A new £1.25 million cycleway along Cumbria’s Solway Coast will be officially opened today.
The Solway Coaster is a 14.1km route between Allonby and Silloth.
It has been created to join onto the already successful route from Maryport to Allonby.
The link between the coastal towns also forms part of the National Cycle Network Route 72 – Hadrian’s Cycleway – which runs from Ravenglass, Cumbria, to South Shields in Tyne and Wear.
The path is aimed predominantly at cyclists, but the off-road sections can accommodate pedestrians.
Allerdale council has led on the project on behalf of the Silloth-on-Solway Coastal Community Team, a mix of public, private and community partners.
To fund the project, the partners secured £1m from the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Coastal Communities Fund and £250,000 from DEFRA’s Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), which is part of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
Councillor Tony Markley, executive member for leisure and tourism, said: “This cycleway will be a great asset to the area and provide a fantastic facility for local people to get active.
“It will also add to the brilliant tourism offering we have in Allerdale and we look forward to welcoming to visitors onto the route.”
The opening coincides with Clean Air Day.
The new route also goes past the Lowther Arms in Mawbray, which has recently been purchased by the local community and will be opening to the public on June 26.
The council is also launching the first Solway Coast Cycling Festival, which will take place on Silloth Green on September 11, a day after the Tour of Britain has been through Cumbria.
More details of the event will be announced soon, the authority said, but the event sets to feature way-marked and led cycle rides, bike maintenance workshops, kids’ activities and cycling skills sessions.
