over to Kirby Lonsdale - Devilsbridge (Burger van on site)
Choice of cafes depending on chosen route:
Filling Station Cafe, Crosthwaite Rd, Keswick, Cumbria, CA12 5PR.
Open daily with a bike night on Saturdays. Recommended by Dave Evans; "It's a small retro bike-themed diner with a 1960 classic motorcycle in the window. The food is excellent and they sell great proper coffee. There's ample parking and the cafe is only a few yards from the A66 at Keswick. The staff are very friendly and the food is of a high quality with good portion sizes. Highly recommended."
Hartside Top Cafe, Alston, Cumbria, CA9 3BW
Open daily March to October 09:00 - 17:00, November 10:00 - 16:00 and December until February according to weather. Fantastic views and great food in a cafe that stands in splendid isolation five miles from anywhere. Used as a staging post for rideouts by numerous biking groups and attracting up to 2,000 bikers at weekends in summer.
Looking for suggestions of decent roads and other attractions to make a day of it.
the only thing to seriously recommend Hartside (for us non coffee drinkers) is the road up to it or better still ....down
You do know the A6 north from Preston isnt great can be a bit slow and lots of villages...might take longer than you expect.
Yes, the A6 isn't great, it's worse before Preston with lots of speed cameras. The only real alternative would be the M6, but for those that can't use or don't like motorways (myself included) it's no alternative, unless you could recommend an alternative route?
I've never been to Hartside but it's early days, just floating the idea, open to suggestions.
Hi Folks, this is my side of the country and can confirm that the A6 North of Preston is a great run and a clear road, wide enough for passing slow motorists up to the South of Lancaster, just outside of Galgate. Are you wanting to take in all of the stops or are they just suggestions? Can come up with several routes through the Trough of Bowland missing out Lancaster and ending up at Devil's Bridge and then onto Hartside Top Cafe. My mate, also a member on here, TonzCBR, knows quite a few routes too and is more than willing to help out with your routes (he's a Devil's Bridge Boy!).
Hi Shadowlady, I've not traveled the A6 north of Preston for some time but remember it being very good as you say. Open to suggestions, gotta go to Devilsbridge it'd be rude not to Trough of Bowland would be good, not been there since I was young, any alternative routes would be great and much appreciated. Cumbria is just a blur from the M6 these days as I pass through on the way to my mates near Wigtown in Scotland close to the Solway
North Lakes and Hart side is good. I know the area well, but it,s a big area so it might be worth doing a weekend. My Dent weekend might pick up some of this area if you fancy using it as a reccy trip.
I know the Trough quite well, pm me if you want some ideas m8. Thinking Tickled trout to Clitheroe on A59 then up through Waddinton to dunsop bridge then caton and up to kirkby lonsdale
would have suggested the trough of bowland but only if its dry up to Gisburn then up to Long preston and onto the A65 but ud be adding some serious mileage on going this way. Alternative is A59 to Clitheroe as someone else has already said - its a fast road some of it is dualled.
If you want to skip the A6 north of Preston, it's only 20-odd minutes from the Tickled Trout up the M6 to the turn-off for Devils Bridge. Boring, but do-able.
the A59 A65 would be considerably quicker than the Trough just by virtue of the nature of the roads
However if your using the Trough rd there is a nice little cafe in Slaidburn there is also a cut thru from Slaidburn to Bentham (nr Ingleton) although its not a great road a fair few sheep did go over it last summer on my 9R so its doable on any bike.
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