Hexham is a handsome market town on a terrace above the River Tyne, and the most comfortable base for Hadrian's Wall: the AD122 bus runs from here along the wall in summer, and the trains on the Tyne Valley line connect it with Newcastle and Carlisle.
The town grew up around Hexham Abbey, founded by Saint Wilfrid in 674. Beneath the church his Saxon crypt survives, built from stones the monks took from the Roman town at Corbridge. Around the Market Place are the Moot Hall and the Old Gaol of the 1330s, now a museum of the border reivers. There is a farmers' market twice a month and a good spread of independent shops, cafés and pubs.