Holiday Homes in Alston

High on the moors of the North Pennines, Alston is one of the most remarkable little towns in England. Reputed to be the highest market town in the country, at around a thousand feet above sea level, it sits on the upper reaches of the South Tyne amid wild, open country, well to the east of the Lake District. This is a base for lovers of big skies, empty moorland and industrial heritage rather than lakes and fells, and it is all the more special for it.

The town itself is a steep, cobbled delight, its main street climbing past dated seventeenth-century stone buildings to the market cross. Alston's past lies in lead mining, a story told at the nearby Nenthead Mines, and it is the home of the South Tynedale Railway, England's highest narrow-gauge line, which steams up the valley towards Slaggyford. The dramatic Hartside Pass, one of the country's great scenic drives, climbs away towards the Eden Valley with views to the Solway and the hills of Scotland.

Alston sits within the North Pennines National Landscape and makes a fine base for walkers, with the Pennine Way passing through and the Sea to Sea cycle route close by. The Lakes are a scenic drive west across the Eden Valley. For a wonderfully remote, characterful escape, choose one of our Alston holiday homes and savour the high Pennine country.