Why this ride
A 174 km round trip from Edinburgh - roughly 2 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes The Forth Bridge, New Lanark and back through The Forth Bridge. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh and New Lanark · 174 km from Edinburgh
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 174 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 59
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh → The Forth Bridge
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 16 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 22 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
Edinburgh is built on the remains of a volcano. The Castle sits on a plug of hard rock, and the ridge that slopes eastwards from it, the Royal Mile, carries the medieval Old Town on its back, a tall, dense, soot-dark jumble of closes and tenements that went up because the city was shut inside walls and could only grow upwards. In 1767 the council ran a competition for a plan to build a New Town on the open ground to the north, and the winning design by a young architect named James Craig gave the city a grid of Georgian terraces, squares and gardens. The contrast between the two halves, medieval and classical, is the reason UNESCO listed the combined area in 1995.
Read the complete Old and New Towns of Edinburgh write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh is where the day begins. Next is The Forth Bridge.
2. The Forth Bridge
When the Forth Bridge opened in 1890, it was the longest cantilever bridge in the world, and it still looks like nothing else: three enormous diamond-shaped steel towers, joined by long arms, striding across the Firth of Forth to carry the railway between Edinburgh and Fife. Its engineers, Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, designed it after the collapse of the Tay Bridge in 1879 had shaken public faith in iron and steel, and they overbuilt deliberately, with great tubes of steel that made the structure look as strong as it was. The bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 2015.
Read the complete The Forth Bridge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Forth Bridge comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is New Lanark.
3. New Lanark
Coming down the steep, wooded road from Lanark into the gorge of the Clyde, you see New Lanark all at once: a cluster of tall, plain sandstone mill buildings and tenements packed onto the riverbank at the bottom of the valley, with the water rushing past. It is one of the most remarkable industrial villages in Europe, founded in 1786 by David Dale and the inventor Richard Arkwright to harness the river for cotton spinning, and later turned into a social experiment by Dale's son-in-law, Robert Owen. It is a World Heritage site.
Read the complete New Lanark write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach New Lanark. Next is back through The Forth Bridge.
4. back through The Forth Bridge
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Forth Bridge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Forth Bridge, late in the day. Next is Old and New Towns of Edinburgh.
5. Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old and New Towns of Edinburgh write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Old and New Towns of Edinburgh. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh to The Forth Bridge
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh → The Forth Bridge is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Forth Bridge to New Lanark
The Forth Bridge → New Lanark is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
New Lanark to back through The Forth Bridge
New Lanark → back through The Forth Bridge is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Forth Bridge to Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
back through The Forth Bridge → Old and New Towns of Edinburgh is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.