Shining lights: an eco-break in Northumberland's dark-sky country

Battlesteads hotel is a beacon of sustainability and green ideals, and with an observatory onsite offers stellar stargazing – when the weather allows

It was hard to see Battlesteads hotel’s green credentials in the dark, so first impressions meant I had to trust it was the beacon of sustainability it promised to be. It was a dreary, drizzly Friday evening and I’d taken the bus from Hexham to the hotel in the Northumberland riverside village of Wark – the bus stops right outside.

In checking bus times in Hexham for the 35-minute ride, I’d already said the village’s name wrong and had my pronunciation corrected. It’s Wark, rhyming with dark, rather than walk.