KDCS route 9 - Silverdale and Arnside

Summary

To SILVERDALE and ARNSIDE via BEETHAM, returning via HEVERSHAM

27 miles (44 km) 1240 ' climb (380 m) Grade – easy to moderate OS 97 (Kendal)
It feels pretty flat all the way, apart from small climbs between Beetham and Arnside.
The Silverdale – Arnside – Sandside road can be busy-ish in summer.

Start - Kendal Leisure Centre, Burton Rd, Kendal, LA9 7HX

Map

To view elevation details please use this link and select "Elevation Graph" from the top left hand side corner of the map.
http://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=475760

Description

From Kendal Leisure Centre cycle into the road opposite (Rinkfield), turning left at the bottom. Continue through Natland into Sedgwick in a couple of miles. There take the left turn immediately after passing under the canal bridge into Back Lane( Milnthorpe sign) and at the end of this short lane go left again (no sign), to soon pass over the dual carriageway.

Continue straight on, in a couple of miles (3 km) going right at a crossroads (Milnthorpe/ National Cycle Network  6), and quickly at a T go right and immediately left, again following the Milnthorpe signs.

Continue on this fairly flat section to the T junction with the main road, there going right and immediately left onto the short Smithy Lane. Across from Smithy Lane the ancient, narrow and mile long Paradise Lane (unsigned, plaque on field wall) leads us to the busy and fast  A6, here going left.

In a quarter mile (0.4 km) you have to turn right to Beetham, across the traffic, with limited visibility for traffic coming behind you, so take great care. An alternative is to walk/ bike along the right-hand footpath into Beetham by the paper factory on the right (sign Factory Entrance) and 100 yds/m before the turn, maybe waiting in the Beetham Nurseries turn on your left until safe to cross the road and get to Beetham that way, there going right.

Either way, continue straight on through Beetham, past the pub and up the quite steep road through Slack Head to the top, going right into Leighton Beck Road, where NCN 6 goes straight on.

You then follow the signs to Silverdale, going right in a mile, right again in a couple of miles (3 km) and up to the village for refreshments/ toilets. The railway station is just after where the last turn to the village was, as is the RSPB bird reserve (cafe/ wc).

For the return journey, retrace your wheels ½ mile (1 km) from the village centre, going left into Cove Road (obscure Arnside/ NCN 700 sign) which undulates  its way to Arnside 3 miles (5 km) distant. Arnside has a train station here at this popular location, as well as all facilities.

Continuing through  Arnside, go left under the bridge just past the station, in a few minutes passing Sandside  with lovely estuary views  and a couple of minutes or so beyond go left immediately after a river bridge - Cumbria Cycleway 30/ 700 sign – to join a flat lane  leading in a couple of miles (3 km) - going 90 degrees right half way along -  to the Heversham Hotel on the A6.

Cross the A6 towards the church ahead, then go right and immediately left past it to climb a short hill (sign Woodhouse),  in a mile going left (Kendal) to briefly rejoin your outward route.

Carry on past the crossroads you came in on, and in a few hundred yds/m go left immediately past the railway bridge overhead (unsigned and easy to ride past). Go straight ahead at the soon reached 3 way junction, but take care here as no road has priority.

This quiet lane leads under road and rail bridges (beware – the rail bridge can be seriously flooded in exceptional circumstances)  to a drop into  Sedgwick, where you go right to join your outward route and retrace your wheels back to the start.