NORTH PENNINE WAY
Least touristy National Park means more room for riding
‘Stretches over the moors are wild, desolate and magnificent’
THE NORTH PENNINES is an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty spanning 770 square miles of moorland and dales, shady wooded areas and some fantastic biking roads, including one of the most famous in the UK. It’s a region many tourists pass by on their way somewhere else — and being less popular with caravans and motorhomes means more space and freedom to stretch out for riders.
From the hustle of Barnard Castle, the A67 north splits off into the B6278 for Middleton-in-teesdale. The town is soon left behind and the terrain shifts to typically wide-open moorland; mossy green hillsides creased with glens and criss-crossed with stone walls. The B6278 swoops and pivots past old quarry workings and between hills towards Stanhope, then north into the moors again and on to Derwent reservoir.
The B6306 runs along the lake’s southern side for three miles or so, swooping into Blanchland and away again, up a hill and turning right on an unclassified road heading for Rookhope. Straight, long stretches up over the moors are wild, desolate and magnificent. The road squiggles across hills and valleys, past old lead mines, crossing from Durham into Northumberland and winding up in Alston.
From here, the A686 leads up to the legendary Hartside Café; the café itself is long gone, now a big patch of scabby hardstanding and a few weatherbeaten benches overlooking the Vale of Eden with magnificent views from the western ridge of the Pennines. The panorama takes in the wide plain below, bisected by the M6 and with Penrith in the middle, to the Lake District some 20 miles away as the crow flies; one of the broadest views in England.
The final drop down the A686 to Penrith is a famous biking road — a helter-skelter of corners, stacked up in a challenging complex of technical turns with wellearned notoriety. It’s a busy but entertaining end to the ride.