Author: Rob Ainsley

Sigmund Freud would have had all sorts to say about Netherton Tunnel, on the Birmingham canal system. Going through it with a bike is a challenging experience. Not physically, but psychologically: it’s 2768m of arrow-straight pitch-darkness. Your only point of reference once inside is the pinprick of light in the distance, piercing thinly like Venus…

Here’s a place where the waves rule Britannia. Holy Island is connected to the mainland by a kilometre and a half of tarmac road. Twice a day, the sea gradually rolls in over the marshy surrounding sands and envelops the causeway. It’s rising damp with a vengeance. Lindisfarne becomes Wholly Island. The best way to…

Another of Britain’s unconvincing candidates for ‘Original Roman Road surface’. Blackpool Bridge and Blackstone Edge are the others. Wade’s Causeway is fabulous cycling country near Goathland, in the North York Moors. South of the village, follow signs to the ‘Roman Road (footpath)’. The lane becomes a bridleway, which becomes a footpath by the time you…

Some hills, like wasps, seem to serve no function other than to cause pain. Cycle in certain parts of Devon, which swarms with pointless little stinging ascents, and you’ll know what we mean. The North York Moors is also a hive of activity for makers of ‘1 in 3’ road signs, but you are richly…

Another of Britain’s unconvincing candidates for ‘Original Roman Road surface’. Blackpool Bridge and Wade’s Causeway are the others. Blackstone Edge is up in the Pennines, near the highest point of the M62 as it vaults the moors. It’s a bridleway, so is cyclable, but the stones can be slippery even in dry weather. It’s just…

In England, we have Mam Tor, the shivering mountain, which prevents a similarly intrepid motorised passage from Sheffield to Chapel-en-le-Frith. But you can cycle it, and inspect first hand its unique collapsed 2km-long road that looks more like an earthquake zone than the Peak District. Before it became tarmac blancmange, it used to be the…

What is the oldest road you can cycle on in Britain? Oldest actual surface, that is, not just general route. People have been trudging across the Ridgeway for instance, across England’s billowing chalky south, for many thousands of years. But the specific lines taken varied from year to year, even journey to journey. What we’re…

Ffordd Pen Llech is the nearest you’ll get on a British road to downhill skiing on a bike. The narrow strip of tarmac careers down a hill at the side of Harlech Castle in north-west Wales, blundering in between picturesque stone cottages as if in a panic to get to the bottom. According to the…

Canal towpaths are often great for cycling, for four important reasons. They are flat; car-free; scenic; and they are generously punctuated with pubs. When the countryside gets less flat, though, they’re sometimes less great for the narrowboats using them. The Kennet & Avon Canal – built in 1797–1810 as part of the vital waterways link…

So long as you don’t get too ambitious and attempt to head out into the harbour, here’s a place where you can comfortably cycle along the surface of the sea. And get some unique entertainment too. The trim harbourside village of Bosham, near Chichester on the south coast, lets you do that most days. It’s…