GF & I are planning to go up to Northumberland for 4 days in October.
Was planning on staying in Wooler or thereabouts & was hoping for 2 days riding from the door.
Can anyone recommend somewhere to stay & some good MTB routes in the area without much or no travelling to the start of the ride.
We might stay here;
Hethpool House
Any advice, routes, links etc would be welcome.
Sorry, the routes I know start from Alwinton.
You've probably searched the forum for 'Cheviots'...
...its a lovely area.
Cheers.
not specifically, grew up around there but not as an off-road cyclist - however, the college valley is lovely! and the actual pool at hethpool is great, including natural jacuzzi, though perhaps not quite so tempting in october..
this thread has some ideas and links to routes if i remember http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-cheviot-hills-northumberland . There's also some wooler-ish based folk doing more bouncy stuff http://www.team-chr.co.uk/
Stayed there a couple of years ago and used this:
Great figure of 8 route from Wooller town centre and loads around Bewick Chapel/Moor.
Well worth picking up a copy.
We stayed at the campsite and ended up eating at the Italian on the high street, which was fine.
there was a group "Cheviot Hill Riders" who built a jump/4x park outside of Wooler (now pretty much defunct I think) and were responsible for some of the DH trails around Wooler common, some of which would be fun on a decent AM bike. Would be worth seeing if they're stil active. (Not worth paying to use the 4X though, IMHO.
Cheers, book ordered.
If you fancy a pleasant bimble, the route over to Lindesfarne is fun, especially trying to beat the tide on the way home.
Not really 'Mountain Biking', but fun all the same.
Lovely cafe in Wooler main square for brekkie, run by a really nice wobbly old lady and Chillingham Castle is well worth a visit if you have time, not your usual stately dump!
Four days? Honestly, you're really spoilt for choice.
The coast is lovely too and the people are really friendly.
God, I love Northumberland.
Derek Purdy's book is good, done a couple of the routes. However, he is of the old skool and uses compass bearings, as opposed to grid references for gps.
Actually I've done a couple of rides from the Wooler area - one took in Wooler Common, Broadstruther and Harthope Valley. The other headed east to Bewick, with views of the coast, and returned close to the downhill quarry area.
A mention for Tim of http://www.northumberlandbikebreaks.com/ Had some guiding with him a few years ago and highly recommend.
Take a fatbike and ride on the beach
http://www.singletrackworld.com/2011/09/midweek-mini-movies-53/
Cheviots are good, but very exposed.
connect.garmin.com, type in wooler and apply the filters and quite a few things will come up.
Team-CHR are still alive although, as mentioned, mostly downhill stuff. I can think of a couple of long offroad rides from "the door" that`d take a day each.....
Mr Purdy`s book has one of them in, linking two rides together.
And, Fatbikes would be no use what so ever 
there was a group "Cheviot Hill Riders" who built a jump/4x park outside of Wooler (now pretty much defunct I think) and were responsible for some of the DH trails around Wooler common, some of which would be fun on a decent AM bike. Would be worth seeing if they're stil active. (Not worth paying to use the 4X though, IMHO.
Team-CHR is very active to the point members are now capped. The DH tracks still exist up at the common but the 4x has now gone back to nature as lack of volunteers to for the up keep took it's toll.
The routes section of the site has gone sadly but I'll take a look see if I can still access some. I'd seriously look at http://www.northumberlandbikebreaks.com/ as it's a perfect set up for bikes and you'll get riding from the door plus help with routes.
I bookmarked this from somewhere on here months ago, still haven't looked at it properly:
http://northumberlandmtb.blogspot.com/
Also, worth seeing if you can find a copy of the 'secret' map of trails for Thrunton woods which is just down the road.
Lovely cafe in Wooler main square for brekkie, run by a really nice wobbly old lady
Just south of wooler is a forest called Thrunton wood, I planned to ride there on holiday but never got the chance. Locals said there are some great trails. On the map it does look pretty good, I would recomend phoning up cycle life in Alnwik as one of the guys in there told me about it. Good luck 
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