Birmingham to Dumfries via Peak District?

Orinoco

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Local advice needed...

I'm travelling up to Scotland in June, stopping with a friend who lives north of Birmingham on a Friday evening. I was thinking of wiggling up through the Peak District and on up over the moors on the Saturday, something like the following...

Ashbourne
A515 to Buxton
A6 to Chapel en le Frith/Glossop
A57 Glossop via snake Pass
A6024 to Holmfirth
A635/A670/A672 - Greenfield/Dobcross/Denshaw
on to Rippenden
A646 to Hebden Bridge
A6033 to Keithley
then Aysgarth - Scotch Corner - Barnard Castle - Alston - Dumfries

Basecamp reckons 290 miles, which is a distance in a day on A's and B's

It looks a right mare trying to avoid the worst of the built up areas, is it possible/doable on a saturday or would I be better off going M6 to clear the area and finding some roads across the Pennines on the way up?

Coming from the south west all looks like a right pain

Any locals tossers care to offer advice?

TIA
 
Ashbourne
A515 to Buxton
A6 to Chapel en le Frith/Glossop
A57 Glossop via snake Pass

All these are 50 mph limits and busy tedious roads. Give me a few minutes and i’ll Come up with something better.
 
Hi Orinoco,

I did a similar trip a couple of years ago setting off from Nottingham. We went on a Thursday morning, as I recall. We tried to time it so we were leaving the Peak District about 9.30am allowing the motorway traffic around Manchester to calm down. We set off at 7.30 and stopped for brekkie in Glossop. Very little traffic in the Peak District and hardly saw a car on Snake pass.

A blast on the motorway to A590 junction and hit the Lakes. Spent a couple of hours riding around there and having coffee before re-joining the M6 at Penrith. An hour Approx to Dumfries where we stayed for the night. To be honest we could have got further North but we had a great ride there without spending too much time on motorways.

Personally I'd shorten the peaks a little and use the saved time in the lakes or Yorkshire dales to break the journey a little

Enjoy your trip :beerjug:
 
Try this for size:

From Ashbourne follow A515 for about 6 miles. Turn off left towards Alstonefield. Follow road for 5 miles to Hulme End. Turn left onto B5054 then after about a mile turn right onto B5053 towards Longnor.

Through Longnor to junction with A515, cross onto A5270 then right onto A6 and left onto B6049. Through Millersdale and Tideswell. Cross A623 and continue on B6049 to Brough.

Turn right onto A6187 and after a couple of miles turn left onto A6013, through Bamford and past Ladybower reservoir. Turn left onto Snake pass.

Quite a bit of this is still 50mph (that’s Derbyshire for you :rolleyes:), but hopefully quieter and more scenic.

I could suggest plenty of other stuff, but appreciate that you’ve got a timescale.
 
Personally I'd shorten the peaks a little and use the saved time in the lakes or Yorkshire dales to break the journey a little

Enjoy your trip :beerjug:

Or you could always do this :)

In the same vein, avoiding the West Yorkshire towns if you can would be good as it takes absolutely ages to get through them.
 
Via Longtown and Gretna

Orinoco

Down into Alston then the A689 (fab road) into Brampton, follow signs for Longtown, then into Gretna Green...B721 to Annan, follow signs for Dumfries on the B724. :thumb

TD
:thumb2
 
Try this for size:

From Ashbourne follow A515 for about 6 miles. Turn off left towards Alstonefield. Follow road for 5 miles to Hulme End. Turn left onto B5054 then after about a mile turn right onto B5053 towards Longnor.

Through Longnor to junction with A515, cross onto A5270 then right onto A6 and left onto B6049. Through Millersdale and Tideswell. Cross A623 and continue on B6049 to Brough.

Turn right onto A6187 and after a couple of miles turn left onto A6013, through Bamford and past Ladybower reservoir. Turn left onto Snake pass.

Quite a bit of this is still 50mph (that’s Derbyshire for you :rolleyes:), but hopefully quieter and more scenic.

I could suggest plenty of other stuff, but appreciate that you’ve got a timescale.

Some lovely roads to the left of the Ashbourne to Buxton Road

My Dad lives in Dalbeattie and before I’ve tried to find a good, peaks and dales route, it’s getting across the M62 and missing the cities that’s the challenge - My route took me around Scammondon Water and when in the dales I went up past Tan Hill and East towards Barnard’s Castle but not quite that far as you can cut across and pick up roads taking you to the 6277 to Carlisle
 
Echo all the comments here the primary A roads through the peaks are tedious at best and i try to avoid them. There are some fabulous roads through the peaks but they either have b number or no number at all.

If your travelling during the week its better but avoid like the plague if a weekend. The TET provides a reasonable route too if you skip the offroad sections.

From Birmingham an alternative is to take the pain of the M6 till preston. Take the A59 then head through the trough of bowland. Lythe fell road is worth traversing. From here then wangle your way through yorkshire on any number of the great roads.
 


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