National Cycle Network

The NCN on OpenStreetMap

Northern end of National Cycle Route 1, in Haroldswick, Shetland.

The first section of the NCN to be built was the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, opened in 1984

Route 8 sign near Harlech, North Wales

The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million National Lottery grant. In 2017, the Network was used for over 786 million cycling and walking trips.

In 2020 the NCN was recorded as having 12,739 miles (20,501 km) of signed routes. It is made up of 5,220 miles (8,400 km) of traffic-free paths with the remaining 7,519 miles (12,101 km) on-road.^[1] It uses shared use paths, disused railways, minor roads, canal towpaths and traffic-calmed routes in towns and cities.

History[]

The Bristol and Bath Railway Path (now part of National Route 4) is a 14-mile (23 km) walking and cycling path on a disused railway. It opened in 1984 and was the first part of what would later become the NCN.^[2]

The original goal was to create 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of signposted cycle routes by 2005,^[2] with 50% of these not being on roads, and all of it being "suitable for an unsupervised twelve year old." By mid-2000, 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of route was signposted to an "interim" standard, and a new goal was then set to double that to 10,000 miles (16,000 km) by 2005. August 2005 saw the completion of that goal.

In 2018, Sustrans published the National Cycle Network - Paths for Everyone report which reviewed the quality and usage of the Network and set out a vision for its future. It estimated that in 2017, 4.4 million people made 786 million walking and cycling journeys on the Network.

As of July 2020, there were 12,739 miles (20,501 km) of signed cycle and walking route that are part of the Network.^[3]

Routes[]

National routes[]

There are ten main national routes. As of 2020 they are not all complete.

• Route 1: Dover – Haroldswick, Unst, Shetland. Running the length of the east coast and passing through London and Edinburgh.
• Route 2: Dover – St Austell in England, along the south coast.
• Route 3: Bristol – Land's End, incorporating the via Chew Valley Lake, and the Cornish Way
• Route 4: London (Greenwich) – Fishguard, in West Wales, via Reading, Bath, Bristol, Newport, Caerphilly, Pontypridd, Swansea and Llanelli.
• Route 5: Reading – Holyhead, via Birmingham, The Midlands and the North Wales coast
• Route 6: Windsor – Lake District, running in sections via Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Preston crossing the Pennine Cycleway
• Route 7: Sunderland – Inverness via Glasgow.
• Route 8: Cardiff – Holyhead, through the heart of Wales.
• Route 9: Belfast – Newry in sections of traffic-free route, with the major sections being between Belfast and Lisburn, and Craigavon and Newry
• Route 10: Tynemouth — Cockermouth. Roughly parallel to the C2C / Sea to Sea Cycle Route and Hadrian's Cycleway. It is a branch of National Route 1.

Numbering system[]

NCN routes beginning with numbers 1 to 6 are generally in England, the routes that begin with a 7 start in the far north of England and Scotland, with 8 are generally in Wales, and 9 in Northern Ireland. The main route numbers have one digit (1 to 6 radiate clockwise from the south of England); other routes have two digits, starting with the number of the relevant main route.

There are also many shorter routes, reaching smaller towns and cities, that have three-digit numbers. Again, the route numbers start with the number of the main route for that region. For example, the Great North Cycleway in northern England has route number 725. Signs showed the route numbers on a blue background. Routes have been progressively renumbered with three-digit national numbers.^[4]

Some routes are numbered to match the motorways and major roads that connect the same destinations; examples include National Route 62, which by connecting the two sides of the Pennines mirrors the M62 motorway.

Signage[]

Direction sign for NCN Route 72, Hadrian's Cycleway.

The network is signposted using a white bicycle symbol (and on some routes, walking) on a blue background, with an inset box showing a white route number on a red background. In general, signs do not show destinations or distances. On some older signs, regional route numbers have a blue background instead. The system of symbols is based on that used by the Danish National Cycle Route network.

Mileposts[]

A NCN "Millennium Milepost"

One thousand "Millennium Mileposts" made from cast iron were funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the creation of the National Cycle Network, and these are found along the NCN routes throughout the UK.

Millennium Milepost - Close-up (top) - geograph.org.uk - 303741

There are four different types: "Fossil Tree" (designed by John Mills), "The Cockerel" (designed by Iain McColl), "Rowe Type" (designed by Andrew Rowe), and "Tracks" (designed by David Dudgeon). The four artists are from each country of the UK, though all posts can be found in all four countries.^[5][6]

Most mileposts contain a disk featuring symbols and text in code. There are 60 different designs, spread across the country. They form part of the Millennium Time Trail, a treasure hunt puzzle created by Sustrans in 2001.^[7]

The Verse held within the coded text is:^{[citation needed]}

MEASURE EVERY HEARTBEAT TO COUNT OUT OUR LIFE'S SCORE/

IS "TIME TO ESCAPE" MEANT TO FIRE OUR COMING AGE?/

LOCKED IN SEASONS' BARS SWINGS PENDULUM'S CEASELESS CLAW/

LUNGS NEVER FULL ENSNARE US IN TIME'S EIGHT PIECE CAGE/

ENTROPY'S AIM SHOOTS LEPTONS IN DANCING CYCLES OF LIGHT/

NATIONS REACH OUT IN HOPE ACROSS TIME ZONES AND LONG DEGREES/

NO CORNERS TO HIDE US, EARTH’S SHADE SPINS HOURLY ROUND TO NIGHT/

IN ALL MIND-STREAMS WE WADE, OUR WORLD-LINES WEAVE PAST TAPESTRIES/

UNCERTAIN DREAMS EVOLVE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE “WHY?”/

MUST IN ALL THESE TIDES OF FAITH, FLOW STILL SUCH WAVES OF FEARS?/

PLACE AND TIME TEMPT FATES, BUT ALL LIFE’S NATURE IS TO DIE/

OUR ERA, STARS, BOWS OUT, PLAYING ITS MUSICAL SPHERES/

EVERY GAINED UTOPIAN GOAL MAKES US MANIFOLD TIME’S TREASURE/

MAPPED OUT, AS ABOVE SO BELOW, NERGAL TICKS OFF TIME’S MEASURE///

Review[]

In 2018 Sustrans reviewed the network and removed some sections which were unsafe or poor quality.^[8]

See also[]

• The National Byway, an alternative 4,500-mile (7,242 km) sign-posted cycle network around Britain
• List of routes in Zone 4 of the National Cycle Network
• List of routes in Zone 8 of the National Cycle Network

References[]

Further reading[]

• Sustrans, 2002. The Official Guide To The National Cycle Network, 2nd ed. Italy: Canile & Turin. ISBN 1-901389-35-9.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Cycle Network.

• Official website
• Sustrans' interactive map of the National Cycle Network
• OpenCycleMap.org Worldwide cycle map based on OpenStreetMap data
• Google Street View used to discover 'lost' cycle ways (BBC, 2017)