Hotels for Great North Run 2027

The Great North Run is the world's biggest half marathon, and the 2027 edition is set for Sunday 12 September. More than 60,000 runners leave the centre of Newcastle, cross the Tyne Bridge to a wall of noise, and follow the coast road east to a seafront finish at South Shields. It is one of the defining occasions of the British sporting calendar and as much a city-wide party as a race: bands the length of the course, families deep along the Gateshead highway, and a carnival on the sands at the end.

Entry is by public ballot and Newcastle fills early on race weekend, so book well ahead. Stay in the city centre to be near the start, or at South Shields or Sunderland for the finish, with the Tyne and Wear Metro linking the whole corridor.

The Great North Run was founded in 1981 by Brendan Foster, the Olympic and Commonwealth medal-winning runner turned race organiser, who wanted Britain to have a mass-participation road race of the kind he'd seen abroad. The first run, on 28 June 1981, drew just over 12,000 runners from Newcastle to South Shields — a serious field for the time, and one that grew steadily year on year.

By 2014 it had recorded its millionth finisher and set a Guinness World Record for the largest half marathon ever held, and it remains one of the biggest half marathons anywhere, drawing entrants from well over a hundred countries in some years. The route hasn't changed in essence since 1981: out of Newcastle, over the Tyne Bridge, along the coast road to the finish by the sea at South Shields.