Travellers’ tales: cycling Lincolnshire’s Water Rail Way

By Cycling UK
A person is standing on a grass verge next to a paved path looking out over fields. They are holding a white hybrid bike with panniers and wearing black clothes, a white sun hat and blue rucksack
Contemplating the Lincolnshire fens from the Water Rail Way; the archway celebrates the former fields of rye and barley
A quiet route that wends its way past wildlife and works of art: Cycling UK member Barry Barton sings the praises of a riverside cycle track through the Lincolnshire fens

If a long-distance off-road trail like Rebellion Way were to be established in Lincolnshire, it would surely include much of the existing Water Rail Way. This route closely follows the River Witham for 34 miles between Lincoln and Boston.

The first half, from Stamp End in Lincoln to Kirkstead Bridge, follows the line of the old Great Northern Railway, which was built along the left bank of the river. It was for a couple of years around 1850 part of the East Coast Main Line between London and Doncaster.

Apart from 400 yards on the B1190 through Bardney and just over a mile of farm track nearby, the whole of this section of trail is traffic-free tarmac.

An artwork of two cattle, one standing and one lying down, made from welded steel, on a grass verge next to a paved path
Sally Matthews’s ‘Lincoln Reds’ – easier to avoid than the real thing!

It’s teeming with riverside birdlife, and there are short detours to the ruins of Bardney, Tupholme and Kirkstead Abbeys. This section of the trail has been given a Tennyson theme, with some rather good trailside artwork, referencing specifically the Lady of Shalott and the river itself.

On either side of the river there were once ‘long fields of barley and of rye’. Today the rye has given way to the far less romantic potatoes, sugar beet and oilseed rape.

I’ve described the first half of the route as traffic free but straying farm animals can be a hazard. After Kirkstead Bridge, the Water Rail Way follows minor roads for the next 13.5 miles, rejoining the River Witham at Langrick Bridge for the final 4.5 miles.

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