That made me wonder about my own list. I decided this would involve longer routes that would make complete staycation holidays in their own right, and I would spread them wide around the UK. So here goes:
The beautiful Yorkshire Dales can give you challenging cycling, both in terms of distance and hills, although there are also less rigorous cycle routes available as well.
There is no doubt it is a fantastic area – a National Park with fabulous scenery, including Swaledale, Wensleydale, Nidderdale, Ribblesdale and Wharfedale.
Cycling has become very popular in the Dales and you will find a good number of accommodation providers and eateries who very much welcome cyclists.
You will also find there are very good cycle maps and guide books.
In the page below you will find sections on:
Suggested cycle touring and cycling holiday hubs
Gentle / family bike rides
Circular cycle tours
Guide books and maps for cycle touring
Waymarked long-distance cycle routes
Mountain biking / off-road cycle routes
Cycle-friendly holiday accommodation
Cycling maps and guide books
Suggested cycle touring and cycling holiday hubsinthe Yorkshire Dales
There are plenty of areas that can provide you with accommodation for cycle tours or as a hub for daily rides. Here are some suggestions:
Ingleton, on the southern border of the Yorkshire Dales, has easy access from the A65 and lanes leading into the Dales towards the Ribblehead Viaduct and Horton-in-Ribblesdale
Hawes is very central in the Dales, with various lanes and off-road routes within easy reach, and the Wensleydale Cheese factory
Grassington is in the south east of the Yorkshire Dales, within reach of the West Yorkshire towns and cities and the A1 with its links north and south
Settle, on the south-western side of the Dales, has good access to the Dales and is an excellent place to stay over, as well as lying on the Settle-Carlisle Railway
Gentler bike rides in the Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales are not known for being flat. Much of it is really quite challenging as regards cycling! There are a few more moderate routes, such as the following:
Skipton to Bolton Abbey
A 13.5 miles gorgeous there-and-back route from Skipton to Bolton Abbey with its tea-rooms, walks and stepping stones over the river.
It’s not a flat road, but is described as ‘undulating’ in the Family Cycle Rides book below.
Allow family time in Skipton as well, with its castle and canal basin.
This is a 12-mile-long mostly off-road route that would suit a family on mountain bikes or similar. It follows a valley bottom and so is flat-ish, though not completely.
The first half, from Reeth to Gunnerside is the flattest, while the continuation to Keld is less so.
It is a really good route, a family-style challenge.
You can create your own routes through the Dales most easily using the Harvey map, Yorkshire Dales for Cyclists, a 1:100,000 map on tough hard-wearing paper.
It’s a clear, beautifully-drawn map, showing long-distance routes and challenging climbs, as well as marking cafés, pubs and bike shops.
‘Lost Lanes North‘ is a great coffee-table book of cycle rides including five in the Yorkshire Dales. There is great photography, plus maps and listings of pubs an pitstops.
Routes include, for example, Up Hill Down Dale – 39 moderate/challenging miles including Settle, Grassington and Malham.
Alternatively, you can follow routes in the Cicerone guide book, 24 circular rides including:
Wensleydale and Swaledale from Leyburn
28 “reasonably challenging” miles according to the Cicerone guide book (route 21) with potential café stops along the way at Reeth, Fremington, Askrigg and Bolton Castle.
The Pennine Cycleway is a waymarked Sustrans cycle route all the way from Derby up the spine of England to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
It arrives in the Yorkshire Dales National Park near Gargrave and takes a fantastic route up the west side of the National Park to Appleby-in-Westmorland over in Cumbria – about 70 miles.
There are potential stops in Settle, Ingleton and Sedbergh on the way.
This is a beautiful and often very quiet territory to explore, and there are direct trains between Gargrave and Appleby for a return route on the famed Settle-Carlisle Railway.
The Pennine Bridleway
The Pennine Bridleway starts in Derbyshire and finishes in Northumberland, with some of the best riding in the Yorkshire Dales. This is off-road riding, some of it reasonably challenging unless you are used to it.
The Yorkshire Dales section starts in Long Preston and goes via Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Garsdale Head to Ravenstonedale and is around 51 miles.
It is best followed using Cicerone’s guide book, which has excellent maps and riding instructions, plus height graphs and what to see and do.
The Way of the Roses is a Sustrans coast to coast route from Lancashire’s Morecambe to Yorkshire’s Bridlington, via – of course – Lancaster and York, the red and the white roses.
It is a very popular and varied ride, 170 miles altogether, including passing through Settle, Burnsall and Pateley Bridge on its way to Ripon and York.
Mountain biking / off-road cycle routes in the Yorkshire Dales
The guide book Cycling the Pennine Bridleway (Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales) from Cicerone in fact has a number of mountain-bike loops in the Yorkshire Dales very well described and mapped. Examples are below, and a full list can be found by clicking on the link to the guide book itself:
The Settle Loop is 10 miles long, of which 7.5 is off-road. It is quite a challenge with a great deal of climbing, but excellent views and very good downhills to finish. Graded: Medium.
Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Helwith Bridge, Sulber Nick – 12.5 miles, 0f which 6.75 miles off-road. Graded: Easy.
The locations of the loops are shown below:
Another excellent guide book, Yorkshire Dales Mountain Biking from Vertebrate, has 26 mountain bike routes all around the Dales, including around Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent, Swaledale, the Howgills and the Swale Trail.
Routes include an “easy” 16Km from Austwick, an “epic” from Settle to Malham Cove, and “enduro” from the Ribblehead Viaduct and the Tour d’Ingleborough as a 40Km “killer”!
There is also the specific Wharfedale Biking Guide with six routes in the areas of Grassington, Appletreewick and Bolton Abbey.
Cycle-friendly Holiday Accommodation in the Yorkshire Dales
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