From: Darlington | To: Edinburgh City Bypass | |
 | ||
Primary
destinations: Bishop Auckland
Consett
Corbridge
Jedburgh | ||
The A68 is a major road in the United Kingdom, running from Darlington in England to the A720 in Edinburgh.
Map of A68, Bishop Auckland DL14, UK
From Darlington, the road runs north, bypassing Bishop Auckland, and running through West Auckland, Toft Hill and Tow Law, past Consett and Corbridge. 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 Tyne over Styford Bridge. To bring the road back to the previous route of the A68 it now overlaps the A69 for 2.9 miles (4.7 km), before turning off north again.
The A68 passes through rural Northumberland, following the route of Dere Street for much of this stretch. It reaches the Scottish border at Carter Bar, where there is a junction with the A6088, leading to Hawick. The road then runs through the small Border towns of Jedburgh, St Boswells, Earlston and Lauder before going over Soutra Hill, passing through the village of Pathhead and by-passing the town of Dalkeith, before reaching the A720. Prior to September 2008, the A68 passed through the town of Dalkeith before terminating at the Sherriffhall Roundabout on the A720. The bypass has removed large volumes of traffic from the centre of Dalkeith.
The A68 used to run all the way into Edinburgh, 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 road near Coldstream/Cornhill-on-Tweed in the east, and the A7 near Canonbie.
Apart from the A69 concurrency the road is entirely single carriageway apart from a short section before it crosses the A1(M) into Darlington. The A68 is famous (or perhaps infamous) for the number of significant 'blind summits' (brows and dips) it features, especially to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The A68 is part of Euroroute E15 (Inverness-Algeciras) 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.