Welcome to Hooked on Cycling and our cycling holidays in England. This particular biking vacation in England will take you alongside the famous Roman Hadrian’s wall constructed in Roman times to keep out the Pict’s from Roman Britain and into the English Lake District. Here you can add in some extra nights to cycle further or relax before the journey back across the Pennine hills to Newcastle. This cycle tour uses sections of the Hadrian’s wall cycleway and the Sea to Sea cycle route. We have graded this self guided cycle tour as a level 3 tour.

 Available daily May - September
Level 3 self guided cycle tour

Day 1 – Arrive in Carlisle
Today arrive to Carlisle, easily reached from the airports in Newcastle, Manchester or Liverpool. Carlisle is on the Border with Scotland, on Hadrian’s Wall and to the north of the Lake District.

Day 2 Carlisle to Keswick 30 miles 48 km
Today you leave Carlisle and head south into the Northern sections of the English Lake District. Cycling away from Carlisle alongside the River Caldew and onto open farmlands through lovely country lanes. Soon you reach the Caldbeck Fells of the Northern lakes which you circle on the lower slopes before descending into Keswick which situated on one of the great lakes, Derwent Water.

Day 3 Keswick Loop 27 miles 43 km
Now it is time to explore the beautiful English Lake District or you can decide to maybe take a rest day and relax in this beautiful Cumbrian town. Your ride today will take alongside Derwent Water through Rosthwaite and Borrowdale before climbing over Honister Pass at 300m. You descend down to Buttermere and Cummock Water before climbing over Whinlater pass( 250m )  to Keswick. Although you have two climbs you will be rewarded with stunning lake and mountain scenery.

Optional Night Keswick
Today you can take a deserved rest , do some walking or relax in Keswick. For those who wish to cycle it is back over Whinlater Pass and down the Larton Valley to Cockermouth. Now you follow the River Derwent and above Bassenthwaite Lake to Keswick.

Day 4 Keswick to Alston 45 miles 72 km
A long day today as you cycle through the North Pennine Hills along the Sea to Sea cycle route. After Huddlesceugh you climb over the Pennines to Alston passing Hartside. Usually there is a prevailing west wind which will blow you along your journey through the Pennines. Your destination Alston is the UK’s highest market town.  

Day 5 Alston to Newcastle / Surrounding villages. 49 miles, 79 km.
Today you will cycle back into the west side of Newcastle where you will stay overnight in Ryton. You will cycle through some lovely north Pennine villages before the long descent to Ryton.

Day 6 – Newcastle to Haltwhistle 30 miles , 48 km
Leaving Ryton you will quickly join the Hadrian’s Cycleway going west. You will pass Stephenson’s Cottage where the famous railway engineer was born and on to Corbridge, originally a Roman town. In Corbridge you can visit the Roman Fort before continuing to the market town of Hexham where you can admire the ancient Abbey. You continue west along the Hadrian’s cycleway where the terrain now becomes more undulating. There’s a slight detour to visit the Roman fort of Housesteads, then passing the reconstructed Vindolanda fort before arriving at the National Park Visitor Centre, situated next to the most spectacular remains of Hadrian’s Wall.

Day 7 Haltwhistle to Carlisle 29 miles 46 km
Some hilly sections today as you descend across the northern end of the Pennines following the course of Hadrian’s Wall past Gisland where you can visit the Birdoswald Roman Fort, then onto the Vale of Eden into Carlisle.

Day 8 Departure

Tariff 2010

How to get there
By Plane
To Newcastle airport and then by train to Carlisle.
To Manchester to Liverpool airports and then by train to Carlisle.  

By Train
To Carlisle where you have a short Taxi transfer to your hotel

By Car to Carlisle.

To view our other Cycling holidays in England and Wales.

Click below to view our
Walking Holidays in the UK

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