NewcastleGateshead Wylam Loop

START: Guildhall TIC Newcastle Quayside
DISTANCE: 20 miles/33 km
HEIGHT LOST & GAINED: Very little – mostly flat route
OS EXPLORER MAP: 316

DESCRIPTION

A 20-mile ride which splits nicely into a 10-mile ride between Newcastle
and Wylam in the morning, a relaxing pub lunch and stroll round Wylam or
possibly a look around the village's small Railway Museum followed by a
10 mile ride back to Gateshead in time for afternoon tea at The Sage
Gateshead or BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, or a drink at one of the
Quayside café bars. Along this route the scenery changes from cityscape to countryside, you'll see some great river views and some spectacular urban backdrops - there’s so much variety you won't be stuck for interest.

Why not round off your day's sightseeing with a concert at The Sage
Gateshead or an evening at the Theatre Royal, treating your eyes and ears
as you rest your legs?

RECOMMENDED ROUTE

FOLLOW BLUE ‘NCN 72’ SIGNS/BROWN ‘HADRIAN’S WAY’
SIGNS AS FAR AS INSTRUCTION 9.

Start at the Guildhall TIC, Newcastle Quayside (pay and display parking available nearby). Turn right out of theGuildhall TIC and head upstream on the riverside promenade.

At the end of the promenade, skirt the British Airways car park, go up a slope and follow a traffic-free path to the traffic lights on Scotswood Road.

Turn left and follow the cycle path to the next set of traffic lights, use the Toucan crossing to get to the north side of Scotswood Road. Turn left, then bear right up a slope to join the railway path. Continue straight ahead until you
come level with a large green footbridge.

Take the second left fork (grey path) and head down the slope to rejoin Scotswood Road. Continue straight ahead on the cycle path up to the traffic lights. Turn left, cross over the main road, and join the promenade. Continue under Blaydon Bridge then bear right up a ramp to the roundabout.
Bear left onto the cycle route and cross Lemington Bridge. At a white pylon, turn left to join the Newburn Riverside Trail.

Where the trail intersects a road, turn left through Newburn Industrial Estate and keep straight ahead to the far end of Shelly Road. Bear right up a ramp, then turn left to join the railway path to Newburn Bridge.

At end of rail path - bear left through metal barrier - turn right and cross straight over at Newburn Bridge traffic lights into Water Row - pass the Boathouse pub, then through barrier and past rowing clubhouse to join the riverside path to the car park at Tyne Riverside Country Park.

Continue through the car park, across the boat slipway, passing the Visitor Centre and toilets on your right, keep on the riverside path to a junction.

At the junction follow the path that swings away from the river, through a barrier and along a lane to a National Cycle Network 'Millennium Milepost'. Turn left through the gate to join the Wylam Waggonway.

Follow the Wylam Waggonway, 600 metres after Stephenson's Cottage (a white house on your right) you will come out at a car park. Leave the path here and turn left through the car park, then left onto the road and across Wylam Bridge, arriving on the south side of the Tyne for the first time!

Before the level crossing, turn left into the station car park and join the Keelmans Way west towards Newcastle (follow 'Keelman's Way' signs), alongside the railway, golf course and through Ryton Willows to Newburn Bridge. If
you are following the shorter route option cross Newburn Bridge, turn left at the end of the bridge onto a path (passing in front of the Boathouse pub) follow path to Tyne Riverside Country Park / Newburn Leisure Centre and your start point off Grange Road Bridge.

Continue straight ahead, up a ramp, across the road, and down a ramp to follow the riverside path which then swings away from the river to join Stella Road. Continue straight ahead over the level crossing and turn left at the traffic lights on the B6317.

After about 0.5 miles on a roadside cycle path turn left, signed 'Keelman's Way' onto a track to Blaydon Burn. Continue under the rail bridge, straight ahead along the river bank until you reach the Blaydon Haughs Industrial Estate. Turn left onto Factory Street, then Patterson Street to its far end, and join the riverside path again.

Continue under Scotswood Bridge, through Derwent Haugh Marina to the mouth of the River Derwent. Turn right under the rail bridge, then sharp right to loop up, over, and across the River Derwent rail bridge. Continue straight ahead passing the MetroCentre on your right, until you join the road. (The cycleway is being redesigned near the MetroCentre - follow Keelman's Way and National
Cycle Network route 14 signs.)

Turn left under the railway bridge (take care - very narrow path here), use the crossing point, then turn right to join the cycle path through Dunston.

Once through Dunston on the cycle path, turn left into Team Street, continue up to the roundabout, then turn left through new housing to join the new riverside promenade. Continue straight ahead passing underneath all the high
level bridges.

At the junction next to the Swing Bridge, turn right onto the cycle path and use the traffic lights to cross over, then immediately turn left into South Shore Road. Pass under the Tyne Bridge, then past The Sage Gateshead on your
right. After the Royal Naval Reserve building, bear left down a ramp and onto Baltic Square. BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is in front of you.

Cross the Gateshead Millennium Bridge back to the north side of the river, turn left and follow the quayside promenade back to your start point.