GLORIOUS RIDE

Heading to or from Scotland? Divert via Kielder Water. Or just go.

Riders in a hurry to get out of England and into Scotland normally choose between the fun, vertigo inducing, weightless floating in space moments on the A68 across Carter Bar, the quite a lot less fun A1 around the coast at Berwickupon-tweed, or the M6/A74 which is a three-lane motorway. But for a different route, a blast around the south western side of Kielder Forest Park in Northumberland off the A68 is worth experiencing. At the centre is Kielder Water, which is claimed to be the UK’S largest man-made lake (44 billion gallons and over 25 miles around the edge). And the forest it’s in is one of the largest man-made woodlands in Europe. The whole thing is relatively recent too, opened by the Queen in 1982, which might help explain why the road that runs along the reservoir’s southern edge is so good – hang on, 1982, that was forty years ago.

It starts in Bellingham, a village a few miles to the west of the A68. The road is unclassified and, as it leaves the village, looks like your typical back lane – narrow, dry stone walls, barbed wire fences – then rises onto moorland and opens out into a more usual moorland road. A few more villages, and now the tarmac gets wider, smoother and a deeper shade of black, this is quality road laying, and it’s a bit odd to see it in the middle of nowhere like this. The road, named Shilling Pot at Stannersburn, traces the River North Tyne for a few miles then bursts into the open a few miles past Stannersburn as the reservoir comes into view. A vast earth dam arcs off the right, but our road carries on along the southern edge of Kielder Water, running between stubby Scots Pine and heather, sometimes lined with Armco.

The trees thicken and rise in height gradually, clustering on the hillsides until they become a deep forest, with the road now a full A-road’s width. It swoops through a landscape that looks like Austria or northern Italy, not the back end of nowhere in northern England. From here it goes on like this for miles along the banks of the reservoir – but as soon as the water stops, the road reverts back to a bumpy single track, almost as if it was built purely to service the reservoir’s quarter of a million yearly visitors. Still, the last few miles into Scotland are fun too, and then you’ve got the crazy, rollercoaster B6357 into Hawick to look forward to. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Chippy Wood

‘Like Austria or northern Italy, not the back end of nowhere in northern England’