Get Lost Mountaineering

Skellingthorpe to Clifton on Trent Old Station and back

Start/Finish

Skellingthorpe community centre where there is usually ample free parking. This is most easily reached from the Skellingthorpe roundabout on the A46 Lincoln bypass. Take the road into Skellingthorpe and the car park is roughly where the cycle track from Lincoln crosses the road.

Distance/Time

21 km/13 miles   About an hour

Introduction

This is a pleasant cycle which is entirely on a sustrans track. From Skellingthorpe to the Harby junction, it is a good tarmac track but less good from Harby to Clifton on Trent and it is more like a path in places. Unfortunately, although many road bridges cross the sustrans track, it is not usually easy to join these roads unless you like cycling through mud or brambles!

Route

(1) Follow the cycle track from behind the community centre in the direction of Harby. Soon leave Skellingthorpe behind. After just over 3 km, go under the Doddington Road bridge. Continue for about another 1.5 km to go under the Harby Road bridge. Continue, ignoring the sharp left tiun for Harby. Almost immediately, the track deteriorates and can be muddy in places. Continue ahead, passing some turbines on the right then crossing Wigsley Drain before passing under the Wigsley Road bridge then the South Clifton Road bridge soon after. Soon after, pass the only house next to the track which still has its old level crossing. Continue and go under another bridge, near Moor Farm, then another (on no road) before reaching the remains of Clifton on Trent station. One platform and a station sign remains but the former station buildings are now private and fenced off. Just after the station is the A1133 road bridge, part of the road from Newton on Trent to Collingham and Newark.

(2) Retrace the sustrans track back to Skellingthorpe.

Notes

(a) This cycle ride took place in December, 2019.