Carlise to Cramond through the night

We’ve chosen this route to be as accessible to as many people as possible, easy to follow, interesting to ride, and as traffic free as possible. And an accessible grub stop was also a priority! It is beautiful to see deer, foxes and barn owls in the beam of your lights as you pedal along.

Meet at the car park outside Carlisle Castle and Bitts Park then head north, out on the A7, heading across the M6 to Longtown. This is likely to be the only time there’s any traffic about, so please take care. Cross the River Esk in Longtown, then it’s an immediate left on the A6071 to Gretna.

Into Gretna heading past the Gateway Outlet Village, right turn just after the train station, towards the Old Smithy and then left onto the B7076. Follow this through Fleming Kirkpatrick, Kirtlebridge, Ecclefechan, round Lockerbie, into Beattock, and follow the signs and the A701 to Moffat. That’s 43 miles ticked off and just about as flat as you could wish for, lovely easy cycling. The majority of the roads are straight and wide with good sight lines which can allow for sociable cycling, fitting with the relaxed vibe of the event. So have a blether and make some new pals.

We organise for the Moffat Best Pizza and Kebab House to stay open late enough (1am or so) to feed everyone with chips, lasagne, kebabs (!!), re-fill water bottles etc. Linda has been super supportive from the very start and will be happy to fuel you up. The buzz in this place long into the night is fantastic.

Don’t eat too much though (share portions to keep the queues down), as there is a 7 mile climb straight out of Moffat up the Devil’s Beef Tub. It’s a great steady gradient, it hardly changes at all, and allows you to get into a good rhythm. It’s soon over, and at the top you’ve done 50 miles and it’s all downhill to Cramond - well almost! There will be pipers there to greet you, and mark the high point and half way mark of the route

The descent on the A701 take you down into the Tweed valley and its downhill all the way to and through Broughton. The banana and water stop is at the derelict Crook Inn in Tweedsmuir, you’ll hear the music and see the lights before you get there!

Lovely undulating roads to Leadburn, where you turn left and down into Penicuik. Follow the A701 past the big roundabout at Roslin, turn left for Hillend (A703 - if you see IKEA you've missed the left turn), and downhill through central Edinburgh and through to Davidson Mains. Then you’ll glimpse the sea and Cramond Island as you pass Lauriston Castle and you only have a mile or so of downhill to Cramond beach.

Click HERE to see the route on Strava or a download to the route directions GPX file is at the top of the page