Longest UK off-road surfaced cycle route?

[HighlandTrikeMike]

Hi,

While I don't mind cycling on the roads, if they're not too busy, I do prefer off-road cycle paths, particularly ones with a decent surface.
The scenery is often better and it just makes for a more relaxing experience.

For example, I plan to cycle along the North Wales Cycle Route 5 from Prestatyn to Llandudno. This is 95% off-road and is a tarmac surface.
It's quite short though at about 20 miles.

What's the longest cycle route in the UK that has a good, well-maintained surface?

Thanks.

[Neilo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit's_Tale

I don't know about surface conditions, you could do it in a weekend though

[TrevA]

The High Peak (17.5 miles) and Tissington (13 miles) trails to form a continuous route from Cromford to Ashbourne via Parsley Hay, where they meet. They are all off road, the surface is very fine gravel mostly. You can do a loop, if you don't mind a bit of "B" road between Ashbourne and Cromford.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I suspect the Formartine and Buchan Way might be the longest continuous traffic-free cycle route in Britain, but it's not exactly a smooth tarmac path! Perhaps the greatest concentration of good-quality surfaced traffic-free paths is in the South Wales Valleys - there's a vast number of old railway paths there now.

[BeeKeeper]

If you stretch the geography a bit the Velodyssey in France is some 1300 km long and about 80% is on bike paths. Of that 80% at least half (IIRC) is on hard surfaced paths. The rest are gravel, like towpaths and a few shortish temporary bits on grass/muddy tracks.

[Si]

IF you can stretch your criteria to include canals (or, rather, canal tow paths before the pedants appear ) then you'd have some pretty long trails (in the summer).

[Mark1978]

Go onto google maps and select the bicycling option, the green lines are off road cycle routes (dashed green lines for on-road routes)

[Si]

Go onto google maps and select the bicycling option, the green lines are off road cycle routes (dashed green lines for on-road routes)

I just discovered that earlier today. Have to say that I wasn't impressed by the accuracy of it....it shoved people down one of the busiest roads in my area claiming it to be cycle friendly!

[Mark1978]

Don't use the routing feature! but it can be useful in pointing out off road routes for further investigation.

[Rittmeister]

Cambridgeshire Guided Busway Service Road?

Arguably the best...

[iviehoff]

There's 170 miles of tarmacked cycle route in Milton Keynes, called the Redways. How much you could arrange into a plausible tour without excessive retracing I can't say. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Key ... way_system Goes without saying it is an exceptionally exciting ride, especially for connoisseurs of modern housing estates.

[Richard Fairhurst]

The Forth & Clyde and Edinburgh Union together, perhaps. 62 miles of continuous route from Bowling Basin (Glasgow) to Edinburgh Quays, and reasonably surfaced.

There are longer canals, of course, notably the Leeds & Liverpool and Grand Union. But neither has a consistently good towpath. The Kennet & Avon towpath is essentially two separate sections separated by an unsurfaced middle bit. The Rochdale Canal has a good surface throughout (spillweirs notwithstanding) but is only 30 miles...

[mjr]

http://cycle.travel/map is the best routing I've seen so far, but http://cyclestreets.net/ three options is interesting. Both knock spots off google.

If stonedust and a tiny bit of on-road or pushing along pavement is OK, south-west England is probably good. In Somerset, you could combine the Strawberry Line (National 26) north from Cheddar, quiet lanes Yatton to Backwell, tiny bit of A road, then side streets to join the Festival Way (NCN33) into Bristol, side streets and side paths past Queen Square, Portwall, Temple Meads and out onto the Bristol and Bath Railway Path (NCN4), then maybe two streets in Bath near Oldfield Park and out through the Two Tunnels (is this NCN224?) and Colliers Way (NCN24) with a couple of quiet lanes in the middle to reach Great Elm near Frome, almost 60 miles later. You could complete the loop with 25 miles or so back to Cheddar and enter by descending the Gorge but that's all on-road, including the straight B3135 which carries too much tourist traffic at some times of year.

I expect someone from Cornwall will knock that into a cocked hat shortly...

I'm pretty sure I could stitch together 40 miles of completely off-road MK Redways by using the path along the old Wolverton-Newport railway and whichever afterthought grid redways avoid crossing link roads on the level but it wouldn't be particularly interesting except for a few waterways, lakes and set-piece buildings like the CBX and Church and doesn't seem really in the spirit of the question because it would zigzag back and forth through one city.

[andrew_s]

There are quite a number of long routes possible on gravel estate or forestry road in Scotland, especially if you don't mind a bit of singletrack or hike-a-bike to link sections together.
For example
Alness (Cromarty Firth) to Oykell Bridge, via Strath Rusdale, Glencalvie Lodge and Strath Cuileannach.

In the Cairgorms, Feshiebridge --> Glenmore --> Nethybridge --> Tomitoul --> Braemar involves only about a half mile of walking between Dorback and Glen Brown, and along the side of Loch Builg (quite rideable on an MTB), quiet minor road (10km) between Nethybridge and Dorback lodge, and a quiet A road (2km) between Bridge of Avon and Tomintoul, and about 300m between the end of the cycle track near Glenmore YHA and the track up to Glenmore Lodge. All the rest is perfectly rideable gravel road or cycle track, probably adding up to over 50km. It is possible to complete the circuit, either via Geldie Burn and Glen Feshie, or via Geldie Burn/Glen Tilt/A9 cycle track/Gaick/Glen Tromie, but either of those would probably involve 5 or 6 miles of walking the bike and possibly dangerous ford crossings (depending on water levels).

[thirdcrank]

With regard to the query in the OP, very few of these off-road routes have a tarmac surface. The Spen Valley Greenway which is an otherwise run-of-the-mill converted railway line has a tarmac surface but I see from the online info it's only 8 miles. JohnW is more of an afficionado than I am.