Birmingham to Edinburgh Route Advice Needed

I have a week off in August, and plan to ride from Birmingham to Edinburgh. Travelling light (staying with friends/family/hostels) but I'm not mega-fit so not really looking to smash the speed or do more than 70 miles in any one day. I can take either my aluminium road bike, or steel hybrid. I think I'd prefer the former, but obviously that limits me to proper roads.

Does anyone have any route suggestions? Areas/places that make good riding or are good to stay at or see? I've not really been anywhere north except Manchester and the Lake District.

I have family/friends in Nottingham and Sheffield, so they would ideally form the first two nights, but going via Sheffield seems to plunge me into miles and miles of urban sprawl, so I was also looking at going more eastward...

Not a fan of A-roads, so I'd like to avoid them wherever possible.

Any advice gratefully received.

I think there is a sustrans route from Birmingham to Derby, then Nottingham.

There's certainly Route 6 (I think?) that goes through Loughborough to Derby and is a nice route (or was when I rode it a few years back).

Quick mock-up would be something like this.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/brimingham-to-edinburgh

There are some A-road that's perfectly fine to ride on in the North of England, would recommend going through Yad Moss as well, route to Moffat is optional, but from Brampton it's a straight easy road to make up for lost time if necessary, after Moffat, you get the glorious Scotland.

70 miles a day is doable (5 days), wake up reasonably early (7am) and you're likely to finish before 3pm, with lots of time on hand to take it easy and see the scenery.

clearly you've never been to birmingham ed, theres much nicer routes out of the city!

I'm sure there must be, I'm not going to spend hours figuring out the route!

Thanks for the advice Ed.

I generally avoid using rural a-roads as much as possible, but I usually ride within 30 miles of Birmingham, so maybe I'll dally with some oop north. I've read elsewhere that routes across the Peak District are pretty congested and grim during the week (which is when I'd be doing it) so I'm a bit worried about that. Might skirt the issue and go eastwards, but tuck back in to (something like) Ed's suggested route.

Anyone been east coast between Newcastle and Edinburgh?

I'm leaving early on a Saturday morning, so happy to ride straight through Brum and out through Sutton Coldfield towards Nottingham.

I've driven it, its lovely. loads of castles!

I can defintely tell you that from Bernard castle to Edinburgh is a lovely ride, apart from between longtown and Moffat as I've ridden that section.

Be sure to ride Yad Moss.