TRY THIS
De-rust your riding after winter. Also, Pennine delights.
The Pennines, aka the Bank Bone of England, is a wild and woolly place to ride a bike. And is no worse for that. For me this place has a whiff of the old British twin about it, and one day I’ll get back there riding one. But for this excursion I rode the latest, astonishingly quick and more capable than me, Kawasaki 1000SX. Here we go…
Starting in historic Barnard Castle, home of Scott Leathers (every TT rider worth their salt has worn these Great British leathers), the ride heads out of the town on the B6278 north past the excellent Three Tuns pub, Eggleston.
For the first few miles the countryside is lush green rolling fields and dry stone walls, not what you expect from the Pennines at all. But soon enough the road arrives at the rocky moors, with wide open skies finished, this time around, in striking deepest blue. The weather’s not always this co-operative in the Pennines. Sheep wander about in the road as it climbs, arcing across moss green and purple hillsides. There are shallow river valleys and old, disused quarry workings towards the village of Stanhope. Here you can stop and bathe your feet in the village ford before looping around back on yourself, then it’s left uphill heading towards The stunning moorland gets more remote towards the head of the dam just outside Edmundbyers – a fairly recent reservoir, Derwent was built in the 1960s. The southern shore is lined with trees and picnic areas, the B6306 wiggling alongside for a few miles before peeling off to Blanchland and the popular White Monk tearoom for coffee-and-cake.
The Pennines are the least busy of all the National Parks and as you head west on an unclassified road, near Rookhope, chances are you won’t see another vehicle, let alone another bike. Well, maybe the odd muddy quad with an equally muddy collie dog sat on the back defying gravity as the owner blasts off ahead of you. England has very few places you can ride and feel alone in a wilderness, but you can here.
Take a right towards Allenheads and sweep past long abandoned lead mines and haunted-looking workings from a tougher time. Cross the border marked with a stone cairn, between County Durham and Northumberland, then it’s another remote cross-country ride to join the A689 to Alston. And now you can finish the day’s ride down the Hartside Pass – the perfect end to a perfect ride through the Pennines. Solitude never looked
‘Sweep past long abandoned lead mines and haunted-looking workings from a tougher time’