Road to Hexham

I had to pickup our daughter Eleanor and her boyfriend Georg who flew over to Newcastle to visit us for a few days. I took the opportunity and started early in the morning in order to take some more panorama shots of the area.

It is my favourite scenic route through the are Alston area and I have done it many times also on my bicycle during previous visits. So I was quite glad to have time enough on my hands to have plenty of stops while monitoring the progress of Eleanor´s journey on the Internet.

You can see the location of the Panoramas on the two maps. For the first I had to take a little detour since it is taken from below the little sideroad that brings you to Blagill above the Nent. It overlooks the Nent valley on the left and Alston on the right with Cross Fell and the radio station on top of Great Dunn Fell in the distance. 

The first four photos on this page are shots of the beautiful cotton grass from Panorama site number 2 which is further up the main road. I was able to park my car up there at a small tarmac side road that leads to an electric relay station. From there you can easily make your way into the cotton grass meadow and pick the best spot for the photos. You can again make out Cross Fell and Great Dunn Fell in the distance (slightly to the left of the centre).

Panorama 3 was taken on the descent into the valley taking a side view where on the right. If you zoom in you can just see the tip of the  conifer plantations which are located above the road leading up from Alston. Almost snow like, the hills on the right are covered in cotton grass. 

I caught a small bird on camera on the stone wall and the following four pictures are individual shots of the location. 

The last three photos are from the beautiful meadows alongside the river West Allen. The road brings you to the bridge across the Allen just after the confluence of West and East Allen where - after the crossing - you start the steep climb onto the plateau towards Plankey Mill.