The map opposite shows the 928 mile route I took from John O’Groats to Land’s End and the light blue dots indicate places where I stopped for the night. I didn’t always stay at hostels or B&Bs on the route and on a few occasions we drove away from the route in the evening and returned back the following day to continue the journey by bike.

Route Summary

The route started at John o’Groats and followed the east coast of Caithness and Sutherland down towards Inverness. At Inverness I chose to follow the A9 through the Central Highlands and Perth, crossing the Forth to the outskirts of Edinburgh, and then cut across the countryside to Abington. The route then followed various A and B roads that shadow the M74 and A74(M) to Gretna and over the border to England.

Entering England, the route passed through Carlisle and skirted around the edge of the Lake District, passing through Kendal. I then headed directly south on the old A6 through the Lancashire, towns of Morecambe, Lancaster, Preston and Warrington. The route passed through Cheshire and then the Shropshire towns of Whitchurch and Telford, where I detoured to visit Ironbridge. I then took another small detour to visit my Aunt at Kingswinford and followed the Severn Valley through Worcester, Gloucester, Chepstow in Wales and then across the Severn Bridge into Bristol.

At this point there were several options and I chose to avoid the Mendip Hills and travel via Weston-Super-Mere. I followed A and B roads roughly along the route of the M5 through Taunton and into the centre of Exeter. The remainder of the journey was spent on the A30, which took me all the way through hilly Devon and Cornwall to Land’s End.