My in-laws have just moved there from Sunderland. I used to go on a Sunday morning trip to Hamsterley when I visited them for a weekend but now they’re too far away. Does any one no of any trails close to Allenheads of Hexham etc.?Cheers.

I’m not local, and it’s a while since I’ve been there, but the answer is ‘yes’.

There’s some pretty nice singletrack on Hexham Common (the marked bridleways, from memory) that’ll do you for a couple of hours or so.

There’s also a long bridleway marked on the map running down from above Allenheads (EDIT: might have been Allendale actually) that I always wanted to check out and never did. It looked ok on Google Earth a few years back, so it’s probably worth exploring.

How far’s Edmundbyers from Hexham? About half an hour? There’s some good stuff around there on Blanchland Common.

Sorry I can’t be more help.

That’s alot more help than I’d expected to be honest. Coming from Scotland I’m not quite sure how far any sort of right to roam can stretch in Englandshire. Am I likely to get shot if I go off the way mark trails?

…. and your dead body will be prominently displayed as a warning to others.

Isn’t Allenheads closer to Hamsterley than Sunderland? or do I have the wrong Allenheads….

Yes

All of Hexham common and blanchland, stobbs cross, Broadway is to your east. west and you’ve got high cup nick and cross fell.

You’ll be fine

I think Hamsterley is a bit closer but the nature of the roads means it takes a fair bit longer to get there. Thanks for the tips. I’ll check them out.

…bolts law is close and good

All of Hexham common and blanchland, stobbs cross, Broadway is to your east. west and you’ve got high cup nick and cross fell.

You’ll be fine

& very very muddy.

So I found a bit of info on the MBR killer loop at Bolt’s Law. If I was to just go to Blanchland and do the loop from there which way round is it best to go? I can’t tell from the map which direction the loop is set. Cheers.

I used to live in Allendale and theres tons around the area. Out of Allendale itself theres about 4 or 5 bridleways either heading up onto Hexhamshire common or West towards Alston. Allenheads itself has slightly less, just south of the village is a steep grassy climb up onto hexhamshire common and from there is a few rides that can be linked towards Blanchland. But be wary about cheeky trails, landowners can be a tad aggressive. My own fav was to head over towards Killhope wheel, from tnhat side used to be a track marked footpath that became a bridleway on the top of killhope law and a cracking descent to Dirt Pot near Allenheads. I never had any bother using the footpath, its pretty empty and a land rover track on the climb. Most of these tracks need a few link tarmac sections to join them up but they aren’t unpleasant, pretty empty roads, and be warned it can get bleak out there in the winter but if youre from Scotland you’ll be used to the cald

We stayed at the Allenheads Inn whilst doing the C2C a few years ago. It was late September and very cold and wet. There were 8 of us and we spent the night in front of a roasting log fire, the pool table to ourselves and plenty of black sheep / golden sheep on the bar…

Appreciate that this is of no help but happy memories!

This might be an older mbr one but you can at least see the direction and bridleways etc http://www.mtbtrails.info/Trail_Venue_Map_TrailViewer.aspx?VenueNumber=230&TrailNumber=483&Unique=635810335448327552

I did a loop very similar to that last Christmast when visiting family up there. Did the road climb from Blanchland towards Rimey Law with the intention of heading over Bolts Law then back to the car. Way to much snow, couldn’t even see the trail. Decided as daylight was running out I wouldn’t risk blindly following the Garmin and had to backtrack. Annoying but sensible….the ice was quite interesting in places oh and watch our for suicidal grouse up there, give you quite a shock when they attempt to fly from a couple of feet away 😀

Slaley Forest itself only has Fireroads unless the trails are ultra cheeky and I wasn’t looking hard enough the couple of times I went through it…?

I’d cut out the slaley forest loop on that one above ^^ just go into forest and along edge and then out to the moors again.

Yer that’s basically what I did, not sure if this will be visible, if so can see where I was going to do Bolts law then gave up and came back down the road along with the horizontal wind and snow flurries brr…. 🙂

https://www.strava.com/activities/234218069

I would recommend doing that route ^^ but in the opposite direction!