Cycling Gainsborough to Chesterfield on the Dukeries Trail

Description:

Ride with me on a scenic cycling adventure from Gainsborough to Chesterfield, exploring some of the best traffic-free cycle trails in the East Midlands.

This stunning route combines the Dukeries Trail including a beautiful view of Lincoln Cathedral, Clowne Greenway, and Poolsbrook Country Park, returning along the Trans Pennine Trail and Chesterfield Canal. It’s a perfect UK gravel or hybrid bike route, packed with nature, history, and peaceful off-road paths.

Route Highlights:
Dukeries Trail – historic railway route through woodland and countryside
Clowne Greenway – smooth, quiet path linking Creswell to Poolsbrook
Poolsbrook Country Park – lakes, wildlife, and a perfect mid-ride stop
Chesterfield Canal & TPT – flat, scenic ride back into Chesterfield

Whether you’re planning your next UK cycle route, testing a gravel bike, or just love traffic-free cycling, this ride has it all — smooth trails, beautiful scenery, and plenty of local charm.

Watch till the end for canal-side views, trail tips, and a full route map!

Just today’s route covered in the video:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2643804772?share_token=a41LPP0jyvbGO3EQ2ZH019ug8hPV5CXGXsJxAx7uoxsPU4Czuv&ref=wtd

Route from chesterfield along the canal:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2619848922?share_token=atV12xkj1VvHABanG1bJlXw00AOS4w5bsbhInoQIEAka0CHDZZ&ref=wtd

Hashtags:

#CyclingUK #BikeRide #Gainsborough #Chesterfield #DukeriesTrail #ClowneGreenway #TransPennineTrail #ChesterfieldCanal #UKCycling #GravelBikeRide #CyclingAdventure #TrafficFreeCycling #CycleRoute

https://www.instagram.com/bike_ventures_uk/

[Music] morning. Day two today and it looks nice. I’m just in a pocket of calm. There’s an absolute stoning headwind today, which it was forecast, but it weren’t forecast till later, but I seem to have got it already. So, I’m about 10 miles out of Gainesburgh now. Gainesburgh is over past north of West Burton Power Station, which is there. I rode past that a bit ago. Um, and I’m just heading down a few quiet country lanes now. And then I’m going to pick up the Juker’s Trail, which is one I’ve done before. But I’m I’m going to pick it up just south, sorry, just west of Tuxford today. So just the other side of Tuxford is the old railway line that goes over Fledra vioideuct into Lincoln. So I’m picking it up just not far off the end of that. Um going to go through Bever Coat’s old collery site. Um few brideways and stuff down through Cumber Park on an amazing bride away. Um and then pick up another old collery site as we come towards um or through church wars. So I think it was church walls up collery and then into shy bbrook shy bbrook through to clown creswell and clown and then we’ll do the crown cl can’t speak clown greenway down to pulls country park pick up the transpine trail back on chestville canal where we came up yesterday and head home. So it’s about 55 miles in total today I think is something like that. So, yeah, let’s get going. [Applause] Not sure if the camera will show that, but right there, uh, somewhere here, 12:00ish, is Lincoln Cathedral. Cool. Looking nice in the haze, isn’t it? Yeah. Cracking view of that. [Music] We nearly missed this one. [Music] Guessing that’s the uh East Coast mainline. This is a tight chest Canal in terms of width. Now, actually, I’ve got a bit more surface to ride on here. Yeah, I think this is definitely a foot path. Not sure what commute was thinking when he said, “Oh, yeah, just go down there.” And you plot your route. Ow. And you say, “Yeah, I’m cycling or I’m gravel cycling or road or whatever it might be.” Cycling just a general. And he just goes, “Oh, yeah. You can go down here then. It’s all right. It’s pretty decent surface to be fair. I could be getting whacked in me face by knuckles and brambles and branches and all sorts. I know where I am. It’s Oxford. Not where I wanted to come in. Balls. I got to go up a hill now. I must have zigged instead of zagging. [Music] [Music] [Music] So now coming into the former river coats collery site now a nature reserve. It’s nice. Pleasant enough nice to walk through. And then we’ve just come in at no cars are allowed to transit through. It’s just to get to the fishery. tends to be fairly quiet. Cars can come in from the other end, but still fairly quiet. Yeah, it’s just nice. Always pleasant riding along here. So, you can ride on the road all the way out to the main road or we’re going to cut through the woods cuz it’s nice. You end up crossing over. We’re literally riding across it. the old railway line that fed the collar. NCN 647. It is where we’re going around to the right here. Look. There’s the old line. So just that way 100 200 m of the old fl. Yeah, we’re on it. It’s cool. If you ever fancy a tundle, probably getting quite overgrown now and we’re going to come out [Music] on this busy road. Now, this road when it’s busy can be busy, but other times it’s been squatted out. So, yeah, it’s a bit it’s a miss. I mean, it’s a Friday early morning. Well, midm morning. Might be all right today, but sometimes you spend ages trying to get out. [Music] There you go. You see and hear that bike. That’s how fast this road can be. It is a 60 mph road, so you got to be careful. [Music] Looks like I’ve just come out a little pocket of charm. If you go straight on, not far, half a mile. Uh the right hand turn to both soul. So you can go that way if you want to stick to the roads. We’re going to take this right turn just up here on the right and go down the bridal ways. brings your eye out the same place, but I’m just not a fan of this road. Find it far too fast and busy for my liking. Come up here. We’re going to go left just at the top of this little drive commute. And most maps will show you there’s a bridal way to the right. Goes around the left of the farm. Don’t take it cuz the field’s been sort of plowed up. Very little in the way of a bridal way there. Believe it is public right away, but it’s awful. So, I’d avoid that. And it only brings you out where we’re going anyway. [Music] [Music] you go. Nice little church in it. That’s where the road brings you up. Come that way. We’re going right [Music] now. Nice bride away and in towards Kumba Park. Lovely bride away now. This appears a left turn you back towards a little gas pumping sign and uh big lane. Go left and right on big lane. You end up coming out next to the park. But given how windy it is today, how exposed, I’m going to go straight up here and dive into these woods. Technically, it’s a full class, but it’s wide enough. It’s never that busy. And it brings you in pretty much the same place, too. So this awesome gravel path now that runs top side of Columbumber Park legs over that way about 3.2 miles. It’s lovely. Look at this. Spot on. So this way is a slight uphill drag predominantly. Still cool. So peaceful Friday ain’t but kids are in school. Lovely. Look at that. 80p that some little all right as well. Actually, it’s fresh off the bakery. I bought this one last night. It’s had two for me tea. I’ll say this one. Still tastes just as nice now. Lovely. We’re on our good old friend NCN6. 7 and a half miles to Shia broke. From there we’ll pick up the archaeological way over to Creswell through the model village and then onto the clown branch line. Don’t know what this section’s called. It’s NTN6, but I always call it dog kennel or alley cuz there’s a dog kennel’s a bit further up. The dogs always bark as a good pass. Getting a swap festing wind today. It’s lovely today. I know for a fact as well there is Millennium Finger Post sign just down here. Yeah. See as well. Nice. All right. So, I’ve just cut down some nice country lanes. I’m just coming into Creswell Cracks. There’s a memorial just as you come into the car park on the right here to a crashed aircraft. So I always uh stop and pay my respects only a young crew. I feel it’s only fair and respectful as an eight serviceman to have a moment to think of them pay my respects. There you go. A Canadian air crew August 1944 Wellington bomber on a young look 19 youngest. Shocking. You have to pay if you want to go in any of the potential little caves which are those little steps and the caves go off up to one side. I believe there’s all drawings in them and everything. Yeah, I’ve never been in them myself which is strange, isn’t it? Given how close we live. Look, there’s a school fruit just coming out of there. Uh, another one over there. Look. Yeah, I understand they’re quite impressive. Just never been in them. So, just at the end of here, we’re going to cross into Creswell on the Clown Branch line or the greenway, which is awesome. It’s one of my favorite bits. So, we’re now on the Clown Greenway. Never ridden this. Highly recommend it. So, you can start at the egg park in the station just at the end. You can go about six to seven miles all the way to Pool’s Brook Country Park. And from Poolsbrook Country Park, you can do Chesterfield Canal into Chesterfield or you could go down into Chesterfield and do the Five Pits Trail and eventually you can come all the way around. If you watch my very first video, there’s a playlist as well. There’s a series of videos on there cuz there’s a few variants of the loop. There’s the five pits loop chest field 42 miles and this is the this is part of it. It’s a stalker. This I love this one. I’ve not been open a huge amount of time. Uh but yeah, it really is good. So, just going to grab a bite to eat and then I’ll show you the rest of it. So the stretch from Creswell up to Clown about two miles is a ever so slight drag uphill. 1 and a half% my computer’s saying but it’s nothing crazy. Still a few old bridges left on this. And one of the platforms, I should have said the only platform that was a clown station’s been kind of restored to look like what it was. The building’s long gone, unfortunately. Yeah, this an original bridge. Look, there’s a cracker. So, if you like your old railways, I’d suggest you do a bit of research cuz around here was an absolute without saying, well, it was just a a plethora, shall we say? I was going to say it was a gold mine, but not a gold mine, but it was from the mines, all the old colory lines. So this one went down to uh Seymour Junction. So if you know about the history of this area, Seymour Junction had 21 lines at one point and all the collery workings used to come in through there get diverted off. Yeah. Huge complex. Yeah. Yeah. Crawling up through this huge cutting at the minute. It’s a monster. But at least I’m sheltered from my awful wind today. Yeah. Absolutely wearing me down that one today. So, here’s one of two clown stations. Look, being fully rebuilt the platform, but it gives you an idea. Was only ever one station builders on this site as well. So, if you did want to come and have a look. There you go. It’s all on that plard. Leave you to explore yourself. But it is cool. Right onwards. This old semi four signal as well. [Music] All right. So, we’re not far off the crest of this uphill now. And then we start to descend down to Pool’s Brook almost at the top. There we go. That’s the gradient getting easier. Couple hundred meters of plateau and then the gradient starts to drop. A lovely little shallow cutting. Beautiful. Even on a miserable day kind of cocoon you just feel so nice and snug. It’s beautiful. Yeah, there’s not much to see. You got the Markhamm veil over to the left. We’re going down this. Stunning. Awesome. Wow. show you this. Uh that’s the clown greenway we’re on. So we’ve just come from there and we’re going that way. Just there used to be another line. There’s the bridge free log. So it used to come across the top there and just over in the distance where those two big orange diggers are just see the bridge there that’s been started to be filled in now that the line went up there to an old collery and back down to Seymour junction but it’s only recent weeks they’ve started gutting it but yeah it’s a shame to see in it cuz you know someone spent long time building that it’s a shame they couldn’t keep them. I mean, you can kind of roughly see the embankment, but it looks like they’re taking that soil off the embankment now and using it for whatever. I believe it’s going to be some industrial units or something. It’s always a shame when stuff goes. I’m not particularly bothered an old railway has gone. It’s more sad cuz you think, well, it’s definitely not going to be turned into a greenway or anything. It’s unfortunate, but not to worry. We’ve got this one. Yeah, I suppose progress has to happen. Shame really, right, let’s get to Pools Brook. About 2 miles from Poolsbrook and then about 10 mile to Chesterfield. [Music] Back on the Trans Penine Trail now. Part of my uh my loop route I did. So, I’ve just left Bullsburg Country Park. I didn’t film there cuz it was a school trip, about 200 school kids, and I was going to stop for a quiet cup of tea, but there no chance of that. The play box is right next to the calf, so I just didn’t bother. [Music] I’ve got 8 miles to get home. So, it’s about 7ish, 7 and a half to Chesterfield where we started. Yeah, nice little route. Pop a full route up in the description. I’ll do a day one, day two, and a full. You’re going to do day one out to West Hog. Got to come back somehow, aren’t you? I wouldn’t recommend coming back down that canal. [Music] Right. So, that’s me done. I’m just about to turn off the canal and head home uphill. But yeah, I mean, weren’t my favorite ever trip I’ve done. Some sections were just rubbish. But you know what? You can’t have every trip being amazing. And I think you’ve got to have the less enjoyable ones to make sure you really enjoy the others. So, rough with the smooth. It was nice parts of it. I love the section up to workshop, but I’ve done that before. So, and I managed to explore a few new bits yesterday as well, which was cool. And I guess that’s quite a long train to Silver. So, yeah. So, you can’t have it always, can you? Not every trip’s going to be amazing. Not every day on a multi-day trip is going to be amazing. You’re not going to feel amazing all the time. Still going. So yeah, it is what it is. Roughly this move. Glad I did it. And I got to do a bit of videoing for you guys. So thanks for watching. I’m Rob. Channel’s Bike Ventures. Thank you for all who subscribe, comment, like, and share. Ah, see you on the next one. Cheers, guys.