NCN 72 Ravenglass/Tynemouth Hadrians Wall

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Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
I'm starting to plan my first ever Tour (a little bit) of The World.
Has anybody done the Hadrian's Wall Cycle Route ?
I fancy giving this a crack early next year (spring) on my Hybrid, and camping over (most) nights. Total route length is about 175M but seeing as I'm no speed king I'm thinking four nights / 5 days.

I also live North of Durham (Framwellgate Moor), so after hitting Newcastle I intend to turn South over the river to get home.

I'm thinking of heading for Tanfield (sp?) railway museum, then on to Beamish museum and down to Chester Le St and home.
Has anyone alternative suggestions for my home leg as I'm an outsider and don't really know the cycling routes round Gateshead / Newcastle !!

I did find a cycle route web site a couple of months ago that you could select to show :-
Sites of interest, campsites, B&B's, cafés, PUBS !! etc. But I've forgot to save the link (again), so if anyone can help me with that as well I'd very be grateful.
 

jongooligan

Legendary Member
Location
Behind bars
Elmer, probably the most direct route from the toon to Tanfield is across Redheugh bridge, through Lobley Hill and up Watergate Bends but this way is urban cycling at its worst.
If you cross the river using the ferry at North Shields you can follow the coast down to Roker (cycle track all the way) and pick up the C2C. Head west to Stanley where you can pick up the Stanley/Gateshead road heading North. Tanfield railway is approximately 2 miles on the Left. Check out the opening times 'cos they're not open that often. This is a long way round but much more scenic and far safer than the direct route.
To get to Beamish, retrace your tracks onto the C2C and head East for a couple of miles until you see 3 or 4 steel cows grazing by the trackside. Take the ramp off the track and when you get to the top you'll be able to see the entrance to the museum. Again, check the opening times as parts of the museum are only open in the peak season. In early spring only the town is likely to be open. The colliery/village, farm, Pockerly Manor and Iron Works are usually closed at this time of year.
From Beamish to Durham, head East on the C2C until you cross the main East coast railway line just North of Chester le Street. About 150m after this crossing you can get back to Durham on the A167. It's not a fun route and there are alternatives but they are a little complicated to describe. There's an old railway track from Pelton Fell to Edmondsley where you could go through Sacriston to get back to Durham but I'll leave that for you to explore at your leisure.
 
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Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
Jongooligan and ash68, thanks for your help, I used to work in Birtley and lived in Dumfriesshire so I know how manic it can be around the Gateshead / Newcastle area.

I like the idea of the longer but safer (don't we all !!) run round the toon so cheers Jong, I'll be looking into that.

Ash68, I won't be waving to you if I pass your house, I'll be banging on your door demanding a pint of ice cold Guinness if I manage to get that far !! xx(
 

Mankymitts

New Member
Location
Glasgow
Did it in mid June this year. Starting in Ravenglass. Did it in 3 days with 2 overnight stops in B&B's in Siloth & Haltwhistle. Picked west to east to get the prevailing wind on our backs. Got that wrong. Never been so wet, cold and windblown in all my life. At the end when I asked my friend who did it with me if it was the worst thing he had ever done on a bike he replied it was the worst thing he had ever done, never mind on a bike. However, we did have a great time and I wouldn't think twice about doing it again.

MM
 

dougonthetyne

New Member
Location
South Tyneside
Elmer
From Newcastle you can reach Chester Le Street virtually off-road if you cross over at the Swing Bridge then follow NCN 14 west then Teams Cycleway then Tanfield Railway path to Tanfield then on-road to pick up C2C (NCN 7) at Beamish then down to Vigo then on road to Chester Le St.
Tanfield path rough & steep in places.
For info on cycle routes in Gateshead log onto:
http://www.cycle-routes.org/cycle-gateshead/
which is a sister site to Hadrian's Cycleway
http://www.cycle-routes.org/hadrianscycleway/

dougonthetyne
 
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Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
Mankymitts said:
Did it in mid June this year. Starting in Ravenglass. Did it in 3 days with 2 overnight stops in B&B's in Siloth & Haltwhistle. Picked west to east to get the prevailing wind on our backs. Got that wrong. Never been so wet, cold and windblown in all my life. At the end when I asked my friend who did it with me if it was the worst thing he had ever done on a bike he replied it was the worst thing he had ever done, never mind on a bike. However, we did have a great time and I wouldn't think twice about doing it again.

MM
LMAO !!!
Now that should put me off, but I'm a masochistic bastard so its probably making me more determined to give it a shot !!
You can't beat chasing a half assembled tent in the dark, across a field full of cow shite when it's pishing down with rain !
 
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Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
Dougonthetyne, When you say swing bridge, are you talkin' 'bout the Millenium bridge by the Baltic ? (Ignore that question, I've just zoomed in on the map I was linked to, the swing bridge is the one that says "swing bridge" on it xx( :tongue: :sad:)
 

mikeitup

Veteran
Location
Walsall
re

Reading this thread with interest.
I am hoping to do this next summer/autumn.
Looks like will take ALOT of planning.
Now if I can find some silly bugger to do it with me xx(
 
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Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
mikeitup said:
Reading this thread with interest.
I am hoping to do this next summer/autumn.
Looks like will take ALOT of planning.
Now if I can find some silly bugger to do it with me xx(
I am that silly bugger !
Initially looking to do the "wall" route only (See here (work in progress)) but now thinking of doing the whole hog from Ravenglass.
If you fancy giving it a go........
(I'm originally a brummie, so there shouldn't be a language barrier !)
 
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Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
Excellent mapping dougonthetyne.
I had spotted that before but the title "GPS Mapping" and "may not work on some browsers" made me think it was for satnav so I never bothered trying to open one of them ! (dufoss!!).
Is dougonthetyne anything to do with Doug the author of those pages perchance ?

Is bikely easy to use as MapMyRide seems incredibly slow if you start doing complicated rides. I've done a couple of routes before where my 'puter has "timed out" (15mins) before I've saved the route and when I re-start.... Aaaargh !!! No route !
 

Dr Smut

Active Member
Im probably reiterating whats been said but if you dont feel the need to go all the way to Wallsend, you could turn right and follow the derwent cycleway on the west edge of Newcastle, near the metro centre, and then up to the C2C route to Sunderland to take u across almost to C-L-S.

Ive done bits of the route, there's a cracking view of Vindolanda Roman Fort from the east side of it.
 
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Elmer Fudd

Elmer Fudd

Miserable Old Bar Steward
D'oh ! Sometimes you need to just stuff technology and be old fashioned.
I have some "Cycling routes in Co. Durham" maps kindly supplied by the County Council.
The one just about reaches The Tyne so all (most) the routes through Gateshead are already mapped out for me !
 

dougonthetyne

New Member
Location
South Tyneside
Elmer,
Yes one and the same.

Bikely.com I find very quick to use and does not appear to be a time limit. You can post on line or add to your own website or blog.
You construct the map privately and once happy with then save it on line.

Also easy to update the route line if needed and add notes at way-points.

Tried a few other on line mapping systems but this seems to work best for me.

Any maps done using Bikely also appear on Bike Radar once you make them public.

Re may not work on all brousers
Appears on my Safari but then unable to move along the route line - works OK on Firefox.
My Safari is an old version 1.3 - hoping soon to upgrade to OSX Leopard which has Safari v3

Dougonthetyne
 
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