I'm very surprised no-one has mentioned Beamish. Very good off road links both East and West via disused railway lines for commuting or training miles then the woods around Beamish have some excellent hidden singletrack. It used to be 'those in the know' stuff, but check strava and a bit of exploring will open up these trails for you.
Other places (trying to avoid duplication from above) include Cong burn woods from Waldridge Fell. The river Wear in Sunderland has some pretty good sidetrack, albeit not very 'hilly'.
Then there are miles and miles of moorland in the tree main valleys for big (if not epic) days out.
thanks for clearing that up butcher
beamish is good, but only ever ridden round there with the oddsox in the dark so have no idea of how to get back to the stuff we did! also add holywell dene in to the mix too - can link over to the coast easily from there too
can make a good fig 8 loop from the greeside/coalway lane - wylam - heddon trails too, easily accessible from newcastle either along the cycle route or train to wylam 🙂
Have you tried Ramshaw, or contouring along what looks like a fire track then dropping into Bradley Wood?
Yeah, you can ride most of it. There's bits of cool stuff. You can even loop round (through a very dense piece of forest) and end up on the Pikewell Track, which is a viable ride. Start from High Stables (halfway up the bank on the main road, leading out of Dipton), if you wanna do it, not the farm track by the church. You can exit via Bradley Wood too, if you're heading in that direction.
The one I gave you though provides the most smiles for miles, and is easiest to navigate.
Great stuff, I'll give it an explore at some point. Thanks
As you head towards the coast you will come into "Waggonways" territory these are the old coal tram/trail lines leading from the pits in SE Northumberland down to the Tyne. There are probably about fifty of them, further east is, as Drac says, Fatbike territory (I realised that today!).
Another consideration is that from Kingston Park it could be almost as quick (say another 30 mins) to head towards Glentress, Inners and the Tweed valley rather than Hammers or the Lake District.
