![]() ![]() NCN68 railtrail: Great for gravel bikes, not ideal for road bikes You could just about lug a light bike down the steps and along the footpath to Lambley village, but with panniers I preferred to return back across the viaduct and take the cumbersome signposted detour to regain the railtrail further down. What they can’t enjoy is to continue south across the other side, because it’s now a private home, and a fence bars your progress. It leaps over the South Tyne in spectacular fashion, and cyclists and pedestrians can enjoy superb, car-free, views from the top. The trail is tarmac for the first two miles, then decent gravel, but there’s a bit of a problem with Lambley Viaduct. Lambley Viaduct: We know who the arch villain is…Īnyway, I took NCN68 south, the Pennine Cycle Way, along the railtrail that was the line to Alston up until the 1980s, a victim of Long Beeching. It also has a talking footpump that tells you the town’s history in a local accent (‘if you look down between the Chinese takeaway and chip shop, you can see ancient remains…’), three car-free bridges over the river, and a plaque commemorating the hanging of a woman in 1519 for the crime of marrying a Scotsman, so it’s well worth a visit. Restaurant offering a balanced diet, perhaps? The sign says so.īut whereas Dunsop Bridge only has a phone box to mark the theoretical point-zero, Haltwhistle has a Centre of Britain Launderette, Centre of Britain Sweet Shop, Centre of Britain Hotel, and Centre of Britain Army Surplus Store, plus a Centre of Britain Official Sign Post, which all clinches something. It’s debatable exactly where the mathematical centroid is, in other words, the point on which the island of Britain could be notionally balanced: the Ordnance Survey reckons it’s near Dunsop Bridge in what is now Lancashire, which I visited on a previous ride. This is based on the somewhat arbitrary basis of its being halfway east–west along Hadrian’s Wall, and halfway north–south between the Lizard and, um, the Orkneys. Haltwhistle, further along the Newcastle–Carlise rail line from Hexham (which may give you a clue as to how I had a slap-up breakfast and still got there by 8.30am), styles itself as the ‘Centre of Britain’. ![]() Dales, moortops, bits of the C2C, England’s third-highest road and the very centre of Britain (maybe): there was plenty of variety today, as well as breathtaking climbs and descents. ![]()
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