Gorebridge to Rosewell Circular Route

Route out – Gorebridge to Newtongrange to Bonnyrigg to Rosewell. For route map click here.

Route back – Rosewell to Carrington to Gore Glen to Gorebridge. For route map click here.

• Weather – cool and cloudy but mainly dry and not much wind.
• Distance travelled – 12.54 miles
• Riding time – 1 hour 11 minutes
• Maximum speed – 31.2 mph
• Average speed – 10.5 mph

Regular readers of this blog will know that I really love anything to do with railways and especially viaducts. Strangely though, there is one very impressive viaduct only a few miles from our house that I hadn’t cycled past before – the Lothianbridge viaduct near Newtongrange. A week ago on Sunday, Dad and I decided to go for a short local cycle run and finally found ourselves cycling underneath one of the finest features of the Borders Railway line.

As usually, we started off from the house in Gorebridge but for a change, headed down hill along Greenhall Road to Stobhill. We then turned off on to the back road to Mayfield (also known as Crawlees Road). During the week this is very busy road used by lots of lorries and vans travelling to and from the industrial estate. It also has lots of really bad corners so isn’t ideal for cycling. However, on a sunday morning it’s basically perfectly fine and it even boasts a lovely smooth surface and brilliant views over to the Pentland Hills and Edinburgh. After passing through the industrial estate we turned left and sped downhill along the B6482 (Bryans Road) into Newtongrange. There’s a speed sensor halfway down the hill and it flashed up that Dad and I were both breaking the 30 mph speed limit! We then maneuvered our way across 2 very odd joined up mini-roundabouts and sped down another short hill to the traffic lights at the junction with the main A7 road – where we got our first view of the amazing viaduct. Luckily the lights changed to red just as we got there so we had time to take a sneaky photograph.

The lights soon changed to green and we cycled as fast as possible on the main road along the side of the viaduct for roughly 300 yards before turning left onto a minor road signposted for Carrington. This very quiet road took us right underneath one of the great giant arches of the viaduct and after about half a mile, we came to a crossroads. We turned right, passing Cockpen and Carrington Parish Church before reaching the town of Bonnyrigg. There, we turned off the road and onto the Dalkeith to Penicuick Railway Path (cycle route no.196). The cycle path is lovely and smooth and straight and even though it’s slightly uphill in this direction, we had soon cycled the 2 miles to the village of Rosewell. Just make sure you keep an eye out for dog poo on the path…

We left the path at Rosewell and cycled along the main road through the village for a short distance before turning off to the left and into the park. After stopping at a bench for a quick apple and drink, we carried on, skirting along the edge of a field and then onto a slightly bumpy farm road. The bumpy road took us close to Whitehill House golf course, past lots of holiday cottages and then through Thornton Farm, where we saw lots of horses. There were also some unusual but nice views of the Pentland Hills from here. After the farm we turned left onto some familiar back roads which took us the remaining 2 miles or so to Carrington. The first section of road was rather bumpy in places but after turning right at the crossroads, you find yourself speeding along on the flattest, smoothest road in the world with fields and trees on either side. It’s also almost completely traffic free. After a while the flatness quickly becomes a steep downhill section and we both zoomed into Carrington at around 30 mph. Carrington is a peaceful place and we stopped there for another quick snack. I counted only 1 car and 8 cyclists passing through in the 10 minutes we were there.

The last section of the route took us along a very narrow back road to Gore Glen. It’s nearly all downhill and very fast (just be careful though as some of the fastest parts of this road are rather bumpy and it would be quite easy to crash…). The climb up from Gore Glen to Povert Road was really the only steep uphill section of the day but at least it was quite a short one. After that it was a few hundred yards along the A7 again and then a left turn into Gorebridge via easily the bumpiest “proper” road in the world – Engine Road. It’s a rutted mess of potholes, ravines and loose stones and is about 50 years overdue some resurfacing work. Anyway, we were back home in time for our lunch of Mushroom soup and oatcakes.

This was a nice easy route with very few hills but lots of long downhill sections and although it was short, it was most enjoyable. This sunday, we went on a much longer and more adventurous route so stay tuned for that one…