Northumberland 250

[xstian]

Has anyone done the Northumberland 250. Thinking about doing it at the end of Oct on a motorbike,

What's the route like? Is it a mixture of good driving roads as well as scenic roads. I did the nc500 a few years ago and although it's beautiful scenery, you spend a lot of time on single track slow roads.

https://northumberland250.com/

[xstian]

Bump, before it disappears down the list.

[Chimune]

Never heard of it but looks like good selection of roads.
Some exotica might not like the Keilder Forest Drive though !

[Wacky Racer]

Never done the "250" but know the area well, spend a lot of time on holiday up there.

Superb roads generally, (imo) highlights en route,,,Craster/Dunstanburgh Castle....Rothbury/Cragside...Bamburgh/Castle,

Ford and Etal are lovely......Alnwick/Barter Bookshop & and Castle/Treehouse.....

[coppice]

Not enough absurd, bandwagon jumping tourist route ? Why do people need a name for a route ? Northumberland has some lovely drives , but , like everywhere else , you really shouldn't need the stamp of tourist board publicity before you try them . Just look at a map and drive where looks most interesting . Instead ,we can probably look forward to convoys of sheep in MX5s and Elises (etc )

[Essarell]

A stunning area to drive or ride round, I’ll often ride loops round Northumberland or Durham / Teasdale. I normally skip the forest track at Kielder and instead come down from the B6357 / Saughtree. The roads are usually empty and the scenery world class.

[xstian]

Thanks for the info, I'll give a go.

coppice said:

Not enough absurd, bandwagon jumping tourist route ? Why do people need a name for a route ? Northumberland has some lovely drives , but , like everywhere else , you really shouldn't need the stamp of tourist board publicity before you try them . Just look at a map and drive where looks most interesting . Instead ,we can probably look forward to convoys of sheep in MX5s and Elises (etc )

Its not that easy to just look at a map when you're re on a bike. I normally have to pre plan a route and load it into a satnav. I don't fancy spending my time riding around aimlessly, with no idea where you're going. For a couple of days riding, it looks like a easy win and some time saving for me.

Do you have any suggestions of good roads?

[coppice]

It is dead easy- how do you think people navigated before satnav? Honestly, five minutes with a decent analogue map (which gives you much more than most sat nav maps ) and you'll be right . But just for you , A68 to Carter Bar , turn L after half mile and you can explore lovely roads for hours .... Don't tell anyone I sent you ...

[xstian]

coppice said:

It is dead easy- how do you think people navigated before satnav? Honestly, five minutes with a decent analogue map (which gives you much more than most sat nav maps ) and you'll be right . But just for you , A68 to Carter Bar , turn L after half mile and you can explore lovely roads for hours .... Don't tell anyone I sent you ...

Good for you. I find it dead easy to look at a decent analogue map in the comfort of my home, plan a route and up load it on to my Satnav. I've done trips in the past that others have planned (or rather not planned), spent too much time looking at maps on the side of the road, no one knows where they are going or where they would like to go.


Thanks for the tip, I'll bare it in mind.

[Tye Green]

any road within the broad limits of A74m, A69, A68, A72, A702 is great for blatting with the possible exception of the A7.

my favourites are B6399 from Old Castleton to Hawick & A708 from Selkirk to Moffat (stop for lunch at St Marys Loch)

[Tricuspid]

coppice said:

Not enough absurd, bandwagon jumping tourist route ? Why do people need a name for a route ? Northumberland has some lovely drives , but , like everywhere else , you really shouldn't need the stamp of tourist board publicity before you try them . Just look at a map and drive where looks most interesting . Instead ,we can probably look forward to convoys of sheep in MX5s and Elises (etc )

These routes are brilliant for people who don't know the area. As for the name, it's marketing innit - who cares?

Hadn't heard of the Northumberland 250 but it slots in nicely to a Lake District /Yorkshire trip I'm planning, so I'm up for it. Thanks OP, good spot!

[Steve_H80]

Northumberland (and the Scottish Borders) have some wonderful driving / riding roads, although if anything can spoil it giving it a title like Northumberland 250 will.
But you don't need a tourist route.
The basic rule is east of the A1 is coastal, lovely beaches and clogged roads full of tourists, west of the A1 is where you want to be. Good roads? All of them. Switch the satnav off and just takes roads at random, that's how you find good things.
Try not to park it upside down in a hedge, you might have a long wait for recovery with only deranged sheep and midges for company.

[coppice]

Tricuspid said:

These routes are brilliant for people who don't know the area. As for the name, it's marketing innit - who cares?

They are the exact opposite - half the fun of driving for its own sake is finding your own routes in areas you don't know . Having your own adventures is so much more rewarding than slavishly following what somebody else recommends . I enjoyed decades or wonderful driving in NW Scotland before the tragedy that is the NC500 happened ,and everybody who hadn't been able to think for themselves utterly ruined the experience with a combination of idiotic convoys and motorhomes.

[Hoofty]

Here's a bit of a hot take (as the kids might say) - you don't *need* to find these things annoying. It's great that you've had such success with trips in those areas before such initiatives were launched, it really is.

As a counterpoint, I'd not made the trek before they were a thing. So, almost specifically *because* the NC500 exists to promote the idea, I've since enjoyed three fantastic trips up there in the past two years, featuring varying percentages of the total route and adding/subtracting things as takes my fancy or (importantly,) suits everybody on the trip. Not one moment of them was ruined in any way by the handful of others on the route - only compromised a bit by the weather. Can't fix that.

By the same mechanism, the Nland250 has brought the northeast to my attention, and I look forward to using the route as a basis for a trip in the near future. Nothing slavish about it - it's a great suggestion and I appreciate that as a starting point. Hopefully I'll find a load of interesting little businesses on the way, like in Scotland. I'll probably take a few detours, and even plan another, more customised visit while I'm there and become more familiar with the area.

I love driving and driving for the sake of it. But I'm not always at liberty to just say "right everybody, we're going *here* and we'll make it up from there"; which is where a structure - even one cooked up by a tourism marketing board - can be handy to get family buy-in, to make sure you see a variety of things, to link up stretches of driving with other activities they may be looking forward to more.

It may not be the way you'd choose to do it, but I can't see how it's worth deriding or finding yourself wound up over. Suits some people to follow a route, others to make their own. Neither is 'wrong'. Both can be enjoyable.

<peace sign>

Nick

[coppice]

Fine , I take your point , which was refreshingly politely made . If you will allow me to expand on why I get a little tight lipped sometimes. it is simply because it breaks my heart to see once quiet , deserted places which I have got to know over many years suddenly widely publicised (in the case of NW Scotland by the NC500 team , and subsequently by Clarkson and co ) , then become a bucket list thing to the extent that the essence of the appeal is diluted , if not destroyed by hordes of visitors. What had been a secret pleasure becomes public property - like being a Beatles fan before they became huge .

I don't exempt myself from criticism- I've written glowingly about Sutherland and Wester Ross myself (in car club magazines and my books ) and sometimes I really wish I'd kept quiet . I was horrified to encounter idiotic convoys on single tracks (are they frightened to drive alone?) , litter strewn laybys and some awful driving . I remember talking to one guy in a Porsche Turbo in Ulllapool, obviously on an organised tour, and asked which way hel' come and where they were headed - 'Not a clue mate, just follow the nav innit ' . The place deserves better . .

[leggly]

It just show a startling lack of imagination to follow a prescribed route,. The NC 500 is a bloody nightmare these days due to “marketing” Turn off the idiot box and just go for drive/ride and enjoy the day.

[dcb]

leggly said:

It just show a startling lack of imagination to follow a prescribed route,. The NC 500 is a bloody nightmare these days due to “marketing” Turn off the idiot box and just go for drive/ride and enjoy the day.

At least the marketing will drive the sheep-people onto a standard route.

Those of us who ignore the masses and can think for ourselves can then easily
find a less busy route.

The Kielder forest drive isn't easy in a Mark 1 MR2. It's not really designed
for off-roading ;-> Bit easier in a BMW 325.

[Lotobear]

I'm fortunate to live on the doorstep of the south west section and so know these roads very well indeed and regularly drive them for pleasure.

It's great for the local economy that more folk get to know about them and I hope it's a success.

[Skyedriver]

Is Hartside still a thing or has it changed since it burnt down?
Was a regular route to the lakes for me, Whitfield, Alston, etc Shepherd Inn at Melmerby. Happy memories.

[hiccy18]

coppice said:

Fine , I take your point , which was refreshingly politely made . If you will allow me to expand on why I get a little tight lipped sometimes. it is simply because it breaks my heart to see once quiet , deserted places which I have got to know over many years suddenly widely publicised (in the case of NW Scotland by the NC500 team , and subsequently by Clarkson and co ) , then become a bucket list thing to the extent that the essence of the appeal is diluted , if not destroyed by hordes of visitors. What had been a secret pleasure becomes public property - like being a Beatles fan before they became huge .

I don't exempt myself from criticism- I've written glowingly about Sutherland and Wester Ross myself (in car club magazines and my books ) and sometimes I really wish I'd kept quiet . I was horrified to encounter idiotic convoys on single tracks (are they frightened to drive alone?) , litter strewn laybys and some awful driving . I remember talking to one guy in a Porsche Turbo in Ulllapool, obviously on an organised tour, and asked which way hel' come and where they were headed - 'Not a clue mate, just follow the nav innit ' . The place deserves better . .

So the point you're making is that Northumberland and the North Pennines are really st to drive, there's nothing there except disgruntled farmers and sheep so the tourists and "enthusiasts" are much better off heading for the Lakes; or Spain.

Meanwhile, if you really must, rather than having to take a GS to go through the Kielder forest drive, the OP can hop over the border and use the B6357 which is really poor, no Macdonalds, hardly any straight bits and no dual carriageway sections or street lights.