After our trip to Woodhorn Colliery last weekend, Sophie and I went to have a look at Northumberlandia ‘The Lady of The North’ which is a huge 19 hectare park with this big earth hewn lady as it’s centre piece, the views from the top of her head will be grand when the rest of the park is finished, but still under construction at the minute so lots of big wheely machines and dug up earth in the way.

From the website:

The centrepiece of the park is Northumberlandia, a stunning human landform sculpture of a reclining lady. Made of 1.5 million tonnes of rock, clay and soil, she is 100 feet high and a quarter of a mile long.

Far from being a rigid manicured art form Northumberlandia is a living part of the countryside that will mature over time and change with the seasons. What you see when you visit is only the start of something that will evolve through generations.

An additional point of interest is that you can see into the Shotton Surface mine from the top of Northumberlandia a particular attraction for fans of big machinery.

Northumberlandia has been built by the Banks Group as part of the restoration of the adjacent Shotton surface coal mine that has provided a unique opportunity to create a spectacular art form, which otherwise would not be constructed, whilst recovering much needed coal for UK energy generation.

This project is known as restoration first – taking an extra piece of land donated by the landowner, the Blagdon Estate, adjacent to the mine and providing a new landscape for the community to enjoy while the mine is still operational. The £3 million cost of the project has been privately funded by the Banks Group and the Blagdon Estate.