Route: Brampton, Melmerby, Hartside, Alston, OUSTON FELL Hayden Bridge.  

Climb 24 also on this route

This Climb

Link to OS Maps

Having enjoyed a light lunch amongst Alston's steep and cobbled streets, the sort of place where drivers find that their clutch is on the way out, I continued along the A686 north up to Ousten Fell,  which just makes it onto the 200m elevation gain category.

This is one of those steady continuous climbs, with only 8m of drop, and modest too, after an initial  peak of 7% steadying out at 2-5% making the whole shebang easily handlable in ECO mode.

Again like many Pennine climbs, the top is very flat, and without consulting the OS App on my phone it was tricky to ascertain the exact location of the highest point. The photo above is somewhat past the location looking back to it.

Points of Interest

Alston is covered in my first post here. The A686 features as one of AA Magazine’s Ten Great Drives, where it keeps some auspicious company, link. For me the route from here down into Allendale is the most beautiful I have encountered so far. As an added treat I spotted this rustic sculpture of a stag just sitting in a field map link

Route: Alston, Nenthead, KILLHOPE CROSS, Nenthead, Dowgang Hush, Garrigill, Mount Pleasant, Nenthead, Alston.

Route includes Climbs 9, 10 & 11

This Climb:

OS Link

Back to Alston for a day in which I could get three climbs under by belt, 2 of them in the Greatest Cycling Climbs (GCC) list.

Parking in the Alston Tynedale car park gives the lowest starting point.  And the first climb, up to Killhope Cross, starts here.

(The discrepancy in distance is because I messed about in Nenthead)

Getting through Alston itself is quite a challenge, immediately hit by a 15% gradient on a set (what many people call cobbles but technically aren’t - sets have worked flat tops) paved road up to the market place, just the first of three short sharp shocks before you are barely out of the town.

Its almost 5km of more modest effort before reaching the official start of GCC 185 at a low point at Nenthall. Here the effort winds up with some up and down but increasingly sustained sections of 10-15% sections. After the village of Nenthead the work really starts and, sad to say, the bike in Tour (2nd out of 4) mode to assist with the load.

Points of Interest.

Killhope Cross: Though not as spectacular or steep as the likes of Honister and Hard Knott, Killhope does carry the distinction of being the equal highest paved pass in England, along with Harthope Moss, a minor road pass about 10 miles to the south east, a must visit for a future time. It is surpassed in height and severity, by the one way road up to the “golf ball” on Great Dunn Fell.

Killhope Cross itself is a Grade II listed Sandstone Boundary stone dating back to mediaeval times.