Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The cycle of life
Travel writer Simon Parker pedalled 3,427 miles around ‘Pandemic Britain’ for his new book, Riding Out
nusbayhotel.co.uk) in Hillswick does a mean Sunday carvery. If you don’t fancy dragging your own bike all the way up there, you can hire one from the Shetland Community Bike Project in Lerwick.
Scotland’s North Coast 500 Miles: 516. Difficulty: Serious cyclist. Best to go slow and take 10-14 days.
Arguably Britain’s greatest bike ride, the route starts and ends in Inverness, and most people opt to tackle it in a clockwise direction.
Expect lots of climbing – 32,000 feet in total (higher than Everest) – but what goes up must come down. You’ll whizz around alpine switchbacks and into epic glens filled with mirror-calm lochs.
This really is the wildest corner of the country and travelling at the gentle pace of a bicycle will mean you can sneak up on the local wildlife. Keep a lookout for golden eagles, red deer and pine martens.
There are plenty of hotels, guesthouses and campsites along the route. Plockton, Durness and Thurso can be very popular, so have a good look on Google Maps for little places that go under the radar.
I would also avoid the school holidays, because the B-roads there can get very congested. July
England. Lincolnshire receives some of the fewest tourists in the country, yet its undulating Wolds resemble tidal waves of lush green, punctuated with splodges of fluffy livestock.
North of Hull, deserted pebble beaches ramble in to swirling white sand dunes that rustle and hiss in the North Sea breeze.
In Scarborough, the Bike & Boot Inn (bikeandboot.com/scarborough) has recently been refurbished with cyclists in mind and there’s a handy workshop in the basement. Further north, the North York Moors are criss-crossed with walking and cycling trails, and from Danby Beacon, you can see all the way towards Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.
The best bit of the whole ride, however, has to be the Northumberland coast, where you’ll cycle past dozens of medieval castles.
England’s westernmost isles are almost pancake-flat, making them an ideal place for young families to ride together.
St Mary’s Bike Hire (stmarysbikehire.co.uk) in Hugh Town has a good selection of mountain bikes, hybrids, e-bikes and trailers for children, and with the biggest island as your base, you could then spend a day cycling around each of its neighbours: St Agnes, St Martin’s, Tresco and Bryher.
All have craggy coves and white sand beaches, and when the Atlantic Ocean stirs up a hooley, you can always take cover in a pub or tearoom.
Tresco is best for castles and subtropical gardens, while St Agnes is ideal for coastal walking and camping.
Troytown Farm (troytown.co.uk) has tent pitches and self-catering cottages, and you can see all the way to the Bishop Rock Lighthouse – which is the last thing between Britain and the Americas.