Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Route
The Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Route is a loop of more than 140 miles using mostly NCN-marked roads. As far as I am aware there isn’t an official starting place, but for no other reason than my own convenience I see Beverley – the most significant point closest to my home – as the beginning of the ride. I hope to attempt this well-planned circuit in a clockwise direction one day this June.
[Edit: the ride was completed one day in April 2011. For ride report click here.]
[Added May 2011: This is my second attempt to plot the Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Route. This time I failed to include the out and back section to Bempton Cliffs, which we didn’t ride on the day.]
I returned to cycling seriously in 2009, but it’s only been in this past year that I’ve appreciated how lucky I am to be so close to the Yorkshire Wolds. Previously, I would always think of the Yorkshire Dales as the place to visit for excellent cycling country that is fairly local but, although the Dales are very special, there is much pleasure to be had from cycling along the quiet country roads and rolling hills nearer to home. I am only sorry that circumstances kept me away from riding in the Yorkshire Wolds for such a long time.
According the .pdf version of the official map produced by Visit Yorkshire, the section along the Wolds Way between North Newbald and Arras is (to be?) upgraded. At the time of writing, this part of the route is not a comfortable ride on a road bike. I rode it anyway.
This proposed route is almost entirely an on-road circuit with the exception of a short stretch of the Yorkshire Wolds Way north of Newbald. If you didn’t fancy riding that section I would suggest continuing along the road (the Wolds Way route goes off to the left) on to Etton via Gardham before travelling west to pick up route 66 and the road in to Market Weighton.
According to my copy of the SOED, the word ‘wold’ comes to us via Dutch woud, German wald meaning ‘forest’. Here, at or near Etton Westwood just off the Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Route, the Wolds of Yorkshire are cut a little further away from their origin.
I have already ridden much of this route in sections on various day rides. The one stretch I haven’t done is Sledmere/Bridlington/Driffield. This part should be easy to navigate – it all should, really – because it follows route 167 and route 1 between Sledmere and Driffield. Bridlington to Driffield along NCN route 1 is also the last (or first) seventeen miles of the ‘Way of the Roses’ coast-to-coast cycle route. It is mostly flat.
Way of the Roses/Yorkshire Wolds signs north of Bracken.
If I can continue to build my fitness, I believe that I can do this route in a day. My only concern, as always, is the weather – particularly the wind. We’ll see…
Related posts, including images from parts of the route (Big Skies Bike Rides):
North Newbald and back from Beverley
Millington Dale and Warter from Pocklington
South Dalton, Lockington and Lund from Market Weighton
Burton Agnes and Kilham from Driffield
