The Cheviot Hills – Northumberland

Looking for inspiration come summer, as it gets a little gloopy over the winter months, haven’t been out in the Cheviots since October so a little slack. Have ridden here a fair bit but always looking for new trails, especialy stuff that is remotely technical, any ideas?

Cripes i would have expected a reply in four hours, is the riding in the Cheviots rubbish then?

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Alwin valley[/url] by clarkpm4242[/url], on Flickr

Yeh, rubbish…

…NOT!

But have nowt techy.
Cheers
Paul

Ta for the reply, i had to double take on the Usway burn photo, don’t remember it looking like that! it’s a lovely ride, if i could find more stuff like that it would be ace..there are a few gulch’s in the hills around Wooler that offer a little technical riding, there must be some secret singletrack further afield, happy to share knowledge.

I live about half hour away and never really ride them apart from the occasional summer day ride.

Part of the problem is it’s a large area and I don’t know it fully enough to comment. Drac will come along soon with more info. The ride I do is mostly singletrack but the hills are very erm… Round and grassy so not exactly brilliant but still pretty good riding to be had. I have found that it’s always boggy though.

I was driving from rothbury to otterburn the other week looking to the south and there seems steeper gradient there than in the cheviots. Think I will GT maps out and have a spoach about up that way in the spring.

It’s boring mate. Pretty to look at I suppose but bloody boring to ride.
Wet grass, horrible.

Carbon you ride Thrunton a bit aye, i’ve seen you posting on threads, if we could just find an Eiger sanction up in the hills it would be interesting!.

Do you do much riding around Rothbury, Simonside, never cycled up there myself but sort of know the hills, anything interesting you know of.

esselgrunt.. not sure you are being serious, it can seem that way at times, the scenery really makes up for the lack of technical interest though, there are a few rare sections of delightfull singletrack such as the Usway burn, but there must be more hidden away in some scottish valley.

Bit of a drive, but I enjoyed this http://ch.visitnortheastengland.com/mtb/trails/kielder#trail_1

I started out riding the Cheviots 21 years ago, cos I’d ridden trials up that way in the 70’s & 80’s, It was ok till I met Swaledale & The Dales in general then realised how bland the Cheviots actually are as far as riding goes. For the size of the area there’s not much to get excited about TBH.

Cheviots is lovely riding big rolling hills, singletrack but yeah not so much the technical stuff other then Thrunton and some parts of Simonside.

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Kidland below Uplaw Knowe[/url] by Lee Collis[/url], on Flickr

Essel there is a lack of Bridleways and tracks that’s true but I’d not call it bland.

Bland I say!! 😉
& Salters Road was never dry!

Salters Road was never dry!

Unlucky guess you went in our wet season.

You are not going to get many rocky technical trails but there us some nice singletrack. Lots of stuff off windy gyle. I have a route that goes down dere street. May post it on my blog, best technical trails I know are a bit cheeky! There is some nice sheep tracks on the Scottish side but they are not marked. It is a case of riding out and finding stuff.

http://northumberlandmtb.blogspot.com/%5B/url%5D

This is looking back to Scotland on a bitch of a climb on the return from the dere street ride.

Unlucky guess you went in our wet season

I know I know, 11 months of the year!
Mind you I do remember falling asleep one balmy Saturday afternoon, by the stream at Fairhaugh. I was going through a separation with the 1st wifey & the peace & quiet there was bliss.
Northumberland’s my fave county in Britain, but not for biking.

Kidland, windygyle, usway, path peth is one of my fav rides. Nice singletrack, space, huge vistas, history and legends, family connections and not that effected by the weather.

geda – i like your drawings of routes.

Fergal yeah 2 or 3 times a week im up there – but for how long, who knows?

S’cuse me but the descent off Whitefield Hill in Simonside is brilliant. 8)

Simonside aint the Cheviots. And winter is 11 months long as Drac says. Carbon337 hits the nail on the head- grassy and boggy. In summary, as Essel says, Northumberland is a nice place, but crap riding. Much better to drive somewhere else with proper riding. Now, moving on… oh look Glentress is just over the way…

Wish it was 11 months winter. When the ground is frozen is one of the best time to ride there.I am all up for jumps and techy singletrack but solitude, wildness and epic landscapes are just as much a part of biking as any rad stuff. Innerleithen is nearer anyway.

And winter is 11 months long as Drac says.

Did I? Where’d I say that.

In summary, as Essel says, Northumberland is a nice place, but crap riding.

Well your entitled to your opinoin.

Much better to drive somewhere else with proper riding. Now, moving on… oh look Glentress is just over the way…

Fail!

Now I see, you think GT is proper riding.

^ah sorry drac- misread. It was essel who said your ‘wet season’ was 11 months long. As Geda says, frozen winter is about as good as it gets. Mind you, I’d hate anyone to get the wrong impression and end up in the Cheviots when they’d be much better off doing is proper riding just down the road at GT or Innerliethen… Now as I say, that’s proper riding, move along, nothing to see here 😉

frozen winter is about as good as it gets.

So I’ve imagined the hot summers days and dry trails I’ve spent up there many times I take it.

Simonside aint the Cheviots.

Oh by the way I know it’s not the Cheviots as such but it’s in the same area that said it does come from the same hill range as does Thrunton.

Northumberland is a nice place, but crap riding

Its also a bl00dy big place. There’s more than just the Cheviots.

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Dipton Burn Descent[/url] by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

Hmm, we ride the Cheviots from the Scottish Borders side; there’s a couple of cracking loops that spring to mind; one starts in Hownam and the other in Town Yetholm. Also we do an all dayer from Cocklawfoot to Alwinton, scoff at the pub, and back.

The two shorter ones maybe aren’t technical if the yardstick is say GT\Innerleithen, but there are plenty challenging climbs and super fast descents, also the views are great….

Bellerophon sounds like one of my of my favourite loops, from Kirk yetholm up the Pennine way escape route to the Schill, short technical section down from the Schill then a very fast descent of Steer rig and along the border ridge to descend the St Cuthberts way around Greenlaw, back to Yetholm. This is one of the best loops in the Cheviots i have done – is this the one.

Just out of curiosity do any of you regulars ever ride the Cheviot?

I do when I am at home. Not at the moment as I’s be in Sweden.

Fergal, yep does sound fairly similar, I said we start in Town Yetholm when I actually meant Kirk Yetholm, we call this the Halterburn Loop, in fact more often than we’ll start from the cattle grid. Here’s a map of the

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we do, you can see where the cattle grid is and where we start. Looking at the map reminds me off the cheeky bit we do in Northumberland, it’s through the wood in grid square 8627 it’s the Pie Run on steriods – root city. I must be being blind as I’mnot seeing Greenlaw…?

STW proper North group ride – Rothbury / Simonside maybe?

I went trail hunting in Simonside a few weeks back – the land is far better then Thrunton for trail building, steeper with more rocky sections. Apparently there are some guys building in there but I couldnt find anything really other then the two know descents (river bed and the gully down to car park)

I only asks as it never seems to be mentioned, during a drought it aint half bad, have ridden it a couple of times via Broadstruther summit down the decking then swiftly down past the Henhole, cut down right to the collage valley or for the full monty continue along the the border ridge all the way to Greenlaw as previously mentioned, but turn right on st cuthberts way to Hethpool back to Wooler, a good half day ride for me but needs to be bone dry to be fun.

What route did you do?

bellerphon thats just about it although i continue to the Schill 600m then back all the way along the border ridge to descend the singletrack around sorry Green humbleton back to the cattle grid, you miss the very fast descent of Steer rig then climb over Whiteside, ace loop.

I love riding the Cheviots it’s a great place to chill out and get some offroad miles in away from the crowds. It’s not techical riding; I much ride up and down pretty much everything with a rigid forked bike. Leave ya body armour in the car, pick up an OS map and work out some loopy routes.

Nothing much in the way of knarly downhills, big drop offs, seesaws etc. If you want that kind of stuff then 7 stanes is v close.

The Cheviot itself isn’t that great – busy and boggy.

bellerphon Doh! i see on that loop you do take in Steer Rig then break off right and miss the climb over Whiteside, i will have to try it that way come summer.

Mike if i want proper mountains i go to the Lakes or the Highlands.

Whats body armour?

Yeah, where we break right means we continue to descend down to Trowupburn, it’s then a road section round to Elsdonburn, whilst not great means we can have a chat whilst riding 🙂

While I’m here, here is the other loop I mentioned, we call it the

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you’ll see why. I must have been keen on this one as I’ve annotated it a bit. This and the Halterburn one are evening rides…

Seems my sarcasm mode didn’t come across as expected earlier. What is it with men never understanding 😉 Anyway fergal, I used to live in Wooler but it seems from your latest posts that you’re well on your way to finding the best bits around there. Takes me back… If you’re after more dh oriented stuff (for a change) I assume you know about the jumps/tracks in the woods by the common, the 4x course (though these may not be maintained any longer- used to be a guy in Haugh Head who knew the craic) and the dh at Kidland (I think that this may be off limits other than official race days- best to check). As some others have suggested, Simonside and around offers a different type of riding- and some parts being rockier hold up better in prolonged bad weather. Worth a look at the OS seeing as you’re not that far away. Most stuff is good, and everything is worth an explore. Other than that, heading out east on lanes and back roads to some of the BW that go over the moors around Ros Castle used to be a decent spin for a change- not many people head out that way, and being out of the Cheviots proper they can be in quite different condition.

ps. bellerophon- really nice routes site. good work.