Weymouth to Maiden Newton

This is a pleasant access route or extended day ride to the north. A short detour will also bring you to Dorchester town centre. It is all on tarmac though there is a very pretty alternative for part of the way on a Sustrans route. It is suitable for all types of bike including loaded touring bikes, tandems, trikes and bikes with child trailers.

The route starts from the Weymouth Swannery car park. Part of the route out of Weymouth is on the busy Dorchester road. For children or the less experienced it is of course illegal to ride on the pavement but a lot safer. Once you reach Mill Lane you reach the sanity of rural Dorset. At Upwey you will find the Wishing Well café which is often frequented by local cyclists.

The Sustrans route is lovely but there are many gates

From the Wishing Well you have a steep climb over the downs and are rewarded by rural views and a long fast descent to the pleasant village of Martinstown. Martinstown has a shop, pub, farm shop and café and is popular with cyclists and walkers coming down from the hills.

Here you cross Sustrans route 26 which is only passable towards Dorchester on mountain bikes due to its inadequate surface. The road route detour into Dorchester is rather busy and involves passing through Charles Windsor’s badly designed estate with its inadequate pedestrian and cycle access.

After another climb on a quiet lane you will need to cross the busy A35 with care to gain the lanes to the north of Dorchester. Your will soon join Sustrans route 26 and pass through Bradford Peverell to Quatre Bras. Sustrans route 26 gives direct access to Maiden Newton but has many gates and is also quite rough and can be muddy in bad weather. It also passes through some very beautiful countryside and some delightful farms and hamlets.

Our main route uses the road here because it is more suitable as an access route. Although it is an A road it is not very busy.

Maiden Newton has a pub and shops. Its rail station line serves Weymouth, Bristol and beyond. The trains all take bikes, it is not necessary to book bikes and there is usually space.

Downloads for this route

The following files are in .zip format. They need to be unzipped and saved to a directory of your choice. You can then load them into the appropriate application.

This route in Google Earth format to open in the Google Earth application
This is the the route in .kml format

This route in Garmin format version 2 for uploading to your GPS
This is the the route in .gdb format

This route in Memory-Map format, waypoints only, for uploading to computer's software
This is the the route in .mxf format

This route in universal format for uploading to many applications
This is the the route in .gpx format