So. I was cycling round Ingleton, nestled between the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales 50 miles northwest of Leeds, exploring routes for a well-known bike magazine. If you wish you could make a living doing this, well, so do I. Surrounded by spectacular limestone landscapes, the village is a centre for groups walking…
Category: Yorkshire Ridings
Calder 2: Dewsbury to Castleford
Day 2 of the River Calder ride featured three aspects of Yorkshire: world-renowned sculpture, a traditional Leeds welcome, and riverside rubbish. I stayed in a cheap and cheerful pub room in Dewsbury. It’s said to be one of England’s most divided communities, and not only by Brexit: just over the river in an area called…
Halifax: Calder mobile
Halifax (pic), home to almost half Calderdale’s 190,000 folk, is not short of associations. Cat’s-eyes; Quality Street; the eponymous bank; the Eureka family attraction; victim of gratuitously infernal slander along with Hull. For telly viewers it’s the setting of comedy-drama Last Tango in Halifax, while for cyclists it’s the venue of Shibden Wall, a famously…
Calder 1: Cornholme to Dewsbury
River Calder Source Ratten Clough, Cornholme Mouth River Aire, Castleford Length 45 miles Towns Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Dewsbury, Wakefield, Castleford Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide The second of my Rivers Rides was a two-day, 58-mile trip from the Lancs border to the Aire following the River Calder. Day 1…
Easingwold: Narrow escape
Easingwold, a dozen miles north of York, is a pleasant market town (pic) – pubs, handsome square, friendly local vibe, farmers chatting by the bus stop – but is unlikely to make those tedious ‘1000001 Places to Visit Before You Die’ lists. Yet it has one very odd, virtually unknown, attraction, and that was why…
Don 2: Sheffield to Goole
Day 2 of the River Don ride featured a lot of weirs, a lot of town centre, a lot of drab flatland, and glimpses of the Netherlands. I stayed in an EasyHotel last night: £20 for a clean, modern, ensuite room right in the centre of Sheffield. No windows – an advantage, as I couldn’t…
Don 1: Dunford Bridge to Sheffield
River Don Source Great Grains Clough, Dunford Bridge Mouth River Ouse, Goole Length 70 miles Towns Penistone, Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Goole Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide The first of my Rivers Rides was a two-day, 70-mile scoot from the Pennines to the Ouse along the River Don. Day 1…
Ilkley: On Ilkla Moor baht ’elmet
I’d never been to Ilkley. Or Otley. Or Ilkley Moor, with or without a hat. So today I did something about it, cycling up and over Yorkshire’s most famous tract of upland: the windswept plateau which gave birth to its ‘national anthem’, On Ilkla Moor baht’ at. I took the morning commuter train from York…
Malham: Welcome to Norway
English scenery doesn’t really do spectacular, but some bits of Yorkshire come close. In a country of modest geography, the theatrical surprises of Malham Cove and Gordale Scar feel as vast as anything in Norway or Chile. Relatively, anyway; and the beer’s much better. No wonder author Bill Bryson chose to live here, in the…
NW 3: Grinton to High Force
Day 3 of the eighth and last of my Yorkshire Compass Rides saw gale force winds, the remote Tees valley – and the culmination of the whole project at High Force, Yorkshire’s version of Niagara Falls. Dales Bike Centre in Reeth fixed my broken spoke in under ten minutes, so I was able to set…