National Cycle Route 6

National Cycle Route 6 (or NCR 6) is a route of the National Cycle Network, running from London to the Lake District.

Route

Parts of the route are currently incomplete and some sections follow other routes.

London to Derby

Uxbridge | Watford | St Albans | Harpenden | Milton Keynes | Luton | Northampton | Market Harborough | Leicester | Loughborough | Derby

the Ebury Way just outside Rickmansworth

The proposed route is to begin in central London, running from Charing Cross via Paddington railway station to the Grand Union Canal. The towpath alongside the canal between Paddington and Northolt is already designated as a local cycle path, and will eventually form part of Route 6 when the route is completed. The canal continues to Uxbridge where the National Cycle Route 6 joins National Cycle Route 61 at Cowley, near Brunel University, sharing the same path until the two routes diverge at St Albans. The route continues along the Grand Union Canal and the Colne Valley on mainly traffic-free routes. At Rickmansworth it joins the Ebury Way, a rail trail which runs along a former line of the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway. Entering central Watford, the route continues north via St Albans with some on-road sections to Harpenden, where it intersects with National Cycle Route 57 and the Chiltern Cycleway. It then progresses along the River Lea via Luton, along the Sewell Greenway before joining the road network to reach Leighton Buzzard. At this point is re-joins the Grand Union Canal (Grand Junction Branch) to reach Bletchley, and then continues on mostly traffic-free paths to Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes

Cycleway network in Milton Keynes. NCR routes 6 and 51 are highlighted in red. (Extracted from Openstreetmap.org
© OpenStreetMap contributors).

Route 6 enters Milton Keynes from the south following the Grand Union Canal in southern Bletchley. After a loop through central Bletchley close to Bletchley railway station and Bletchley Park, it resumes its track northwards via Fenny Stratford along the valley of the River Ouzel (near The Open University and the Milton Keynes University Hospital) to Campbell Park (where it intersects National Cycle Route 51 heading west to Central Milton Keynes and Milton Keynes Central railway station). At Great Linford, NCR6 heads west along the former Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line (now a rail trail). At Old Wolverton (near Wolverton railway station), the route crosses the River Great Ouse to leave the Milton Keynes Urban Area for the rural villages of Castlethorpe and Hanslope before crossing into Northamptonshire.

Derby to Penistone

Derby | Sheffield | Penistone

Penistone to Reddish

Penistone | Reddish

Between Penistone and Reddish, the route follows National Route 62 along the Trans Pennine Trail.

Reddish to Bury

Reddish | Fallowfield | Whalley Range | Manchester | Bury

From Reddish, National Route 6 enters Manchester via the Fallowfield Loop. Passing through Whalley Range and Manchester city centre it then follows part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail as it runs through Drinkwater Park and north towards Bury.

Bury to Keswick

Bury | Preston | Kendal | Keswick

External links

• National Route 6 on the Sustrans website.