Cardinal Spins

From his home in the Peak District, Mark Wedgwood drew along the compass points to Britain’s wildest edges and rode every one. This 4,174 mile ride is a celebration of the curiosity that sparks adventure.

Living in the heart of the country, I’m lucky to call the Peak District home. From my front door in Hathersage, a day’s ride can carry me 100 miles to the Lincolnshire coast for fish and chips. My longer adventures, though, have usually begun much further afield.

At the start of the summer I was ready for a big new cycling adventure, but I also needed to spend regular time at home. What would happen, I wonder, if I simply kept going from my front door?

With home as the hub of a giant compass, I plotted sixteen routes between opposing coastal extremities, and set out to ride them in the truest lines possible, skirting traffic, seeking the best cycling.

From Hathersage to…

• Seahouses, Northumberland (North)
• Saltburn by the Sea, North Yorkshire (NNE)
• Cloughton, North Yorkshire (NE)
• Flamborough Head, North Yorkshire (ENE)
• Sutton-on-Sea, Lincolnshire (East)
• Sizewell, Suffolk (ESE)
• Hastings, East Sussex (SE)
• Worthing, West Sussex (SSE)
• Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire (South)
• Beer, East Devon (SSW)
• Lizard Point, Cornwall (SW)
• Tenby, Pembrokeshire ( WSW)
• Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey (West)
• Londonderry, Northern Ireland, via the Isle of Man (WNW)
• Huisnis, Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides (NW)
• Cape Wrath, Sutherland (NNW)

With sixteen rides to do, I introduced an element of surprise by making a rotating cardboard arrow to determine which direction came next.

My first spin was a logistical challenge as it required me to cross the Bristol Channel. A two-day 210 mile ride took me to Porthcawl in South Wales. From there I boarded the world’s last sea-going paddle steamer to Ilfracombe in North Devon and made my way across the West Country to Lizard Point.

On route I stopped at Ironbridge Gorge to spend the day with my wife, Jenni. She was recovering from an operation so wasn’t cycling with me this year - but we could still adventure together. We came up with the idea of meeting up somewhere roughly a day’s ride away from home. Over the summer we explored Durham, Bridlington, Lincoln, London, Shrewsbury, Chester, the Isle of Man, Belfast and Skipton. It was a master stroke and added a whole new dimension to the rides. Thanks to these breaks we got to know interesting new places together and learned much about towns and cities we’ve previously missed. And the next day, I would get back on my bike and ride on.

If the purpose of this adventure was to see many sides of this beautiful and diverse country, then it delivered in spades.

Highlights:

Riding from Skipton up the length of stunning Upper Wharfedale, up and over to Hawes in Wensleydale, and then on to Kirkby Stephen and Appleby, before tracking along the west side of the North Pennines as far as Brampton. Magnificent!

Riding from Settle in North Yorkshire, northwest via Ingleton and Kingsdale to beautiful Dentdale, and then through Sedbergh to skirt the west side of the Howgills range, along the Lune Gorge and right up to Shap; and then along the lovely Lowther valley and over via Pooley Bridge to Penruddock – a day of quiet, awe-inspiring cycling.

Taking a late afternoon ferry across the Firth of Clyde to Dunoon and then cycling all along loch sides to reach Inverary, on the far side of Loch Fyne, at sunset. Sublime. The visual feast of cycling along the southwest coast of Cornwall, stopping for breakfast amid tall ships in the harbour at Charlestown, along the Roseland Peninsula to pretty St Mawes, and then by ferry over Carrick Roads to Falmouth, and past beautiful beach-studded coastline, via Helford Passage ferry, to Lizard Point.

Heading north-northeast over the purple, heather-covered North Yorkshire Moors from delightful Helmsley to Saltburn pier.

My journey finished in early November at Huisnis, a beautiful, golden, windswept beach on the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. I had no other reason to be here, especially in these short, out of season days, when few people were around and most places were closed for the winter.

And that is the magic of these adventures - doggedly following a self-invented purpose led me to explore further

My journey rewarded my curiosity every day as it led me to some exceptional places across the UK. Wherever you live, I challenge you to work out your own individual compass. Who knows what you’ll find riding out from your own front door.

Mark Wedgwood is the author of The Man Who Cycled Every Map, a book about his unique cycling adventure to every 1:50,000 OS Landranger map, from 1 to 204, in numerical order.