I love Northumberland but have never explored there on my mountain bike.
The area looks to have many bridleways offering potential for adventures. Can anyone recommend any nice routes with a bit of a technical challenge thrown in please?
There are some good guides by a guy called Ted Liddle with lots of maps of routes in Northumberland using Bridleways etc. Gravel routes too. Worth buying if you can.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Ted-Liddle/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3ATed%2BLiddle
Thanks a lot!
Derek Purdy was the man for Northumberland routes
His book is out of print but pops up 2nd hand. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392093250743
I moved away in 2020 but spent 25 years in the NE. Favorite areas for me included the moors south of Hexham (Blanchland/Edmundbyers - <div class="strava-embed-placeholder" data-embed-type="activity" data-embed-id="344042838" data-style="standard" data-from-embed="false"></div><script src="https://strava-embeds.com/embed.js"></script>), the hills to the west and south of Rothbury, and those west of Wooler. Kielder is also useful destination for those who like the man made look. I would not describe the open moors as being particularly techy though.
Check out Komoot too as lots of folks have rides showing on there...there's even a couple of mine, well, when I can persuade another of this parish to get out that is 🤣. E.g.:
Very little use on them as so few people can often mean some are barely rideable rage farce. Look in strava heatmap to see if any use shows
Baden points to some good areas. Not much technical around but you can find steeper bits
That Whitefield hill descent above is good. Double track but rough
https://www.strava.com/activities/5150837903
This is a favourite, I think its a bit Scottish though.
A rough area may help.
However, Wooler, Ingram and Alnwinton are good starters. It’s possible to be some big hill 30 mile plus rides or short little routes. There are not many particularly technical routes though.
STW classic rides:
67 Cross Fell
113 Alwinton
122 Blanchland Moors
No technical challenge, but quite a few fast as you dare descents.
