Edinburgh to Manchester over a weekend
- Thread starter 400bhp
- Start date
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Kirstie
Über Member
Of your route I've ridden most of it from Edinburgh - Brampton. It's a spectacular ride and you will love every minute. I didn't find the ride down to innerleithen anything like as bad as the ride into Brampton, which is lots of short, sharp hills. Others seems to have made some good suggestions for the last leg. Hope you have a great time.
aberal
Guru
- Location
- Midlothian
Western Approach Road. A freeway with no cycling. Easy to skirt around it though.
It is actually quite complicated to get out of there, there are a lot of one way streets! I think this works?
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4580665
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Yip that's probably the best way :-)
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
Final draft routes below:
1. Edinburgh to Innerleiven. Looks like a tough climb into the village
2. Innerleiven to Burton. The first 40 miles look spectacular.
3. Homeward leg. Decided to keep it simple-ish for this part.
Comments have been appreciated so far so if anyone suggests detours then fire away
And, if anyone wants to join me for part of the journey then you would be welcome
As I posted much earlier in the thread I was planning a similar ride last weekend. The following might help as I have been along some of routes 1 and 2 last Friday / Saturday. I took the train to Edinburgh and arrived at Waverley - the A7 the main road to the Borders runs right past the entrance. My wife is from Galashiels and I know Edinburgh and the general area quite well for a non-resident but I have never cycled in the city before. My advice for getting out of Edinburgh is grit your teeth, jump on the A7 and head down toward Bonnyrigg, Lasswade - it's about 10 miles. The road surface is poor in places and this suggests to me the side roads you have planned may be far worse. Traffic was OK and much of the inner city bit you can use a bus lane. I spent nearly an hour mucking around in Edinburgh trying to find a quiet way out of the city - in that time I could have been away. Took me 45 minutes from Waverley to Bonnyrigg. For one thing this does away with loads of navigation issues as it's just straight forward A7 Galashiels.
You may not be aware but some of your route follows Sustrans NCN1. I think it is simpler to take this all the way to Innerleithen as you will be on it for quite a while anyway. In Bonnyrigg at the traffic lights (only one set) turn left towards Gorebridge (B704), downhill, up to round about, straight on, down short incline and turn right in bottom of dip, from here it is signposted NCN 1 through to Innerleithen. I found this to be a great ride, really enjoyed it. A couple of comments, I'm nearly 57, with loads of experience but no world beater, the climb you mention into the village starts about 15-16 miles from Innerleithen, it's quite long but I got up easily at about 9mph into a southerly wind. From the top you have a long, long descent all the way apart from one minor incline. Other remark is this I had a strong southerly wind last Friday and this route is initially quite exposed and had a strong side-wind, after climbing up Whitehope Law (think that's the name of the hill) your in a lovely valley except a southerly wind blows straight up it. I had to pedal hard to descend at 18mph on what I reckon should be a 25-30mph descent.
Turn right in Innerleithen and the first cafe you come to on the right is cycle friendly and has chain rings round the corner to lock your bike to.
At this point our routes diverge as I went straight over the junction towards Galashiels and Melrose - my planned stop was in Melrose for a night at the Borders Book Festival.
On Saturday I rode Melrose to Selkirk and then picked up the B7009 which joins your route at Crosslee. I was in lovely valley all the way, thinking of the hills on my right I can see where the climbing comes in!!!! From Crosslee through to Langholm was fantastic, spectacular riding. The road pretty much follows the river and there are no serious climbs from this point, well not in my mind and certainly nothing like the one leading to Innerleithen. It's a bit lumpy in places but essentially down hill or flatish most of the way. Shortly after Ettrick much of the surface is new having been replaced for the timber wagons, this is a big forestry area. One WARNING there is a point where you come to a spectacular view and a sign saying welcome to Dumfries and Galloway, and a huge winding descent in front of you. There are more of these with decent surfaces but they all have the odd, perhaps one or two, BIG potholes. I remember one which looked about 12" wide and 6" deep!! Outside some farm entrances at the bottom of the descents there are multiple potholes to avoid.
Between Gorebridge and Innerleith there are no shops or cafes. From Crosslee to Langholm there is one - The Tibetan Tearoom.
My route Edinburgh - Carlisle with a few deviations to look at stuff, I wasn't in a hurry, was 149 miles. I didn't feel overtaxed at any point. 65 miles Friday (including 10 from home to station) and 84 Saturday.
At Langholm I headed down the A7, I was soaked through, the forecast for Sunday was terrible and I baled out on to a train at Carlisle!!!!
Fiona N
Veteran
I just looked at the south end of the route to Burton - do you know you've chosen to climb a whopping hill on the main road when there's a gorgeous back road which avoids a lot of the climb and gets you to the same spot? It's the climb from Roundthwaite to where you turn off the A685 (Kendal road through Grayrigg) - the top here is called Lune Gap and it's a great descent done in the opposite direction. As an alternative, there's a tiny road left off the main road just at the bottm of the climb where you cross the river. It's called Fairmile road and contours across the fell side before dropping steeply down to the Sedbergh road - your current route cuts across to the south half of this route from Lowgill and Beckfoot.
OP
OP
400bhp
Guru
OP
OP
400bhp
Guru
well, I completed it this weekend.
Left E'burgh at around 5pm on Fri, was home by 1pm on Sunday.
Boy was Saturday hard-left the b&b at 7:45am and didn't arrive until 9pm. Ran out of steam at 100 miles and it was VERY hilly. My route was certainly the hard way that's for sure.
Took the easier route home on Sunday, straight down the A6.
Really enjoyed it and it has reminded me of what I am able to achieve if I set my mind to it.
Thank you to all for your comments.
Next trip - London to Manchester potentially
Left E'burgh at around 5pm on Fri, was home by 1pm on Sunday.
Boy was Saturday hard-left the b&b at 7:45am and didn't arrive until 9pm. Ran out of steam at 100 miles and it was VERY hilly. My route was certainly the hard way that's for sure.
Took the easier route home on Sunday, straight down the A6.
Really enjoyed it and it has reminded me of what I am able to achieve if I set my mind to it.
Thank you to all for your comments.
Next trip - London to Manchester potentially
