Halfway between Newcastle and Edinburgh lies the red-roofed Elizabethan town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. This is England, but only just. Scotland starts a scant three miles away, so the town is a useful base from which to explore the borderland’s rich mix of coast, castles, uplands and market towns.
To Berwick’s north are the low-slungmarket town Wooler, then head on up the Harthope Valley or east, towards Chatton and Chillingham. All routes offer majestic vistas. Gravel riders can reach Wooler via the northern section of the Sandstone Way, a 190-mile off-road route linking Berwick and Hexham, way down south on the River Tyne.
