Last summer, in a moment of madness (I get them quite frequently), I decided to do a ride which I have been thinking about for a while, a route over 5 of the 6 highest road passes in England. I planned a route where I could do this ride starting and finishing from home in Houghton.
Setting out just after 9 on a pleasant but breezy August morning, I headed out through the lanes passing the north then west sides of Durham and eventually heading south west from Durham on the A690 in the direction of Weardale.
After passing through the old mining villages of Brandon and Willington, I turned left off the A690 at the top of the drag up through Helmington Row, signposted with a very old sign to Howden le Wear. From there I climbed over the hill to Witton le Wear and after a brief stretch on the A68, up the gradual climb to Hamsterley village. The name does not have anything to do with Hamsters though, the name is said to come from old English for “corn weevil”, possibly suggesting that the area was poor farmland. These days, Hamsterley is better known for its forest which lies to the west of the village and is a popular centre for mountain biking.
I passed the forest along Windy Bank Lane which can certainly live up to its name if the wind is from the south west, passing the entrance to the top of the mountain bike downhill course which always seems popular on weekends with a regular crowd of MTBers there, always good to stop for a quick chat with them, a great bunch.
Bypassing Woodland and slogging over Langleydale Common, another tricky road if there is a strong south west wind, I continued west through Egglestone and along the rolling road into Middleton in Teesdale, the gateway to todays real climbs, though I already had about 40 miles and over 800 metres of climbing on the clock.
I headed up Teesdale on the B6277 turning off into the small village of Newbiggin after a couple of miles. Through the village onto the road signed for Westgate in 7 miles, I immediately engaged my 39x29 bottom gear as I passed the sign warning of a gate ahead. Here the real climbing starts, and it starts pretty steeply. This is about a 4 mile climb up to Swinhope Head, on a road which is very rough and gravelly in places. It is one of these climbs which has lots of false summits where you think this must be the top only to reach the crest and see another ahead. You just have to accept that you will only have reached the eventual summit when the road starts descending.
This is, though, a very good climb on a quiet road. After the initially steep start, it climbs at a pretty steady gradient, I managed most of the climb on my 23 and 26 sprockets. According to my 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map, the road reaches 609 metres above sea level at the summit, making it the joint third highest road pass in England, with fantastic views in all directions, see picture right the author crossing the cattle grid at the summit. The rough and gravelly road surface continues for the first part of the descent towards Westgate for about half a mile through some tight bends until you reach the only gate on the road. It's worth a brief stop here as looking up the hill to the west you can spot the ski tows of the Weardale ski club which apparently has the longest lift served ski run in England with 2 permanent ski tows. It is a spectacular location. After the gate, the remainder of the descent is on a very smooth road, though there is still gravel on the road in some places particularly on the bends near the bottom of the descent.
At the “T” junction at the bottom of the descent, I turned left, to head west to Daddry Shield (again from old English “Daudry’s Shieling” – hut or shelter of some description) where I met the A689 heading into the village of St John’s Chapel. Just after a short row of shops, café and a couple of pubs there is a road signposted for Langdon Beck, I turned left here and again immediately dropped down through my gears until I was very quickly back onto the ’29.
This is the road over Harthope Moor passing Chapelfell Top on the east side of the road, though often known locally as the Harthope road or Chapelfell Top. Whatever it is called, it is a real killer climb. In Simon Warren’s excellent book (Britain’s) “100 Greatest Cycling Climbs”, he gives it a deserved 9/10 and describes it as the highest paved road pass in England. At 627 metres above sea level, this is the highest public road in England and the high point or possibly the “low point” of my day.
It starts very steeply, but, passing the final houses, the gradient eases a little. Passing a warning sign, see above – take note, then a small road off to the right, the road drops down a very brief descent to cross a small stream, West Grain, which forms quite a spectacular valley off to the right. Just after the bridge over the stream is where the 1992 National Hillclimb started.
More often than not, heading in a north-south direction over this climb means you will have a headwind on the exposed parts of the climb, which is, actually, all of the way up as shown right. Even on a day like today, with a relatively light south westerly wind, there was still a tough headwind up the climb. I grovelled my way up here, virtually all of the way in bottom gear, cursing myself for even contemplating such a ride having missed the early part of the year with a broken ankle, how could I be so mad, surely at my age I should know better?
This climb just about finished me for the day, I was exhausted by the summit. I have always thought it would be a great mountain top finish for the Tour of Britain, particularly from the north side.There is a spectacular old sandstone quarry on the west side of the road at the summit of the climb which is now popular with rock climbers. There were a couple of cars parked there so I did wonder if there were any climbers in the quarry today, didn’t spot any though. Some interesting minerals have been found in the quarry including pyrite, better known as “fool's gold”.
I always treat this descent with respect as it starts quite steeply and has some quite sharp bends. Crossing the small bridge over West Beck after losing almost 200m in height in about a mile and a half the road very unsportingly begins to climb again for about a quarter of a mile until it finally drops down to the B6277. At this point in the ride, I had a choice, do I turn left and head back east for home having done just over 50 miles and over 1500m of climbing by this point, or do I turn right into the headwind climbing over Yad Moss into Cumbria, meaning a lot more climbing and more than doubling my distance. Am I a madman or a mouse I thought. Applying some “Rule 5”, I turned right!
Once more into the headwind dear friends, or something like that, I slogged my way up the gradual drag, shovelling what was left of my energy bar into my mouth, followed by an energy gel (carefully stowing the wrappers under my jersey - I hate littering, there is just no excuse) and a good swig of water. On long rides like this, particularly on warm days, I carry a 750ml bottle of water and a 600ml bottle of energy drink, I knew I could get my bottle of water refilled when I stopped for a cuppa, but I do try to conserve my energy drink to make it last most of the ride.
The sixth highest road in England, Yad Moss summit, at 598m, is reached about half a mile west of the Cumbria county sign. After the summit, the road starts gently descending while heading in a north westerly direction, with the river South Tyne in the valley below me on the left. Amazingly, even in Cumbria, this river still flows towards the North Sea.
After a few miles of this sweeping descent, I reached the crossroads signposted Garrigill to the left and Nenthead to the right. I followed the road towards Nenthead, passing lots of old leadmine workings, with lots of old shafts on both sides of the road. This is the road over Dowgang Hush, the fifth highest road in England. The direction I climbed it, from the south side, it is a less difficult climb though still tough with a couple of steep sections. At the summit 599m above sea level, there is the first of a couple of gradient warning signs for the descent, with an additional notice for cyclists, this road is part of the Coast to Coast (C2C) cycle route and there have been some accidents on the next stretch of road. This is a very steep descent on a twisty narrow road signed at 20% then 25% nearer the bottom, again with gravel strewn across the road in places, I took no chances.
Nenthead, at the end of this descent, and the start of the next climb, has a community shop run by volunteers, it was a very welcome sight. Nenthead also has a very interesting lead mining museum, well worth a visit if you have the time. A can of coke and 2 Mars bars later, after binning my litter, I began the steep climb of Killhope Cross.
This road featured a couple of weeks later in the 2021 Tour of Britain and is the highest “A” road and second highest road pass in England - not the highest road pass as incorrectly stated on ITV4’s commentary on the Tour of Britain. On the early slopes, I passed a couple of people doing the C2C on road bikes, I gave them a bit of encouragement telling them that they would be turning off this road to climb Black Hill (joint third highest road) but avoiding the worst section of Killhope Cross. I have to say, that refreshed from my brief stop in Nenthead and a nice tailwind, the climb wasn’t too bad. Admittedly, even with the tailwind I climbed it much slower than the riders in the ToB, some of whom, amazingly, came over the top on the big chainring. I did notice a funny smell on the climb, a sort of sweat mixed with suncream smell, I eventually realised it was me! Killhope Cross is another one of those climbs with false summits, luckily only three. As I crossed the second false summit, I spotted the steep descent warning signs for the other side of the hill, these are at the summit of the of the climb just visible in the above picture . Marking the summit is a small stone cross on the north side of the road (hence the name Killhope Cross), this is an old county boundary marker, though I’m unable to find any history of this unusual landmark.
The descent down into upper Weardale is a good one on a wide “A” road with a couple of sweeping bends where you do need to watch your speed. I swept down past Killhope Lead Mining Centre, again, well worth a visit, especially the trip down the lead mine. Continuing down the valley, I turned right at the junction with the B6295 where the Tour of Britain turned left to climb Burtree Fell (tenth highest road pass in England). Staying on the A689, I gradually descended past Cowshill (from an old English name meaning cows hill), through Wearhead where Killhope Burn and Burnhope Burn meet to form the River Wear and back into St John’s Chapel where I stopped for a cuppa and a piece of cake at the café. Chatterbox café in St John’s is one of my favourite cafes, cyclists are always welcome, and they do some very nice cakes which is an added bonus. I sat outside the café as it was still a warm day and talked with a couple of motorcyclists who are always good for a chat.
Onwards and downwards as they say, at least for the next few miles. I turned off the A689 at Daddry Shield onto the back road which runs past the Swinhope Head road down Weardale parallel to the A689 all of the way to Stanhope. It is much quieter and a great road for cyclists.
Briefly back onto the A689 in Stanhope, I turned left onto the B6278 and the climb of Crawleyside. This is another climb which has been used for the national hill climb (1984 I think) and it also features in Simon Warren’s Book 100 Greatest Climbs with a rating of 7 out of 10. This climb also starts quite steeply though not at fearsomely as Chapelfell. After about half a mile, the road steepens to about 20% through a right hand bend, followed by a 200m or so length of straight before a left hand bend where the climb is at its steepest for about a third of a mile before the gradient eases as the road reached open moorland just before a cattle grid. It is on the steepest section where there is a defibrillator attached to the side of a house. As I crawled past, I was very tempted to try it on my legs.
After the cattle grid, even though the gradient is easier, it is still difficult climbing though the side tailwind I had was very welcome. Over the first summit where the King of the Mountains line used to be in the Milk Race, down the short descent then the final deceptively steep section to the top of the climb passing where the C2C crosses this road. At the summit, I turned right onto the unclassified road signposted to Castleside. I hardly needed to press the pedals for the next five miles or so. I just rolled along in top gear enjoying the gentle downhill. I still needed to look out for sheep randomly strolling across the road in front of me, why do they do that?
After the few houses and water works that are Honey Hill, the descent steepened crossing my final cattle grid of the day before dropping into a narrow steep sided valley at Horsleyhope then climbing up the other side. On some days with a favourable wind this climb can usually be managed on the big chainring, though as I was pretty tired, not today.
Over the top of the climb, I took the even more minor road towards Rowley. I crossed the C2C route for the final time of the day reaching the crossroads with the A68. Heading diagonally across the junction following a sign for Lanchester, I joined a 2 and a half mile section of an amazingly straight road towards Satley. I often wonder if this was a Roman road in a previous life as it is just to the south of Dere Street and close to the Roman fort on the hill above Lanchester, who knows. At the B6296 junction, I turned left then right after about 100m into another minor road. I dropped down the hill to cross a narrow bridge over the River Browney, followed the road as it swung left to become Ragpath Lane and began my final “1st cat” climb of the day, and what a horror story of a climb it is. Named after the farm off to the left of the road, Ragpath Side. At about a mile long, it begins gently, lulling you into a false sense of security, but after about half a mile, it starts to get steeper, and steeper, and steeper until as you feel like you are breathing through your ears, it suddenly flattens out and you are at the top. In days gone by, this climb must have been a challenge for motorists never mind cyclists. While struggling up this climb, I noticed some McDonalds & KFC take away bags and wrappers strewn about at the side of the road. Bearing in mind that the nearest McDonalds & KFC restaurants are the best part of 10 miles away in Durham, these wrappers have obviously just been chucked out of a car window when it would have been just as easy to bin them at home or wherever, it just depresses me.
At the next crossroads, with the B6301, I headed straight across towards Quebec (named after General Wolfe’s victory at the Battle of Quebec in 1757), then dropped down through Langley Park and on to Witton Gilbert before climbing up to Sacriston then dropping down, again, to the A167 just north of Durham. Turning right at the roundabout then immediately left into the lane at Plawswoth Gate I passed under the east coast main railway line to reach the next junction where again I turned right then immediately left. I dropped down the bank to the narrow bridge over the River Wear at Low Cocken Farm. While cycling, when a road drops down to cross a river inevitably means that you have to climb up the other side, in this case the tough little climb of Cocken Bank. Though certainly not an easy climb, this was a mere pimple compared to the much tougher climbs earlier in the day. I made short work of it and the generally flat final 5 miles or so home to complete my day.
112 miles and just over 2900 metres of climbing, this was my longest and toughest ride since breaking my ankle. Though my ankle was fine after the ride, the rest of me was pretty tired. Thanks to the staff at Sunderland Royal Hospital for their care and hard work repairing my ankle, I am so grateful to them.
In the days after the ride, I reflected that maybe I should have climbed Blackhill on my way out of Nenthead, done a “U” turn at the top, drop back down to the Killhope road and continued over Killhope Cross. It would have added just over a mile to my route and about 90 more metres of climbing. I would then have climbed the 6 highest road passes in England in one ride and possibly even taken my altitude gain to over 3000 metres... maybe next year when I have hopefully forgotten how tough I found this ride and I have yet another moment of madness.