Round Cumbria on a bike: the final stage

sarahjlewisbriggs

Oct 2

It's taken several years, but Penny and I have now cycled around all of the borders of Cumbria. I've done variations to parts of the route, and the one bit I haven't yet done is to cycle from Alston to Brampton - partly because quite a bit of that section goes into Northumberland.

After a rainy and chilly day attempting to swim in Burnmoor Tarn, the sun was out on the Monday and it was great to have a day off work. I still got up early - I had to drop my daughter off at school - but it meant that Penny and I met at Langwathby station at the leisurely time of just before 10 a.m., in order to catch the train up to Carlisle. Strictly speaking this meant we were finishing the route backwards, but we felt it was better to catch the train and then cycle, as if we cycled and then got the train we could easily miss a train or be waiting hours for one. I guess in some ways it would be easiest to think of the route as going from Carlisle round in a circle rather than from Brampton, as there are four different railway routes going out from Carlisle: but the border slopes quite steeply in a north easterly direction up from Carlisle, and we needed to include places like Roadhead and Bewcastle.

I'll summarise below the main places, linked to this cycle route, of each railway line - anyone who isn't that bothered, skip these bullet points:

west coast mainline, London Euston to Glasgow. Stops at Carlisle, Penrith and Oxenholme in terms of connecting to the various bike routes
Cumbrian coastal line, Carlisle to Barrow/Carnforth. We used it from/to Dalston, Maryport, Ravenglass, Barrow in Furness and Grange over Sands
Carlisle and Settle line: beautiful line which links Carlisle to Skipton and Leeds, via the Yorkshire Dales. We could have used it from Garsdale Head up to Langwathby; we did use it from Langwathby to Carlisle, as today
Carlisle to Newcastle line: some of the services stop at Brampton and at Wetheral, again useful for parts of our cycling tour. If you wanted to go further east it also stops at Hexham and at Haltwhistle.

As I've cycled a lot of the roads around Brampton in various directions, I felt that it wouldn't really be 'cheating' to take Penny from Carlisle and down through Wetheral before getting on B6413 (this goes from Brampton and down through Castle Carrock and Croglin to Kirksowald). We had previously cycled from Brampton out to Castle Carrock anyway - there's a loop which forms the Talkin Tarn triathlon route and which from Brampton provides a nice 14-mile circuit. The route from Carlisle out to Wetheral is also a lot more pleasant than going along either the airport road or the A69, as well.

The train was almost half an hour late, but at least it was running - you never know with all the rail strikes at the moment, though they do tend to be quite well publicised. And whilst the website says that there is only room for 2 bikes on each train, and that you can't pre-book, actually because there is plenty of room for wheelchairs then in fact if there are no wheelchairs in the carriage you can put your bikes there. I thought that 10 a.m. on a Monday morning would also be quite a quiet time - in fact the train was surprisingly full. We trundled through some lovely countryside and pulled into Carlisle at about 11 a.m.

We got on our bikes and set off down Botchergate, before turning off into a side street and into Portland Square. This is a square of lovely Victorian (I think) terraced houses, which were used as offices - many by the County Council - before the Council built itself a new building. The Halston group is now converting them into apartments, and if it wasn't for the fact that I want to move to Penrith rather than Carlisle I could be very tempted by one: for a start they're doing one of my favourite things, which is bringing old buildings back into beneficial use. If you want to see what they are going to look like, visit the website here.

We joined Warwick Road - another lovely road of terraced Victorian or Edwardian houses, but which unfortunately floods - and headed east out of the city until we hit a traffic jam, where we turned off to cut through Botcherby and along Durranhill Road, over the motorway (more road works) and into Scotby. For me this was retracing a route I used to use to cycle home from work occasionally, when I worked in Carlisle, but for Penny it was all new.

From Scotby we turned along parallel to the railway line and into Wetheral, to walk over the railway bridge to Great Corby. This bridge is way up high above the river Eden, and there are several 'if you need help, speak to the Samaritans' signs. It's not the bridge to cross if you have vertigo, but the buildings around the station and the bridge itself are charmingly old and reminiscent of the days of the railway children and steam trains.

We cycled through Great Corby and along the side of the Corby Castle estate towards Cumwhitton - there's a great, little-used playground here, which I used to take my children to when they were young. A stream runs through the village which feels as if it's in the middle of nowhere, although it's not actually too far from various other places. Shortly after this at Carlatton Mill we joined the Talkin Tarn triathlon route and were soon on the B6413, with its stunning views across to Blencathra and the Lake District. It was amazingly clear today and I just wish I had a better knowledge of the names of all the fells I could see - I can name Blencathra and Skiddaw and I'm pretty sure we could see Hevellyn as well, but I wasn't sure which were further to the south. Could we see as far as the Old Man of Coniston or Scafell (probably not as we'd be looking from the North East 'diagonally' across)?

It was a surprisingly short cycle before we were passing through Croglin, which always makes me think of the story of the Croglin Vampire. It's worth reading the story in the link, even with the irritating advertisements!

Shortly after this we turned off the 'main' road, which goes down to Kirksoswald and then Lazonby, to go to Renwick. This was a stretch of road I hadn't been along before, and in fact I've only passed through Renwick once before when Penny and I cycled from Penrith up Hartside, before having a very cold descent back down the hill on a Sunday afternoon when all the cafes had closed (it was Mothering Sunday 2011, as written up in my previous blog... where does the time go!).

From Renwick rather than retracing our wheel turns to Unthank and Melmerby, I chose to take a different route down past Viol Moor to Little Salkeld. It was a lovely route, with several undulations over becks including one with the lovely name of Hazelrigg Beck. We could have done a short diversion to see Long Meg and her Daughters (I notice from the map that we also cycled past Little Meg); and we could have stopped at the mill cafe at Little Salkeld if it had been open. Instead, we went into Cranstons' Cafe Oswald in Penrith, which I had visited earlier that day for breakfast. The food in there is great and as I'd had quite a large breakfast I 'just' had cake and a drink while Penny had a sort of all-day-vegetarian-type-breakfast, which looked delicious. I can recommend it: the food is good and the service is friendly.

We had done it! We had cycled round all of the outside of Cumbria, and I had done a few extra bits as well. It just remains for me now to write it all up properly; and meanwhile there are plenty of Cumbrian bike rides I still want to do. It's a beautiful county, and there is so much more to it than just the Lake District.