Top 10 Driving Roads in the UK?

[cw42]

In no particular order;

1/ the stelvio pass http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/stelvio%20day%...
2/ the evo triangle http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/evo%20triangle...
3/ holme moss http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/videos/mine_on_holme_...
4/ iom mountain road http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/iom%20mountain...
5/ B5105 from Ruthin on the way to the Triangle http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/B5105%20Ruthin...
6/ the cat and fiddle http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/cat%20&%20...
7/ long hill http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/long%20hill%20...
8/ the snake pass http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/snake%20pass%2...
9/ strines http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/strines%20at%2...
10/ a54 macc to buxton http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/A54.wmv
10a/ buckden to gayle http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/buckden%20to%2...
10b/ buttertubs http://www.scoobysmacs.co.uk/Videos/buttertubs%202...

all brilliant roads imho

[Demure]

Anyone else driven the A939?

Found it by accident a few years ago and have visited it every year since


Edited to add:

Have been driving around Dartmoor recently. Really good driving roads so thought I would share some pics,

Edited by Demure on Saturday 1st March 14:38

[chris_w666]

northandy said:

Ah Blakey Ridge, IMO the best driving road bar none...

When combined with the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley and the A169 Whitby - Pickering makes days off work even more valueable.

[whitejaba]

I usually leave about 5 past 6 in the morning, and get to the office before half 8 without fail. The run back home can sometimes be a pain however, like last friday took 3 and a half hours after I had cleared Swindon in 50 minutes, which would have been the magic 2 hour run...I still think there is a sub 2 hour run there though. I drive almost the perfect car for the run now as its almost invisible. A Toyota Auris Diesel in stealth Grey. It attracts NO attention so I get left alone to get on with it!!! I once did the run in a Toyota Aygo 1.0. Pretty much flat out all the way and left foot braking like mad to help keep momentum up. That took less than 2 hours 20 minutes.

The string of bends from Clows Top through to Abberley in great, that tricky one at the bottom of the hill before you go up the hill to abberley village is ace and very difficult to get right. Its got good sight lines though so you don't get in anyones way if you get it a bit wrong.

theboss said:

What a drive! As I now live in Bridgnorth and regularly travel to Southampton I will have to try some of those deviations out myself.

I also use those B-roads in the Cleobury / Abberley area whenever I work in Worcester city centre (as opposed to the very tedious and slow A442/A449 through Kidderminster) and they are certainly good fun.



What time of the day do you drive this at though? I find it hard to believe you could consistently and reliably do it in 2:30 or less at any time other than the dead of night, unless you're on a bike.

whitejaba said:

Never mind top ten roads, there are a few good ones on my drive to work. Ok try this for a route.

A32 out of Fareham up to Droxford. Take a left in Droxford up North End Lane which becomes Hacketts lane and enjoy blast to B3035. Turn left onto this then almost straight away turn right onto Corhampton Lane which becomes Stake's Lane. I'm sure a few southerners will recognise this one as it becomes Belmore Lane which runs to Morestead. Follow the Morestead road then till you get to the fiddly A31 Link up to the A34, and head north. Should take you 22-25 Minutes to get onto the A34 from Fareham.

Go up the A34 till you reach the A4 Turning but use the B4000 West. Watch out for a Van at Wickham though. A quick left onto the A338 then right pretty much straight away puts you back on the B4000. Follow this through Lambourn and enjoy through to Shrivenham. Here go Left, west down the A420 till you join the A419 North West, which becomes the A417 after Cirencester. Before you get to the end of the A417 near the Baloon pub on the Birdlip, head towards Elkstone. Follow this straight through and you will pick up the A435 near Cowley. Follow this till you can double back on the A436 to pick up the A417 by the Air Baloon pub. This little detour means you can miss the big ques that build up there at busy times. A417 then A40 round Gloucester to pick up the A38.

Stick to the A38 up through Tewkesbury so long as its not flooded. Keep going up till you get to Worcester then take the A4440 up towards Wittington by the M5. Go left on the A44 briefly till you pick up the A4440 again for some roundabout fun. This takes you up to junction 6 of the M5, where you want to pick up the A449 towards Kidderminster. Get off at Ombersley though and take the A4133 towards Tenbury Wells. You then need to pick up the A443 and after a bit take the B4202 though Abberley to Clows Top and enjoy. Get on the A456 towards Newnham Bridge from Clows Top.

Much better than M27, M3, A34, M4 A419, A417, M5 teddium.

Now do that every day. Usually takes 2 and a half hours each way. Thats extreme comutting for you. I've yet to break the 2 hour barrier for that run, but got down to 2 minutes off in Shed of the Year 2006.

Edited by theboss on Tuesday 26th February 10:02

[Chris71]

Swoxy said:

Isn't it amazing? I've only ever done it at night in my Fabia SDI.
Might even go for a drive later if I'm not tired. Can't wait till I get my hands on a real car, but at least each time I've done it and driven to the best of my ability the Fabia has still averaged 55 MPG!
Let me know if you find any other interesting routes nearby.

Edited by Swoxy on Friday 30th November 23:00

Really got to try this one out soon - I'm going to be living near the southern end of it as of next month.

There are a couple in the Cuffley area that are half decent too.

edit: On a rather different note, just seen the Dartmoor pics above. I can confirm that the moor has some awesome driving roads (I grew up relatively nearby). Technically speaking, isn't it all 40mph limit now though? Never seen it being policed, but I suppose this could cause problems. I used to go up there out of tourist season training for Ten Tors and we'd always see some interesting cars and bikes being thrashed around there.

Edited by Chris71 on Wednesday 9th April 13:49

[Jimmy2Kiss]

My nomination is the A44 from Aberystwyth to Llangurig in particular! some great bends on it!

[Sam.F]

Interesting thread, thought I'd throw my two cents in, so in no particular order...

A689 Brampton to Alston, which I think is more challenging than Hartside and is generally much less busy.

A591 Ambleside to Keswick, it's just brilliant if you take the time to get a clear run.

B5305 Penrith to Wigton, very fast bit of road and fairly quiet.

A6 Penrith to Kendal is a great stretch to remind you what the world was like before motorways. One of the few roads left with lots of 3-lane sections.

Former A625 from Chapel-en-le-Frith down to Winnatts Pass at Castleton, which has great sightlines and some very nice S-Curves.

A53 Buxton to Leek was another nice stretch.

A413 Buckingham to Amersham was good fun: starts out with lots of twisties and finishes up with swathes of very wide, straight single carriageway. The locals round there certainly like to "make progress!"

A68 south of the border (see other thread!)

A95 from Aviemore up to Abernour, typical Scottish A-road in that it's very well surfaced and aligned, and populated by crazy people in old peugeots that embarrass theoretically much faster machinery.

A82, pretty much all of it is great fun, but I particularly like the bit from Crianlarich up to Glen Coe.

There, think that's 10 (although I'm holding back my absolute favourites because I want to keep them to myself!).

[Tom777]

I'm suprised the A272 is on there. It's a beautiful road, especially between Winchester and Petworth with some nice twisties. However so few overtaking opportunities and there's always slow moving traffic. The only decently paced part is as you enter off the spitfire link out of Winchester. I drive this road up to twice a week from before Uckfield and I've only once had a 'decent' run on it in the early hours. The A 285 from Petworth to Chichester is a good run, and some of the B roads off it around goodwood are worth exploring.

[bean455]

Try the A44 Leominster to Rhyader road.Simply awesome.

[Chris71]

Chris71 said:

Swoxy said:

Isn't it amazing? I've only ever done it at night in my Fabia SDI.
Might even go for a drive later if I'm not tired. Can't wait till I get my hands on a real car, but at least each time I've done it and driven to the best of my ability the Fabia has still averaged 55 MPG!
Let me know if you find any other interesting routes nearby.

Edited by Swoxy on Friday 30th November 23:00

Really got to try this one out soon - I'm going to be living near the southern end of it as of next month.

There are a couple in the Cuffley area that are half decent too.

edit: On a rather different note, just seen the Dartmoor pics above. I can confirm that the moor has some awesome driving roads (I grew up relatively nearby). Technically speaking, isn't it all 40mph limit now though? Never seen it being policed, but I suppose this could cause problems. I used to go up there out of tourist season training for Ten Tors and we'd always see some interesting cars and bikes being thrashed around there.

Edited by Chris71 on Wednesday 9th April 13:49

I finally gave it a try last night and to be honest I wasn't massively impressed. It is good - very good when you consider how close it is to London, but it's definitely not top 10 in the UK.

However, if you keep going north east, through Ware and towards Bishop's Stortford (around the Hadhams) there are some of the best driving roads I've seen in a while.

[mc_orion]

Either the A4103 Worcester - Hereford road
Or the A48 from junc 49 on the M4 to camarthen

[Hell27]

tybo said:

ralphk said:

I drove the hawes-ingleton road on sunday, i think its the b6255. its brilliant

One of my favourites....great road

My all time favourite road EVER!

[chris7676]

The road just north-west of Brigton around the Devil's Dyke area. Just one part of it, with 2 fantastic dips, very good surface and it's not even a B road.

[Si_steve]

IM gonna throw this one in, the B9016 between buckie and keith brilliant road lots of nice corners and ive never seen any camera's on it as im on it everyday for work, also the A96 between keith and aberdeen is a nice drive

[smiller]

Mrs M & I are currently on holiday in the Highlands near Glen Affric, and I suspect that I'll be adding to my 10 favourite roads over the next few days.

The first ones:

A87 between Invermoriston and Shiel Bridge

Unclassified between Shiel Bridge and Glenelg

[whirligig]

smiller said:

A87 between Invermoriston and Shiel Bridge

Totally agree - esp the part alongside Loch Clunie - long sweeping corners mean you can see miles ahead and overtake very safely and make excellent progress - and the scenery's a bonus of course!

[leon_t]

theboss said:

What a drive! As I now live in Bridgnorth and regularly travel to Southampton I will have to try some of those deviations out myself.

I also use those B-roads in the Cleobury / Abberley area whenever I work in Worcester city centre (as opposed to the very tedious and slow A442/A449 through Kidderminster) and they are certainly good fun.

What time of the day do you drive this at though? I find it hard to believe you could consistently and reliably do it in 2:30 or less at any time other than the dead of night, unless you're on a bike.

whitejaba said:

Never mind top ten roads, there are a few good ones on my drive to work. Ok try this for a route.

A32 out of Fareham up to Droxford. Take a left in Droxford up North End Lane which becomes Hacketts lane and enjoy blast to B3035. Turn left onto this then almost straight away turn right onto Corhampton Lane which becomes Stake's Lane. I'm sure a few southerners will recognise this one as it becomes Belmore Lane which runs to Morestead. Follow the Morestead road then till you get to the fiddly A31 Link up to the A34, and head north. Should take you 22-25 Minutes to get onto the A34 from Fareham.

Go up the A34 till you reach the A4 Turning but use the B4000 West. Watch out for a Van at Wickham though. A quick left onto the A338 then right pretty much straight away puts you back on the B4000. Follow this through Lambourn and enjoy through to Shrivenham. Here go Left, west down the A420 till you join the A419 North West, which becomes the A417 after Cirencester. Before you get to the end of the A417 near the Baloon pub on the Birdlip, head towards Elkstone. Follow this straight through and you will pick up the A435 near Cowley. Follow this till you can double back on the A436 to pick up the A417 by the Air Baloon pub. This little detour means you can miss the big ques that build up there at busy times. A417 then A40 round Gloucester to pick up the A38.

Stick to the A38 up through Tewkesbury so long as its not flooded. Keep going up till you get to Worcester then take the A4440 up towards Wittington by the M5. Go left on the A44 briefly till you pick up the A4440 again for some roundabout fun. This takes you up to junction 6 of the M5, where you want to pick up the A449 towards Kidderminster. Get off at Ombersley though and take the A4133 towards Tenbury Wells. You then need to pick up the A443 and after a bit take the B4202 though Abberley to Clows Top and enjoy. Get on the A456 towards Newnham Bridge from Clows Top.

Much better than M27, M3, A34, M4 A419, A417, M5 teddium.

Now do that every day. Usually takes 2 and a half hours each way. Thats extreme comutting for you. I've yet to break the 2 hour barrier for that run, but got down to 2 minutes off in Shed of the Year 2006.

Edited by theboss on Tuesday 26th February 10:02

Thanks for that, I drive from where I live in Wales back to Soton where my family are from about once a month, I do sometimes avoid the M3/M27 hell and use the morestead-corhampton route, then the hangers to Bishops Waltham (crashed my first car here, but take it more sensibly now), or use the A32 down to Wickham.

Please don't overcook it between Morestead and Corhampton either, as there has already been a few fatal accidents on that road (the same goes for the A32 and A272) and we really don't need camera vans and more cops around (the 272 has plenty of police after the bikers at weekends anyway).

Cheers for the route, will report back after I've driven it.

[fastcaterham]

The A44 is pretty good especially from llangurig to aberystwyth but the elan valley and aberystwyth mountain roads are pretty good too but its got to be quiet. Also the little road around nant y moch reservoir is a favourite of mine and if your lucky there are some real surprises up there. Once even bumped into a past motorsport world champion on that road and its not very often you can that!

[Who me ?]

Fort Augustus to Inverness via B862 and permutations of B851/etc to end up in Inverness or on the A9 just south of Inverness -lot of it is singletrack with a 30 on the first bit due to dam construction .

[smiller]

Another couple to add to me list from today:

A835 / A832 from Muir of Ord to Lochcarron. So fast and open that 0.80 leptons feels too slow on many stretches.

Unclassified road from the other side of Lochcarron to Applecross. Not fast. But, by f!!ck, until I do Stelvio that will be the most spectacular road I have driven.