{"id":662414,"date":"2026-06-28T07:56:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/662414\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:56:32","slug":"a-first-of-its-kind-bikepacking-route-has-launched-in-the-uk-with-300-kilometres-of-seaside-and-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/662414\/","title":{"rendered":"A First of Its Kind Bikepacking Route Has Launched in the UK With 300 Kilometres of Seaside and Forests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cycling UK is responsible for some of the most spectacular off-road bike routes in the country. It created the 280km\u00a0Royal Chilterns Way<\/a>, the 370km Rebellion Way\u00a0across\u00a0Norfolk\u00a0and the 200km Traws Eryri through North Wales.\u00a0Now it\u2019s launched its very first all-Scottish trail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new circular route has been dubbed\u00a0Gallovidian Gravel and traverses 330km across the south of Scotland<\/a>. It offers practically every kind of landscape you could want \u2013 from lochs and dense woodland to rugged coastlines and charming towns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Riders begin and end in Dumfries, going through the Mabie Forest, along the coastline of Rockcliffe, into Dalbeattie Forest and by Balcary Bay. The loop also includes\u00a0the pretty fishing port of Kirkcudbright, the lovely Loch Dee, the steep Mid Hill of Glenhead and the sprawling Galloway Forest Park (the largest forest park in Britain).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The route has been designed to be ridden over a long weekend, though how long it actually takes could depend on weather conditions and levels of fitness. There\u2019s plenty of accommodation you can book into along the whole route, or you can bring a tent to wild camp \u2013 it\u2019s legal everywhere in Scotland.\u00a0The route isn\u2019t signposted, so cyclists should rely on Cycling UK\u2019s\u00a0free GPX or printed guidebook.<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Map
\nImage: Cycling UKMap of the Gallovian Gravel cycling route <\/p>\n

Guy Kesteven, a ride guide and route planner at Cycling UK said: \u2018Despite being the closest part of Scotland to England, the area remains largely overlooked and undiscovered. It\u2019s somewhere you can experience the wild solitude of Scotland\u2019s dark sky parks, whilst also taking in deep history, delightful towns, villages, remote farms and stunning scenery at every turn.<\/p>\n

\u2018In short, it really has been the perfect biking area to build a route in. Similar to when we made Royal Chilterns Way, we\u2019ve built in three distinct sections that are linked. That makes Gallovidian Gravel one of our most accessible routes yet for those without the time to tackle the full adventure in one go.<\/p>\n

\u2018We guarantee even the shortest ride in Galloway will grab your heart and make you want to return as soon as possible though.\u2019<\/p>\n

Did you see that\u00a0this Scottish mount is the best place in Britain for sunrise (and sunset)<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a 1776 print of the Declaration of Independence in England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up to our\u00a0free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cycling UK is responsible for some of the most spectacular off-road bike routes in the country. It created…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1422,4985,1423,101,1420,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-662414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-cycling","tag-news-city-life","tag-sports","tag-things-to-do","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}