Drivelines
England/8 min read

The 10 best driving roads in England.

England’s geography is a gift to the keen driver, offering everything from vast moorland sweeps to intricate coastal lanes. We’ve analysed the curvature, surface quality, and topography across the country to find the routes that truly reward a thoughtful driver. Here are the ten best stretches of tarmac in England.

By Drivelines·Published 06 May 2026
REGION OVERVIEW

From moorland sweeps to coastal coils

England’s road network is famously dense, but escape the arterial routes and you find a landscape that seems engineered for driving pleasure. From the vast, open sweep of the high Pennines and the heavily cambered passes of the Lake District, down to the intricate, stone-walled coastal lanes of Cornwall, the variety is immense. The best English roads don’t rely on Alpine altitudes; instead, they challenge you with sudden topographical shifts, complex sightlines, and corners that tighten when you least expect it.

Routes mapped
10
Total distance
271km
Avg curve idx
7.1/10
Map of all 10 routes in england
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Hollow West (A593)
10
A593 · Lake District · Expert
Mixed widthSmooth surface

Hollow West (A593)

The A593 south of Coniston is an incredibly intense piece of Lake District driving. Tightly coiled and often alarmingly narrow, it possesses a staccato rhythm that takes genuine skill to unlock without disturbing your passengers. It demands respect for the tight sightlines and rewards drivers who look well past the A-pillar.

Dry-stone walls border much of the route, amplifying your engine note but completely masking the approach of oncoming tourist coaches.

Distance
26.7km
Drive time
0h 44m
Curve idx
9.2/10
Climb
679m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Oakamoor Road (B5417)
09
B5417 · Staffordshire Moorlands · Spirited
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Oakamoor Road (B5417)

The B5417 is the 1762 Blythe Marsh to Thorpe turnpike: it drops steeply out of Cheadle into the Churnet Valley at Oakamoor, crosses the river on a narrow four-arch sandstone bridge and climbs straight out again up Star Bank, 213 m in 2.9 km at 7.3% average and 13% at the steepest, towards Cotton. Five miles, one of the highest curve densities in the Midlands set, smooth tarmac and sightlines that close in under the wooded banks: it rewards patience on the descents and a settled line on the climb.

The Churnet bridge at the foot of the drop into Oakamoor is narrow and the climb starts immediately off it, so expect to give way; the road pinches in several more times between there and Cheadle.

Distance
8.1km
Drive time
0h 11m
Curve idx
7.6/10
Climb
166m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Watergate Road (B3276)
08
B3276 · North Cornwall · Expert
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Watergate Road (B3276)

The B3276 is the coast road from Newquay toward Padstow, and for thirteen miles it drops into and climbs out of one valley after another: Watergate Bay, Mawgan Porth where the Menalhyl reaches the sea between high cliffs, the Carnewas cliffs above Bedruthan Steps, then Porthcothan and the Seven Bays around St Merryn. The road is rarely level and the curve density is near the top of the UK set, yet the tarmac is unusually good for a Cornish B-road; it rewards smooth inputs on the descents and patience behind whatever is climbing ahead.

Beach traffic sets the pace in summer: the Watergate Bay beachfront car park fills fast and Mawgan Porth's is close to full by ten in peak season, so cars turning into and out of the beaches are the hazard, not the corners.

Distance
22.1km
Drive time
0h 34m
Curve idx
9.2/10
Climb
450m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Scotch Jeans (A684)
07
A684 · Yorkshire Dales · Spirited
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Scotch Jeans (A684)

From Sedbergh the A684 turns up Garsdale and runs seven miles between Baugh Fell and Rise Hill alongside the Clough, crossing and re-crossing the river on a string of narrow bridges. It then climbs to the watershed at Garsdale Head, ducks under the Settle and Carlisle viaduct and drops through upper Wensleydale to Appersett and Hawes. Curvature is high for an A-road because it follows the river and the field walls: quick, connected medium-speed bends on a good surface, plus two proper right-angle corners, one at Garsdale Hall and one in Sedbergh itself. It rewards reading walls and bridge parapets two bends ahead rather than pace.

The Moorcock Inn at the B6259 junction is the only pub in the sixteen miles between Sedbergh and Hawes. Through 2026 the dale had a run of culvert and retaining-wall rebuilds under full closures, the last into mid-October, so check the council's roadworks page before you commit.

Distance
23.6km
Drive time
0h 32m
Curve idx
7.8/10
Climb
390m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Higher Stennack (B3306)
06
B3306 · Cornwall Coast · Expert
Mixed widthSmooth surface

Higher Stennack (B3306)

Leaving St Ives as Higher Stennack, the B3306 runs thirteen miles along the north coast of Penwith through Zennor, Morvah and Pendeen to St Just, moor on one side and the Celtic Sea on the other. It is tight, twisting and narrow, with cattle grids and places where one of you will be reversing, and regulars reckon the best of it is in the first five miles out of St Ives. The blind crests and late-apex corners between granite hedges reward line-choice at a pace that leaves room for the tractor. Between Pendeen and St Just it passes the Geevor, Levant and Botallack engine houses of the mining World Heritage Site.

Coaches use it all summer and locals say avoid July to September; a spring morning is the time. The Carn Galver engine houses between Zennor and Morvah are the sensible place to pull off and look.

Distance
20.7km
Drive time
0h 37m
Curve idx
9.6/10
Climb
401m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Little Hereford Bridge (A456)
05
A456 · Shropshire Borders · Easy
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Little Hereford Bridge (A456)

The A456's last ten miles run west along the Teme valley from Newnham Bridge, skirting north of Tenbury Wells and through Little Hereford before ending on the A49 at Woofferton. It is a wide, well-surfaced primary road with a low corner count, so the pleasure is in holding a steady rhythm through long, open bends rather than working the wheel. You cross three county boundaries on the way, though only the signs give it away.

Little Hereford is a 50 limit past the black-and-white village hall, and the Teme floods this valley more winters than not; if the Environment Agency has a warning out for Tenbury and Burford, expect standing water near Newnham Bridge.

Distance
18.3km
Drive time
0h 19m
Curve idx
3.3/10
Climb
252m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Buxton New Road (A537)
04
A537 · Peak District · Spirited
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Buxton New Road (A537)

The A537 climbs out of Macclesfield to the Cat and Fiddle Inn at 1,689 ft over 7.5 miles of straights broken by sharp, often blind bends across open moor. The inn was Britain's second-highest pub until it shut in 2015 and is now the Forest Distillery's shop. The stretch carries a 50 limit and rear-facing average-speed cameras that have been in place since 2010, after the road was rated the most dangerous in the UK. What remains is a road that rewards reading the camber and placing the car early; the corners lose nothing at the posted 50.

The camera sites pair up unpredictably along the whole climb, so hold 50 from Macclesfield to the A54 junction. Cheshire East shuts the road in snow. Both the A537 and A54 closed in January 2025, so check before a winter run.

Distance
13.7km
Drive time
0h 16m
Curve idx
7.9/10
Climb
492m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Lartington Lane (B6277)
03
B6277 · Teesdale · Easy
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Lartington Lane (B6277)

Our stretch is 25 miles of the B6277 from Lartington up the north side of the Tees, through Cotherstone and Romaldkirk to the London Lead Company's old market town at Middleton-in-Teesdale, then past High Force and Langdon Beck to Harwood. It is a valley road rather than a pass: flowing corners between stone villages on a mostly smooth surface, with the gradient only really arriving beyond Langdon Beck where the road lifts onto open moor and snow poles start lining the verges. Riders score its corners highly and its straights poorly, which is the right balance for a curve index of 4.6.

Above the last farmhouse on the fell the surface turns bumpy and the sheep are unfenced and indecisive; lower down, the High Force car park beside the road fills with waterfall traffic in summer, so expect people crossing there.

Distance
39.7km
Drive time
0h 46m
Curve idx
4.6/10
Climb
311m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Townfoot (A686)
02
A686 · North Pennines · Spirited
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Townfoot (A686)

From Melmerby the A686 climbs in stacked hairpins to Hartside at 1,903 feet, runs on over Alston Moor to England's highest market town and drops down the Allen and South Tyne valleys to Haydon Bridge, a road the AA and Top Gear both put in their top-ten drives. The bends are wide and well cambered and the sightlines on the Melmerby side are long, so it rewards reading a corner ahead and smooth, deliberate inputs; the surface varies far more than the alignment does. The difficulty here is weather and exposure, not tightness.

There is no café at Hartside any more, as it burned down in 2018 and was demolished, but the summit car park still fills with bikes on a dry weekend, and the police know it: Melmerby is a known speed-check spot and the 50 limit toward Langwathby is enforced.

Distance
46.3km
Drive time
0h 52m
Curve idx
6.1/10
Climb
954m
StartEnd
Plan a drive to Kirkstone Pass (A592)
01
A592 · Lake District · Spirited
Dual-trackSmooth surface

Kirkstone Pass (A592)

At 1,489 ft the A592 over Kirkstone is the highest Lake District pass open to traffic, and unusually for the Lakes it is a proper two-way A-road with centre lines and no hairpins. From the Windermere side it is a long, shallow climb, 10 km at an average of 3.6% and peaking at 12 to 13% near the top, which is why it rewards momentum and smooth steering rather than gear-hunting; the Patterdale side is shorter and steeper, up to 18% past Brothers Water. The Brotherswater-to-Hird Wood section was rebuilt under the Safer Roads Fund in 2023 to 2024 with new drainage and crash barriers, so the surface is as good as it has been.

The road was shut for eight months after the November 2025 landslip at High Kingate and only fully reopened in July 2026. The summit inn had been closed for some years by then, though its pay-by-app car park kept operating, so plan a stop in Ambleside or Glenridding rather than at the top.

Distance
52.4km
Drive time
1h 17m
Curve idx
6.0/10
Climb
1115m
// KEEP READING
Sibling guide · Scenic
Top 10 scenic drives in England
Parent region · Great Britain
Top 10 driving roads in Great Britain
Nearby · Scotland
Top 10 driving roads in Scotland
Nearby · Wales
Top 10 driving roads in Wales
Index · Every region
All Top 10 Field Guides

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