North-West England and Scotland

[Gingerbloke]

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84971618 East of Chester to Warrington. Weds 11th May a.m.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84971605 Warrington to Bolton le Sands. Weds 11th May p.m.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85686115 Bolton le Sands to near Lockerbie. Thurs 12th May.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85686084 Lockerbie to Loch Lomond. Friday 13th May. (battery died and had to use phone to get across Glasgow - Not recommended.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85686056 Loch Lomond to Fort William. Sat 14th May. *** My favourite day of the whole trip ***

 

[kyussmondo]

I followed a scenic route from Bridges up to Chester then navigated my way into Liverpool (least favourite part of my trip). Liverpool to Preston wasn't brilliant, although the A6 north of Preston all the way to Carlisle was a nice road. Not too much traffic and plenty of cycle lanes as well. The only problem I encountered was joining the A591 just south of Kendal in rush hour traffic! The A6 was one of the quickest parts of my journey and quite scenic as well. You have Shap just north of Kendal which is hilly but really nothing to worry about, just a long slow slog.

There is a quieter route east of the A6 through Leigh, Blackburn and up to Slaidburn then back across to Carlisle. Eitherway, you cannot avoid the North West Cities if you are going up the west coast route. North of Blackburn and north of Preston, the scenery improves and the roads are less busy.

In Scotland I went up through Dumfries and Galloway up through the Isle of Arran to avoid Glasgow. Arran up to Glencoe is a nice route and not too busy. Glencoe up towards Loch Ness on the A82 is busy. I took the Great Glen Way for a lot of it. An unpaved canal path for most of it although it does get hilly by Loch Lochy. On a racing bike though I don't think there is any other option than to follow the A82.

Just off Loch Ness then go over the top to Beauly to avoid Inverness and things are pretty much quiet on the roads from then on.

 

[Glow worm]

If you do use the 62, watch out for the Silver Jubilee Bridge (Runcorn-Widnes Bridge). You do NOT want to cycle over that! Instant suicide comes to mind.

Oh yes - thanks for the tip. That bridge looks awful. Sustrans online map says you can 'walk' your bike over the bridge on the adjacent pavement- on Google Street view it looks like you could probably cycle it so long as there are no peds. It's the big, steep load of steps I've just spotted a little bit further along towards Hale by the estuary I'm not relishing as well!

 

[kyussmondo]

The Runcorn Bridge was a nightmare and I have to admit that I did cheat and took the train from Runcorn Station to Liverpool Centre. Then cycled from Liverpool Station to Liverpool YHA. There are no obvious ways across, and I believe cycling through the tunnels from Chester is forbidden. The only other option I can think of is taking a ferry over the Mersey. If I was to do it again I would avoid Liverpool and stay in a hotel or B&B. I only went into Liverpool to get to the nearest YHA!

 

[sabian92]

Oh yes - thanks for the tip. That bridge looks awful. Sustrans online map says you can 'walk' your bike over the bridge on the adjacent pavement- on Google Street view it looks like you could probably cycle it so long as there are no peds. It's the big, steep load of steps I've just spotted a little bit further along towards Hale by the estuary I'm not relishing as well!

I saw a man cycle over it the other day (The only time, might I add in my 19 years of living here), the words "bassive mollocks" come to mind. You can cycle over it - I do it 4 days a week to college on the path - It's not very wide, very bad in high winds and not surfaced that well, but you can do it on a road bike (I do). Avoid the road though, it's always full of busses, HGVs, impatient car drivers and afterwards it leads straight onto a dual carriage way so as people come off the bridge they're easily doing 60, 70mph even though legally it's only a 40 until a mile or so further on. The only other way to get over the water is via Warrington, which will add around 20 miles to your day, easily.

The Runcorn Bridge was a nightmare and I have to admit that I did cheat and took the train from Runcorn Station to Liverpool Centre. Then cycled from Liverpool Station to Liverpool YHA. There are no obvious ways across, and I believe cycling through the tunnels from Chester is forbidden. The only other option I can think of is taking a ferry over the Mersey. If I was to do it again I would avoid Liverpool and stay in a hotel or B&B. I only went into Liverpool to get to the nearest YHA!

Not a bad plan. It's only a fiver from Runcorn to Lime Street and takes 20 minutes. If it's not banned, I certainly wouldn't cycle through the tunnels from The Wirral into Liverpool - they're busy and quite dark, so unless you're hellbent on cycling every last inch, I'd take the train. Take it from a local.