The
A68 is a major road in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, running from
DarlingtonDarlington is a town in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England, and the main population centre in the Borough of Darlington. Darlington has a resident population of 97,838 as of 1997. On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area, which separated it from the...
in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
From Darlington, the road runs north, bypassing
Bishop AucklandBishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in North East England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless...
, and running through
West AucklandWest Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.West Auckland Town F.C...
, Toft Hill and
Tow LawTow Law is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,952. It is situated a few miles to the south of Consett. Tow Low Town football team are based in the town. The town constituted an urban district from 1894 until 1974...
, past
ConsettConsett is a town in the northwest of County Durham, England.Consett is a town of 27,000 people, high on the edge of the Pennines in north-west Durham. In 1841, it was a village community of only 145, but it was about to become a boom town. Below the ground was coking coal and blackband iron ore....
and
Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, situated west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages in the vicinity include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe.-Roman fort and town:...
. The road used to run through the centre of Corbridge but now runs on a new single carriageway alignment to the East of the town, crossing the
River TyneThe River Tyne is a river in northeast England. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'....
over
Styford BridgeStyford Bridge is a modern concrete bridge carrying the A68 road across the River Tyne east of Riding Mill, Northumberland, England and forms part of the A68 bypass of Corbridge.-History:...
. To bring the road back to the previous route of the A68 it now overlaps the
A69The A69 is a major road in England running east-west across the Pennines, through the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria. Originally starting in Blaydon, but since the creation of the A1 Western Bypass around Newcastle upon Tyne, it now starts at Denton Burn a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne. The...
for just under three miles, before turning off north again.
The A68 reaches the Scottish border at
Carter BarThe Carter Bar is the point at which the A68 crosses the England-Scotland border. It is located in Redesdale, from Jedburgh, from Hawick and from Newcastle-upon-Tyne....
, which contains a junction that leads to the A6088, leading to Hawick.
The
A68 is a major road in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, running from
DarlingtonDarlington is a town in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England, and the main population centre in the Borough of Darlington. Darlington has a resident population of 97,838 as of 1997. On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area, which separated it from the...
in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
From Darlington, the road runs north, bypassing
Bishop AucklandBishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in North East England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless...
, and running through
West AucklandWest Auckland is a village in County Durham, in North East England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland, on the A688 road.West Auckland Town F.C...
, Toft Hill and
Tow LawTow Law is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,952. It is situated a few miles to the south of Consett. Tow Low Town football team are based in the town. The town constituted an urban district from 1894 until 1974...
, past
ConsettConsett is a town in the northwest of County Durham, England.Consett is a town of 27,000 people, high on the edge of the Pennines in north-west Durham. In 1841, it was a village community of only 145, but it was about to become a boom town. Below the ground was coking coal and blackband iron ore....
and
Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, situated west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages in the vicinity include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe.-Roman fort and town:...
. The road used to run through the centre of Corbridge but now runs on a new single carriageway alignment to the East of the town, crossing the
River TyneThe River Tyne is a river in northeast England. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'....
over
Styford BridgeStyford Bridge is a modern concrete bridge carrying the A68 road across the River Tyne east of Riding Mill, Northumberland, England and forms part of the A68 bypass of Corbridge.-History:...
. To bring the road back to the previous route of the A68 it now overlaps the
A69The A69 is a major road in England running east-west across the Pennines, through the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria. Originally starting in Blaydon, but since the creation of the A1 Western Bypass around Newcastle upon Tyne, it now starts at Denton Burn a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne. The...
for just under three miles, before turning off north again.
The A68 reaches the Scottish border at
Carter BarThe Carter Bar is the point at which the A68 crosses the England-Scotland border. It is located in Redesdale, from Jedburgh, from Hawick and from Newcastle-upon-Tyne....
, which contains a junction that leads to the A6088, leading to Hawick. The road then runs through the small Border town of
JedburghJedburgh is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and historically in Roxburghshire.-Location:Jedburgh lies on the Jed Water, a tributary of the River Teviot, it is only ten miles from the border with England, and is dominated by the substantial ruins of Jedburgh Abbey...
, St Boswells,
EarlstonEarlston , is a parish and market town in Berwickshire, Scotland. It is situated on the River Leader in Leaderdale.-Early history:...
,
LauderThe Royal Burgh of Lauder is a town in the Scottish Borders council area. It was a royal burgh in the county of Berwickshire until 1975 when both were abolished...
and then going up by Soutra Hill and into the town of
DalkeithDalkeith is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the River North Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540...
where the B6373 leaves and rejoins it in the town.
Since September 2008, the A68 now runs a couple of miles to the east of Dalkeith at Fordel Mains and joins the
A720The Edinburgh City Bypass, designated as A720, is one of the most important trunk roads in Scotland. Circling around the south of Edinburgh, as the equivalent of a ring road for the coastal city, it links together the A1 towards north-east England, the A702 towards north-west England, the M8...
close to its eastern terminus on the A1 at Old Craighall Junction. The bypass has removed large volumes of traffic from the centre of the town. This part of the road has now taken the A68 designation and the old route through Dalkeith has been renumbered and downgraded to non-primary status.
The A68 used to run all the way into
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, but that section within Edinburgh became part of the A7 several years ago.
It is the only major road to cross the England/Scotland border for a long distance either way (the next crossing being the
A697 roadThe A697 is a road that can be used an alternative to the A1 for those travelling between Scotland and England via the North East.It connects Morpeth on the A1 to the A68 at Oxton, near Edinburgh...
near
ColdstreamColdstream is a burgh in the Scottish Borders. It lies on the north bank of the River Tweed in Berwickshire, while Northumberland in England lies to the south bank...
/
Cornhill-on-TweedCornhill-on-Tweed is a village in Northumberland, in England about to the east of Coldstream.- Notable people :*William Jacks, iron master, author and politician*Eric Tait, former player and manager with Berwick Rangers-External links:*...
in the east, and the A7 near
CanonbieCanonbie is a small village in Dumfries and Galloway in south west Scotland, six miles south of Langholm and two miles north of the Anglo-Scottish border. It is on the A7 road from Carlisle to Edinburgh, and the River Esk flows through it...
.
Apart from the
A69The A69 is a major road in England running east-west across the Pennines, through the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria. Originally starting in Blaydon, but since the creation of the A1 Western Bypass around Newcastle upon Tyne, it now starts at Denton Burn a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne. The...
concurrencyA concurrency, overlap, or coincidence in a road network is an instance of one physical road bearing two or more different highway, motorway, or other route numbers...
the road is entirely single carriageway apart from a short section before it crosses the A1(M) into
DarlingtonDarlington is a town in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England, and the main population centre in the Borough of Darlington. Darlington has a resident population of 97,838 as of 1997. On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area, which separated it from the...
.
The A68 is part of Euroroute
E15The E 15 is part of the United Nations international E-road network. It is a north-south "reference road", running from Inverness, Scotland south through England and France to Algeciras, Spain...
(
InvernessInverness is a city in northern Scotland. The city is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is promoted as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
-
AlgecirasAlgeciras is a port city in the south of Spain, and is the largest urban area on the Bay of Gibraltar . It is the busiest port in Spain. It is situated on the Río de la Miel 20 km north of Tarifa, which is the southernmost town of the Iberian peninsula and continental Europe. It has a population in...
) between its northern terminus on the A720, and its junction with the A696 just on the English side of the border. The E15 continues northwards and southwards on the A720 and A696 respectively.
External links