Northumberland family tour logistics

andy_from_embsay

Fancying the idea of a short bike tour with the kids in Northumberland. The logical thing seems to be to go up or down the coast along the coast and castles route - I was thinking Widdrington to Seahouses one day then up to Berwick the next, then maybe have a day pooling round Holy Island etc.

The trouble is I can't seem to work out the logistics! We'd drive up to one end or the other (probably the finish, as we'd then have our car and our stuff available) and I thought we'd just hop on a train to the start. But there don't seem to be many (if any) trains, and those that do state they only take a maximum of two bikes.

Any ideas or experiences? Or failing that can anyone recommend a two/three day tour suitable for a 9 and 11 year old (so 30m ish a day, lots of interesting stuff, no big hills)?

Cheers

kevinp

Hi,

You could do worse than start from Berwick, Coast & Castles to Holy Island is well doable in a day for a family, or even out one day do the castle and abbey back the next via Sustrans 68 . Also from Berwick there is the Honey Farm at Chain Bridge/Norham the honey farm has a vistor centre so you can see the bees at work plus an excellant cake stop in an old bus. Norham has a castle(English Heritager free ). Doddington/Wooler Doddington Farm (Sustrans 68) has farm gate ice cream.

Tony Houghton has loaded up a few day tour which may be suitable, the East Border/Northumberland does not have too many hills and the scottish side roads a re quiet. Have a look at http://www.mouthofthetweed.co.uk/cycle.html .

If Youth Hostles are appropriate for you and yours Berwick has a brand new super hostle.

Kevin

andy_from_embsay

Thanks Kevin - I was ideally hoping to go "from somewhere to somewhere" but if we end up having to do day tours that website's brilliant. I had also wondered about a circular route going down the coast and somehow getting across to route 68 - I imagine somewhere near Wooler?

kevinp

You could have a look at Berwick - LIndisfarten (Holy Island) Belford Bamburgh (good cake at the Copper Kettle )/Seahouse (more traffic busy bearing in mind the bairns) then to Alnwick. The Cross Country trains north stop about once an hour and most stop at Berwick 4 bike places usually. Often during the week there are no bikes on the train Friday pm and Sunday bikes are queueing !!

For a round trip come in land at Belford to Wooler then up the 68 back to Berwick.

Have you seen the Northumbria's Cycling Kingdom map (I got mine free from Berwick tourist office) this marks the signed bike routes and "attarctions" Ford and Etal are family friendly on the 68 corn mill and railway.

Personally I would not go further west than Wooler with the bairns as the roads rise up from there. If you get to Alnick and think every one is up for the ride back try Alnick/Powburn - this is a bit of a drag over the top but given plenty of time and encouragement doable then Ingram National Park visito centre 68 to wooler then as abovew. AS I mentioned before the roads are generally quite and most drivers considerate up here.

If you fancied (are able ) to leave the car behind train Skipton -Leeds Leeds direct to Alnick or Berwick is doable I did that from CRosshills on the Skipton/Keighley Leeds line and had no problems booked tickets well ina dvance to ghet cheap deals (family railcards are woth it)

Enjoy
Kevin

andy_from_embsay

That's interesting re xc trains - their website says only 2 bookable spaces - if there's 4 we're laughing as we'll be going midweek.

I've planned out a loop that goes from Berwick to Wooler via Doddington but there doesn't look to be much between them - the good thing about the coast is every 10 miles there's something to stop and look at. I'll investigate the trains though, cos if there are 4 spaces then we should be ok.

Thanks for all your help!