North of England/Borders ideas

[P675]

Hi all, I did the NC500 on my bike in May, it was truly amazing and I'd like to just go again, but I've decided to do a shorter trip to the North of England to close out the summer, visiting a few places I've never been before.

I'm thinking of camping in each region and doing some fun looking roads before moving on to the next one. Starting in the Midlands , going north-west, then east and back south again.

- Lake District
- Galloway Forest
- Borders
- Northumberland
- Pennines
- Yorkshire Moors

Are there any routes in between that are recommended? At the moment I'll be using gpx routes from Simon Wier in each region, but sometimes I've accidently found better roads myself! Thanks for any suggestions.

[daqinggregg]

Have a gander at ‘Best driving roads in Scotland’ also in this section, some excellent suggestions of proper driving roads, in and around the ‘Borders’.

[coppice]

PM me with a contact email and I will send you a guide I've written - it's about nominally about NW Scotland 500 but covers routes between N Yorkshire and Borders etc .

[MikeGTi]

coppice said:

PM me with a contact email and I will send you a guide I've written - it's about nominally about NW Scotland 500 but covers routes between N Yorkshire and Borders etc .

Big shout out to Coppice/John for sending over his guides which I am now perusing

[mr pg]

Check out Chris Sloanes tour guide book called Borderlands 320. We did it in our camper a couple of months and vowed to go back by car.

[P675]

MikeGTi said:

Big shout out to Coppice/John for sending over his guides which I am now perusing

Yes thanks looks like some good stuff in there.

[Gad-Westy]

The lakes isn't necessarily ideal for driving roads as it can be pretty heavy on traffic and many of the most interesting roads are very narrow and poorly sighted. That said, there are some roads with seeking out just because they're interesting. Hardknott and Wrynose pass, slow but scenic and fun. Honister pass is similar but quite well sighted in places and leads to buttermere which is always a great place to visit. And kirkstone pass can be a genuinely good driving road but is normally pretty busy.

If it works for you to mix up the route a little, you could head north east from the lakes into the north pennines where driving roads are genuinely brilliant and much more empty. A686 from Penrith to Alston in particular is well worth seeking out. You could then either continue north east ish towrads hexham and then Kielder and make your way north west ish from there into the scottish borders area. Or you can go north west from alston and head into scotland from there. I'd personally suggest the kielder way though. No bad roads around there other than the A69 and M74!

Others are no doubt better qualified on roads around the borders (there are some beauties!) but when you head back south, maybe try to pick your way through Northumberland and county durham down to middleton in teesdale (via Blanchland and Stanhope) and then down to Brough to enter the Yorkshire dales. Again, that north Pennines area has some brilliant roads and is lightly trafficked.

[RazerSauber]

Username Kate recently did a birthday video on her channel going through a few of the well known roads in that sort of Northumberland area I think. I'm sure she did something akin to a Northumberland 250, too. Worth a look.

[STe_rsv4]

P675 said:

- Lake District
- Galloway Forest
- Borders
- Northumberland
- Pennines
- Yorkshire Moors

.

Avoid the lake district - as already said, too busy and overcrowded and the roads are narrow,

Galloway - some good roads from Kirkcudbright to Newton Stewart then a cracking road to Girvan (A714), Head North to Ayr then return via the A713.

Borders - any amount. personal favourite of mine is Hexham to Kielder via Bellingham. Bear left at Slaughtree then follow up through B6399 Newcastleton to Hawick . Head to Selkirk from Hawick then bear left to St Marys Loch via the A708.

Northumberland - Anywhere around Hexham to Morpeth offers good biking roads. The road from Morpeth across to Rothbury then over through Hepple and down to Otterburn is worth a look

Pennines - Woslingsham / stanhope then bear right at Eastgate and follow the road to rookhope down to allenheads. follow on to Alston then hartside pass. Road down to melmerby is a belter.

Yorkshire moors. barnard castle to Hawes via Langthwaite / reeth, then buttertubs pass. Once at hawes, head back to Aysgarth then Leyburn.

These are just some of the many good roads on offer. Id be here all day naming all of them. Good luck with your journey

[Mr Tidy]

When I was heading up to Scotland last May I wanted to escape the A1 so I turned onto the A696 at Newcastle.

Once I got through Ponteland it became a great drive. Just past Otterburn I joined the A68 and that was just as good all the way to Jedburgh with sweeping corners and very little traffic. So much more fun than sitting on the A1!

But I don't know if it might be busier in August.

[Steve_H80]

Put away the satnav and download a free map app that gives you the OS Road Maps (Ordnance Survey, OMN etc), you could even buy an analogue map!
Avoid any road in blue or A roads in green (although there are a couple of exceptions). Stick to the roads in red or orange with the prefix A or B and the smaller roads in yellow or white.
If it looks interesting on the map chances are it is, to be honest it's hard to go wrong.
The exception of course is the Lake District which will be full of tourists. Save the Lakes for a walking or cycling holiday, it's mostly rubbish for motorcycling unless you're content to ride in a convoy.

[Forester1965]

Best bet is to equip yourself with a physical AA type roadmap and spend a day or two in that big empty space that fills the rectangular gap sitting north of the A66, east of the M74, west of the A1 and south of Edinburgh. There's lots of fun to be had in there.

[Giantt]

Penrith over Hartside to Alston then onto Hayden Bridge,also the 'military road,runs almost parallel with a69
Road to Edinburgh via Cold stream is good,as is the coast road , castle Douglas,glenluce mull of Galloway south w at Scotland off the a75

[POIDH]

STe_rsv4 said:

Galloway - some good roads from Kirkcudbright to Newton Stewart then a cracking road to Girvan (A714), Head North to Ayr then return via the A713.

Coast roads all the way from Dumfries to Whithorn is a lovely way - make sure you stop at Kippford, Kirkcudbright, Brighouse Bay, Cream O' Galloway, Gatehouse of Fleet and take the B796, Bladnoch Distillery, Wigtown (book town) and Whithorn, then on to Mull of Galloway.

Next day you can basically get back up and down the A712 and A713 to Ayr.

Lap of Arran?

Back to Glasgow via Mull of Kintyre.

Back down the A 76.

[Tupwood]

The Borders and Cheviot Hills area is great for a little exploration - but check if any Stage Rallies are being run as that will impact traffic levels and road closures etc.

https://youtu.be/aZMwAYn7VPo?si=jEE-sQYwmnKHrcLD

[Gad-Westy]

Tupwood said:

The Borders and Cheviot Hills area is great for a little exploration - but check if any Stage Rallies are being run as that will impact traffic levels and road closures etc.

https://youtu.be/aZMwAYn7VPo?si=jEE-sQYwmnKHrcLD

Also on that note, the Otterburn millitary ranges are an interesting area to explore. You just need to check their website for timings of exercises.

[Gad-Westy]

Tupwood said:

The Borders and Cheviot Hills area is great for a little exploration - but check if any Stage Rallies are being run as that will impact traffic levels and road closures etc.

https://youtu.be/aZMwAYn7VPo?si=jEE-sQYwmnKHrcLD

Also on that note, the Otterburn millitary ranges are an interesting area to explore. You just need to check their website for timings of exercises.

[skyebear]

STe_rsv4 said:

Head to Selkirk from Hawick then bear left to St Marys Loch via the A708.

Brilliant road.

[P675]

Oh man had a great 4 days. Didn't do everything I wanted due to some delays, and I expected Monday in the Lakes to have good weather, but Tuesday and Wednesday to rain everywhere, so didn't commit to any plans other than staying near Penrith the first night.

Got to Penrith for about 9:30, rainy M1 and A66, took a dump in Morrisons, and against all advice, head off on my Lakes route.
Took B5302 to Siloth, down to Maryport, not particularly interesting roads and it was a bit damp still, but the coast was nice to look at.

A594/A595/A591, again nothing too exciting but easy to get past people.

B5289 - Through Keswick, on to the B5289 past Derwent Water and the river. I enjoyed this part of the road even though it wasn't particularly fast, I can imagine it's hell on earth when the road is full of campers though. Into Honister Pass it gets a bit more interesting with narrow road and gradiants. Being on the bike makes this pretty easy to get past oncoming cars but again in the height of summer I bet it's horrible. The steep hill at the mine place was fun and the road after that makes a good photo. When you come to the bottom of the slope there's quite a lot of people about but still nice to bimble around with the scenery.

After Cockermouth went on the A5086 which was a bit faster but the usual A road. Wanted to go towards Ennerdale here to get to Wasdale Head, but unfortunately had to take a huge diversion A596/A595 which was quite boring and amongst school traffic by then.

Turned left after Ponsonby to Wasdale Head, the road was a bit hard work to be honest but worth spending a bit of time in the incredibly quiet hills, I got the impression that walkers and cyclists didn't appreciate the sound of the bike..

My original plan here was to carry on the A595 to Coniston but I just had to do Hardknott Pass while I was there. I thought I might do it and then turn around and go back, but I lost a lot of time due to a tractor and bus not being able to pass eachother on the road leading up to it. I have no idea what the plan was but people just kept reversing and reversing, how far? I got bored after 20 minutes and after seeing a gap open up I just went around everyone and left them to it. By now it was getting to tea time and going back would have taken far too much time so resumed my route at the end of Wrynose Pass.

Hardknott, Wrynose and The Struggle (A592) back to Penrith were really fun and were well worth the trip in itself if I'd have to go home the next day. There was barely any traffic the entire time in the Lakes, except the diversion onto the main roads, so the roads were very enjoyable and I feel very lucky to have got round it with decent enough weather too.

I went to a campsite down the road from Penrith and set up for the night, thinking I might be on the way home tomorrow.

[Gad-Westy]

Sounds fun. If you have time before your journey home, you’re right next to the start of the A686. I’d highly recommend a trip up to Hartside or beyond to Alston. Fabulous stretch of road.