovered the cut wires yesterday morning.

Residents, businesses and organisations across Northumberland are being asked to have their say on a major review which will shape future car parking policy in the county.

County council bosses are undertaking the review in a bid to devise suitable management arrangements for all of the car parks that it owns or manages.

The exercise will also help county councillors decide whether to leave car parking free in Blyth Valley and Wansbeck, or introduce charges similar to those currently facing motorists in towns such as Berwick, Alnwick, Hexham and Morpeth.

A team of judges will today cast their eyes over an iconic bridge in Kielder Water & Forest Park which is in the running for two prestigious national construction prizes.

The £150,000 Lewisburn Bridge, built by the Kielder Partnership, has been short-listed for the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award and The British Construction Industry Best Practice Award.

Hundreds of people packed a Northumberland abbey to pay their final respects to a father and daughter killed in a sailing accident.

Nearly 700 people were inside Hexham Abbey yesterday for the funeral of Geoffrey and Victoria Wilkinson, of Kirkwhelpington, who were killed in the tragedy at Kielder Water earlier this month.

Jack Wilkinson, Geoffrey's son and Victoria's brother, paid his own tribute, describing their special, close, father-daughter relationship and adding "they are still keeping each other excellent company".

History and heritage in the North East are attracting more visitors than last year as families choose to holiday at home.

Figures released this week show that English Heritage is bucking economic downturn trends with a great start to the first quarter of the tourism season.

Visitor numbers to key sites such as Belsay Hall (pictured) and Housesteads Roman Fort are up 25% on the same period last year, while English Heritage membership is up by 50%.

A weekend of two halves saw families brave the rain and then bask in sunshine in events across the North East.

Despite gloomy skies on Saturday, the usual crowds of visitors flocked to the Otterburn Festival in Northumberland to raise funds for the Great North Air Ambulance.

This year's two-day festival offered a packed programme of family entertainment, with the famous Red Arrows RAF aerobatics display team wowing crowds.

A motorcyclist was injured after his bike left the road.

Police are appealing for information after the 30-year-old's grey Aprilia RSV1000R motorcycle left the road, for reasons yet to be established, and came to a rest at the bottom of an embankment.

The accident happened on the B6320, around three miles from Bellingham, in Northumberland, at around 12.23pm yesterday .

The man was taken to Newcastle General Hospital. His injuries were not described as life-threatening.