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Sandstone Way - north to south or south to north?
Good question 🙄, walked and pedalled bits of it, but my canoe head would tell me to go from East to West, (to the coast) but on the other hand....
Starting on the coast section was a nice way to start heading south.
Premier Inn was conveniently placed and you can take bikes into the room, which helped us , good car park in Hexham, we left the van there and got the train north.
Having ridden it both ways, I feel duty bound to answer. Both very different experiences, but for other reasons. Not much in it riding wise. Nice easy coastal finish is nice... Or a drag depending on your point of view.
Cheers.
I was planning on parking at Newcastle station, train to Berwick, 34m ride to Wooller , then 64m to Bellingham, then 44m back to car. Or vice versa.
Pot luck I guess on wind direction.
You're more likely to have the wind behind you going north(-east).
But getting to Berwick is the more difficult bit of transport (need to book bikes on the train) whereas you can just hop on the train (assuming there is one) on the Tyne Valley line, and the ride is decent too.
How do you mean? Isn't it the same train service from Newcastle to Berwick or Berwick to Newcastle?
No, I mean the Newcastle - Berwick train is LNER (need to book bikes) or Cross Country (can book but some first come first served I think) but Newcastle - Hexham is just first come first served. So it's easier to do the Berwick bit first since you know exactly when you want to travel.
This came up in conversation today. Quote is from the FB page today.
"Though storm Arwen was a few months ago, all forest roads south of Rothbury remain closed for public access to allow machinery and haulage vehicles unfettered use of the forest roads until the massive job to remove or make safe many thousands of windblown trees is completed. This is projected to be late Autumn 2022. Forestry England staff are making good progress with this and are as keen as we are to open the original off-road route. We will announce here when it is open once again.
Alternative route: The only option is to follow the B 6341 to / from Elsdon via Billsmoor Park following NCN Route 68 signs."
Yeah that's a good point, and something I should have thought to mention, sorry, especially since I was up there last week and talking to someone about the Sandstone Way.
I rode up through the forest at Simonside and all the way through Harwood to the Gibbet road (past Harwood village) the other week to check it was passable, which it was, even though it's officially "closed". But now they've started actually working at Simonside - I went past to check it out and the car park entrance is now fenced off and obvious signs of work.
If you were really keen to avoid the road, I'd say there's a good chance Harwood is still clear* and you could use the bridleway via Hepple Whitefield, which is a nice descent going north (bugger of a climb going south... I presume - I've always ridden it the other way for that reason). Bit of a risk if for some reason you can't get through and have to backtrack and still go the long way round though.
*When I rode it the other week, I noticed the waymarked Sandstone Way route had some trees down, but I was following the fire road to Harwood village, which comes out further down the road.
north to south or south to north?
Yes.
I did it north-south, which worked well in terms of pre/post-ride transport, as said above, as the drive home was easier. The riding worked well in that direction too, but I never really thought about how it would be the other way, so there's no revelation there.
Can you get a train from Chathill to Berwick?
We're up in Embleton soon and I was thinking of doing bits of the Sandstone Way to ride back to Embleton.
Quite pricey at £17.50 a day. There are cheaper options - there's a multi-story at Grainger Town that's cheaper from memory - height restrictions though so if you have bikes on the roof you'd need to remove them first. There's plenty of <ahem> 'free' parking available just outside the city centre in the likes of Heaton which is a 10 min pedal to the station.
EDIT: just to point our the free parking is not using residents - there's options on Heaton Road next to the sports ground. (FIL lives round the corner)
Nice easy coastal finish is nice…
This is my experience, mostly because the sun came out and we had lunch at The Barn before rolling into Berwick for a dip in the sea. Which was nice.
Thanks for the advice