A new long distance mountain bike route under development. Looks like it might be good.
http://www.cyclepad.org.uk/listing/The-Sandstone-Way

That's local to Paul, a mate of mine. Some pics on the STW thread below.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic ... humberland

Did a bit of it in September into Bellingham. Would have done more but gpx not available at the time and did not want to rely on sign posts.

I thought it would make a nice route from Berwick to Hexham then pick up the NCN route towards Alston. From there onto Berwick - Derby route until finding a route onto the PBW and home.

Jus sat n mapped this out as a gpx so i may now ride it in nov weather permitting :-D

Interesting idea that maintaining a route should be financed by charging for a gpx file of the route.

I wonder why they don't use that for the M1?

Possibly it is obvious to some that routes that are expensive and cause lots of damage to the environment should be publicly funded while those that cause no pollution, have little environmental impact and reduce costs to the NHS (through increased exercise) should not. However, it is not obvious to me.

Looks like a perfect route for a fat bike to make into a loop turning left at the southern end onto the Hadrians Wall ride, then north and ride up the fantastic beaches of Northumberland with the wind on your back.

EDIT
I've just plotted a 250 mile Northumberland Fat Bike loop taking in all of the above, I think I'll start working on a 3 or 4 day pass for this ride next spring/summer

Dave, you get a map as well as the gpx route. Sounds like it was done on a small budget and maintenance will have to be paid for some how. Depending on cost not to bothered if it helps out route.

First heard of the route in September last year when I was in a bike shop in Bellingham and they said it would be ready by August 2014 but seems to be running a bit behind as most projects do. I have ridden in the area a couple of times and rarely see anybody, lovely area to go to.

If u look at the route closely ul see most of it is on existing tracks n sustrans so im not sure how its been developed as its all on permissive paths n the parts that aren't go through open access land anyhow looks a great route n johns idea sounds great for the summer next yr!

Yetiman wrote:If u look at the route closely ul see most of it is on existing tracks n sustrans so im not sure how its been developed as its all on permissive paths n the parts that aren't go through open access land anyhow looks a great route n johns idea sounds great for the summer next yr!

I was thinking the same thing, so assumed that the "development" was signage and way marking.
Read some of the comments though and they are saying that the route is not intended to to be fully way marked...

You could easily make a long or short loop out of that. Sandstone Way, cut up to Kielder, Cheviot ridge then back to Berwick. Or Wooler to Bellingham on the Sandstone Way, cut up to Kielder, Cheviot ridge to Wooler. Plenty of scope for other variations.