Explore Peterborough Outdoors
Peterborough
Green Wheel
A 45-mile network of cycleways, paths and quiet lanes connecting Peterborough with its river, parks, historic villages, nature reserves and countryside. Walk it, cycle it, run it or simply choose a section and see where it takes you.
Peterborough Green Wheel
The city and countryside joined together
One wheel. Hundreds of ways to explore.
The Green Wheel is one of the best ways to understand Peterborough as a place.
It is a 45-mile network of cycleways, footpaths and quiet lanes circling the city and connecting directly into the surrounding countryside.
The route brings together landscapes that can otherwise feel separate: the River Nene and Ferry Meadows, limestone villages west of the city, fen-edge landscapes to the east, nature reserves, historic places and the centre of Peterborough itself.
You can cycle it, walk sections of it, use it for running or simply treat it as a framework for discovering another side of the city.
Around Peterborough
Not just a cycle route. A way of reading the city.
The Green Wheel forms a broad circuit around Peterborough, with connecting spokes reaching towards the centre. It means you can join the network from different parts of the city, choose a manageable section or build a much longer adventure.
How the wheel works
A perimeter, spokes and countless possible journeys
Go around it. Or simply join a spoke.
The outer wheel
The perimeter route forms the distinctive wheel around Peterborough, travelling through a changing mix of countryside, villages, green spaces and the urban edge.
The spokes
Connecting routes lead towards central Peterborough, making the Green Wheel useful for everyday journeys as well as recreation and visitor exploration.
Make your own route
You do not need to complete the full circuit. Pick a section, connect it to Nene Park or the city, or combine several paths into a route that suits your day.
Along the way
Peterborough changes around every part of the wheel
Parks. Villages. Waterways. Thousands of years of landscape.
The Green Wheel is valuable because it connects places with very different characters. One journey can move from urban Peterborough to river valley, parkland, historic village and fen-edge landscape.
Nene Park
Lakes, woodland, meadow and riverside paths make Ferry Meadows one of the easiest places to join the Green Wheel for a shorter recreational ride.
Explore Nene Park →Flag Fen
East of the city, the landscape opens towards Flag Fen and the wetlands where Bronze Age archaeology sits beneath an enormous fenland sky.
Discover Flag Fen →Marholm
A historic stone village west of Peterborough where the ground begins to rise away from the fen and into the limestone country.
Explore the villages →Castor & Ailsworth
Historic settlements beside the Nene Valley landscape, with Roman history, stone buildings, paths and countryside west of the city.
Explore Peterborough's villages →Eye & the eastern landscape
East of Peterborough the terrain becomes flatter and more open, with waterways, wetlands, former clay landscapes and long views.
Discover wider Peterborough →Peterborough centre
The wheel's spokes connect towards the city itself, making it possible to combine countryside exploration with Cathedral, culture, food and the riverside.
Discover Peterborough →Interactive Green Wheel map
Find your route. Then follow the wheel.
Explore the Green Wheel on the interactive map. Zoom in to understand individual sections, identify where the route meets the city and surrounding villages, and decide how much of the wheel you want to tackle.
Interactive route map. Paths and access can change, so always follow current signs and local conditions.
Open larger route map ↗Make it yours
There is no single right way to use the Green Wheel
Walk it. Ride it. Run it.
Walk
Choose a manageable section and use the wheel as a way of discovering villages, parks, waterways and countryside on foot.
Cycle
Ride a short traffic-free stretch through Nene Park, link several spokes together or make the full circuit your challenge.
Run
The network offers anything from shorter recreational runs to long-distance training through Peterborough's changing urban and rural landscape.
Good to know
You don't need to ride all 45 miles.
The scale of the Green Wheel can make it sound like an endurance challenge. It doesn't have to be.
Its spokes and connections mean the network works just as well for a relaxed family cycle, a riverside walk, a village-to-village ride or an afternoon exploring one corner of Peterborough.
Plan your route
Useful information before you set out
Start prepared. Then enjoy the journey.
Nene Outdoors
Hire bikes at Ferry Meadows and begin exploring the western part of the Green Wheel from Nene Park.
Hire a bike ↗Brompton Bike Hire
Hire from Peterborough Station and continue your journey into the city and wider cycling network by bicycle.
Find the Peterborough dock ↗Peterborough cycle maps
Peterborough City Council provides downloadable cycling and leisure route maps for the city and surrounding countryside.
Download cycle maps ↗Route information
Parts of Peterborough's cycling network connect with National Cycle Network routes through and beyond the city.
National Cycle Network ↗Continue exploring
Find local bus, walking, taxi, cycling and parking information for the rest of your Peterborough visit.
Getting around Peterborough →An easy place to begin
Ferry Meadows offers visitor facilities, cycle hire and traffic-free paths connected into the wider network.
Explore Nene Park →The story of the Green Wheel
A Millennium project with a lasting legacy
Built for a new century. Still shaping Peterborough.
Peterborough's Green Wheel opened in 2000 as an ambitious sustainable transport and landscape project.
Its name describes its structure: a circular route around Peterborough with spokes connecting the perimeter back towards the centre.
The project was designed to do more than create cycleways. Interpretation, landscape, heritage and public art were used to connect thousands of years of Peterborough's story with a more sustainable way of moving through the city.
Twenty-five years later, the network remains one of the clearest expressions of an idea that still matters to Peterborough: city and countryside do not have to be separate experiences.
Check your route before setting out
The Green Wheel uses a mixture of traffic-free paths, quieter roads, urban cycle routes and road crossings. Surfaces, access and conditions can change, so use current maps, follow signs on the ground and choose a route appropriate to your experience, weather and group.