Northumberland, North Pennines, must see places.

[WH308]

Hi all, for the next week a good friend and I will be driving around the Northumberland, north pennine area.

Does anyone have any must see places for us to visit? Not bothered about the usual tourist stuff, more interested in great roads, scenery, off the beaten track pubs, great view points etc.

 

[finbar]

Collage valley

 

[malmick]

Massive area with loads of places to visit, things to do and fantastic sights. Give us a few ideas about where you plan to be. I'd suggest anywhere around the Three Peaks, Malham Cove, Litton Valley, loads of different abbeys, stunning coastline depending on what you want, good walking between B. Aukland, Brough, Penrith, Carlisle, Hexham, then up to Kielder and the Borders, Hawick, Jedburgh and the Cheviots, Alnwick (Barters Books), Low Newton (The Ship, for good beer) and related coastal walks. Try going to Dunstanburgh Castle.

The list goes on.

 

[countrryboy]

Dunno how easy to find but mibbee try to fibd a black grouse lek.
Plenty of black grouse in that area, dunno if many are easily accessable to general public thou.

 

[Dave_M]

Go to Tofthouse Road and look for a no through road. Enter this and you will be rewarded with an excellent purpose built vantage point over the Otterburn Ranges.

 

[Bowland blades]

Drive over Hartshead moor ( not for poor drivers ) but an incredible drive and vista . It basically connects the NE and Cumbria . Dont do it in ICE or snow or as a new or low ability driver though .

 

[Dalua]

Cragside - near Rothbury: The engineer Armstrong's house.

 

[75]

Drive over Hartshead moor ( not for poor drivers ) but an incredible drive and vista . It basically connects the NE and Cumbria . Dont do it in ICE or snow or as a new or low ability driver though .

Hartshead Moor is a motorway services on the M62. Not the most challenging drive.

Perhaps you mean Hartside - which is an A road (A686) and, whilst it can get snowy in the winter, it is not some narrow mountain pass only accessible to those self appointed "special" drivers who walk amongst us. It's an A road! I'm sure the OP would manage to navigate it without concern.

 

[Bowland blades]

Hartshead Moor is a motorway services on the M62. Not the most challenging drive.

Perhaps you mean Hartside - which is an A road (A686) and, whilst it can get snowy in the winter, it is not some narrow mountain pass only accessible to those self appointed "special" drivers who walk amongst us. It's an A road! I'm sure the OP would manage to navigate it without concern.

Yep

 

[malmick]

^ Maybe thinking Wrynose and Hardknott passes? Or maybe not?

 

[Pedro]

Yep

Drive over Hartside a good few times in the winter to get to a pheasant shoot. Can be closed sometimes, but okay outside of snowy/icy conditions. Be a bit careful at weekends, the road is a favourite for many motorbikes and increasingly sporty cars too and also police attempting to stop them doing stupid stuff. From Hartside to Alston you'll see, if lucky grouse on the moors (easily spotted if there is a smattering of snow) and indeed black grouse and if very lucky you'll come across a favourite lekking site. The hills around Alston are home to big grouse moors.

The coastal castles, namely Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Lindisfarne amongst others are all well worth a visit. Some of the towns in Northumberland are beautiful and there'll be any amount of nice pubs (still) where you can "do lunch" or evening scran. Especially some of those around the Scottish border if you venture up that far.

Of some of the the other suggestions above, Malham Cove is in the Yorkshire Dales, not Northumberland and the Hardknot and Wrynose pass is in Cumbria, near my gaff and you'll end up on the West Cumbrian coast, some way off Northumberland! Perhaps another trip sometime.

 

[Tegner]

Allen valley from Allenheads joins the river Tyne above Haydon Bridge

 

[Ratel]

Lindisfarne, walk the beach & dunes from Bamburgh to Seahouses. Anywhere up the Coquet river.