The extended Yorkshire Dales Cycleway
To celebrate the extension of the Yorkshire Dales National Park there is an extended tour of the whole area. This now takes in a stunning section along the side of the Howgills and through the Westmorland Dales, before heading up to the highest pub in Britain at Tan Hill.Route Info
The Yorkshire Dales Cycleway has always been a tour of the National Park, so when it became 25% bigger in 2016 we needed to think what to do with the Cycleway. The result is an extended version which takes in the new area which is a gem for cycling in. This makes the tour about 40km longer, but we think it is an even better route.
The split happens at Dent and the extended version heads to the lovely market town of Sedbergh. You then take a stunning road along the side of the Howgill fells to reach Orton – with its café, pub, shop and chocolate factory. A superb section through the Westmorland Dales takes you into the larger town of Kirkby Stephen which is a popular stopping spot.
From then you are heading for the Tan Hill Inn – the highest pub in Britain – and then a long, long descent to Reeth where you re-join the normal route. The extended route is not signed with the sheep’s head at present, but it signed as Route 68, 70 and 71 so is still easy to follow.
Please note that you’ll need to follow your browser instructions for downloading of GPX files:
- Google Chrome: Right click on the icon, and choose save link as…
- Firefox: Right click on the icon, and choose save link as…
- Safari: Right click on the icon, and choose Download linked file as . . .
- A Microsoft browser: Right click on the icon, and choose save target as…
- For mobile devices, you can use an app such as Trails – GPS tracker for hiking, biking and running to import the GPX files directly into the app.
Once the GPX file has been saved on your computer, use the software provided by your GPS device maker or Expert GPS to load it onto your device.

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Alternative starts:
Ilkley
Downloads
If available, the 'GPX' (or GPS Exchange format) files for each route are text files that can be read by GPS devices as a series of waypoints along each route.