Discover the UK’s best traffic-free cycle routes

Below are some of the most recent route guides, but be sure to visit the UK-wide map, showing all the route guides. All routes have a custom WillCycle map, from which you can download the GPX for the route, and where you can see the route profile in detail.

The route guides include an up-to-date weather forecast, and lots of information about the route. It even tells how how long it would take to cycle, at your preferred speed.

Featured routes

These are just some of the stunning routes I have highly-detailed guides for. Refresh the page to see more routes.

Manifold Way Traffic-free Cycle Route

Manifold Way cycle route overall rating: (Colour explanation: blue = good, yellow indicates some warning, and red indicates issues to be aware of) Manifold Way gets its name from the River Manifold, and that in turn started out as “many folds”, referring to the many meanders. It is a trail...
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The Cinder Track Traffic-free Cycle Route

Cinder Track Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Cinder Track runs for 21 miles, from Scarborough to Whitby, along a disused railway line. As with most disused railway lines, it’s quite flat. The Cinder Track got its name because the track ballast was made from cinders, rather than the usual crushed stone....
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The Waterrail Way traffic-free cycle route

Waterrail Way Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Waterrail Way is a traffic-free cycle route of 16 miles, linking Lincoln with Kirkstead. It was built on the course of a disused railway, from which it got the name. The trail is sandwiched between the river Witham and the South Delph...
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Peak Forest & Ashton Canals

Peak Forest & Ashton Canals Overall Rating: ⭐⭐ Stretching for 14 miles from Marple into the centre of Manchester, the Peak Forest Canal and Ashton Canal combine to form a delightful traffic-free route. As you’d expect from a canal towpath route, it’s mainly flat, but do take care at several...
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Bowes Railway Path Traffic-free Cycle Route

The Bowes line is an old railway, which like many others in north East England was built by George Stephenson. It originally ran to carry coal from collieries around Dipton in County Durham down to ships moored on the Tyne in Jarrow. Most of it is now a 10.8 mile...
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Even more value

WillCycle Supporters gain even more value, including achievement badges, and more, as well as Strava integration.

These route guides are all made with 🚲 in Devon.

Latest from the blog

  • Why one map is never enough
    We’ve all been there: you planned a glorious route for a bike ride. You checked OS Maps and confirmed it’s a bridleway that you may legally use. You planned a 50 mile loop, using that bridleway to avoid a nasty, busy A-road. Then you arrive, and that “legal right of way” is a chest-high sea … Read more
  • Lanterne Rouge Ride
    In the Tour de France, the Lanterne Rouge is the rider who finishes dead last. They are the survivor, the tail-light in the dark, and if we’re being honest, the person who probably had the most interesting day. While the hardcore roadies are busy staring at their power meters and sweating through their Lycra to … Read more
  • The Breakfast Club
    Those of you who (like me) are of a certain age, will probably fondly remember the film The Breakfast Club. Released in 1985, it brilliantly tells the story of a bunch of teenagers doing after-school detention. This post is entirely unrelated to that movie, except for a gratuitous intro paragraph, and the same name. Cycling … Read more
  • A Time Of Birds, by Helen Moat
    The TL:DR version of this book is Moats and her 18yo son cycled across Europe, to Asia, unsupported. And to be fair, that alone should give you plenty of reason to read this book. After all, how many long-distance cycling tales of a mother and son combo have you heard of, let alone read? A … Read more