Reivers Route

The Reivers Route is a coast-to-coast cycle route from Tynemouth to Whitehaven. The route takes in Northumberland, Kielder Forest, Carlisle and the Lake District. It is often considered to be an ideal return route for the Sea-to-Sea (C2C). Sarah and I, along with our good friend Andy S, however, cycled just the one direction in the summer of 2016, having already completed the Sea-to-Sea (C2C) a few years back.

Sustrans described the route as providing ‘an exciting way to discover the best of northern England’s scenery in the historic border territory of England and Scotland which, especially during its peak in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, has been characterised by robbery, cattle rustling, kidnap and murder’.

Beginning at Tynemouth on National Route 72, the Reivers Route runs along quiet roads and tracks into the open countryside on National Route 10 as far as Bellingham, providing views to the north of the Cheviot skyline.

At Bellingham, the route meets National Route 68 for a short section before returning back onto National Route 10 towards Tynedale and Kielder Water and then on into Kielder Forest. Here forest trails briefly take us over the England-Scotland border at the most northerly point on the route.

Quiet roads then head down the valley of the River Lyne to Westlinton, north of Carlisle, where the route continues on National Route 7 via the floodplain of the River Eden to the historic border city of Carlisle. South of Carlisle the route runs along the valley of the River Caldew via Dalston (Cumbria), after which it rejoins National Route 10 again to Cockermouth via Hesket Market.

From Hesket Market the route skirts the northern edge of the Lake District mountains. The route is all minor roads and tracks from here, and once at Cockermouth National Route 71 takes the route on to Workington on the coast. National Route 72 completes the journey along the coast, ending at Whitehaven.