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…
Category: Yorkshire Ridings
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…
NW 2: Ripon to Grinton
Day 2 of the eighth and last of my Yorkshire Compass Rides saw me get caught up in a grouse shoot, lose a spoke and dodge a firing range. But if the day saw me, I didn’t see much of it back: it was zero visibility for most of the time. A morning of mist…
NW 1: York to Ripon
The last of my eight Yorkshire Compass Rides was a three-day trip to the northwesternmost reaches of historic Yorkshire, up in the remote Tees valley amid the Pennines. Day 1 involved a flood, a bridge to nowhere, a darts player’s rival to Stonehenge, and Europe’s oldest continuously performed ceremony outside a Wetherspoon. I did this…
Hessay: Journey to the Centre of the Earth
We all know Yorkshire is the centre of the world, but where’s the centre of Yorkshire? In other words, if the historic county was made of plywood instead of rocks, where would you be able to balance it on the point of a pencil stronger than the one in my WH Smith Pocket Diary? There…
W 3: Slaidburn to Dunsop Bridge
Day 3 of the seventh of my Yorkshire Compass Rides involved the westernmost limit of historic Yorkshire, Little Copenhagen, a surprising notice about cats, and the very centre point of Great Britain. Reeking of kerosene, and fearful of any encounters with cigarette smokers, I set off the few miles from Slaidburn youth hostel to Dunsop…
W 2: Harrogate to Slaidburn
Day 2 of the seventh of my Yorkshire Compass Rides involved some worm-themed naive art, a pervasive smell of kerosene, and rain. Lots. The weather forecast could be summed up in one four-letter word, though ‘rain’ is probably a politer one. I set off early to make the most of the dry morning, heading up…
W 1: York to Harrogate
The seventh of my Yorkshire Compass Rides was a three-day trip to the westernmost reaches of historic Yorkshire in the Forest of Bowland. Day 1 involved some railway curios, Britain’s most surprising gorge, and the Greatest Living Yorkshireman. I headed out of York on the cycle track alongside the A64 to Tadcaster, which I passed…