Consett
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Consett

Consett

County Durham market town on a North Pennines ridge, built around its former steelworks.

Consett is a town in County Durham, sitting on a ridge in the North Pennines with wide views across the surrounding countryside. It was built around its steelworks, which for over a century dominated the town and provided most of its employment. When the Consett Steelworks closed in 1980, it was one of the largest industrial closures in British history and left the town to reinvent itself.

Today Consett is a quiet market town, more a local service centre than a tourist destination. Its main value to travellers is as a base for exploring the surrounding Durham dales and the Derwent Valley, which has decent walking. The C2C cycle route (Coast to Coast) passes nearby.

Guide

Things to Do

Consett is not a destination in itself, but the surrounding countryside — the Derwent Valley and the North Pennine fringes — offers good walking and cycling. The Hownsgill Viaduct, just west of town, is the most striking structure in the area and a landmark on the C2C cycle route. The town's steel heritage is now largely invisible, though a few markers and the shape of the landscape — stripped of the industrial clutter that was removed after 1980 — remain.