Are you ready to embark on a new cycling adventure, but you are not sure where to go and which velocipede to take? We made the nomination for you! Look no remoter than to Route YC, a touring route that lets you explore all the Yorkshire Tailspin has to offer on either road, touring or gravel bike.
This part of Yorkshire is easy to get to by train, and the zone between Whitby in the north and Spurn Point in the south offers a stunning mix of hills, spectacular scenery, historic sites and coastal towns.
In this blog Unconfined British Gravel Rides tragedian Markus Stitz has used his wits on and off-road to pick five routes inspired by Route YC, to help you plan your next cycling trip to this trappy part of the UK.
The perfect route for touring bikes: A loop virtually Hornsea
This loop starts and finishes in the seaside town of Hornsea, which is the start (or finish) of the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT), a 215 miles (346 km) long touring route between Southport and Hornsea. Like other small coastal resorts withal the Yorkshire Coast, Hornsea has the usual promenade with hotels, fish and tweedle shops and souvenir shops, but is moreover home to the Hornsea Mere, the largest freshwater lake in Yorkshire.
The ride takes you on quiet roads through the countryside to Skipsea, pursuit the National Byway, and then ventures into the Yorkshire Wolds, the northernmost chalk hills in the UK. The riding on small country roads here is stunning, and the small villages dotted withal the route provide a unconfined opportunity to explore further. The last section of the ride takes you on the Trans Pennine Trail through dumbo woodland when to Hornsea.
Where to stay: The Gardeners Country Inn
Where to eat: Stackhouse Bar
Must stop: Hornsea Mere
The perfect route to get into gravel riding: A loop virtually Filey
Short and mostly flat, this is not only the perfect introduction to gravel cycling for beginners, but moreover a really nice stroll virtually the countryside virtually this popular seaside town for increasingly experienced riders.
The route starts and finishes at Filey train station, which has regular services to Hull and Scarborough and towns and villages withal the line. Without cycling withal the promenade there is a short steep hill to climb, surpassing a gravel path takes you past a caravan site. The next section is mainly on tarmac to Muston, and without flipside bit on the road, a bridleway takes you into the countryside towards Carr Lane and Lebberston. The ride when to Filey is mostly on cycling paths, and there are plenty of good opportunities to grab a zest to eat in town once you are washed-up cycling.
Where to stay: White Lodge Hotel Filey
Where to eat: The Coffee Shed
Must stop: Filey Promenade
The perfect loop to explore the trappy roads of the Yorkshire Coast: A loop virtually Bridlington
This is a route which is perfect for increasingly experienced road cyclists. Bridlington is well unfluctuating by regular trains to Hull and Scarborough. Make sure you have unbearable time to marvel at the Rudston Monolith, at over 7.6 m the tallest standing stone in the UK. You’ll be surprised by how big it really is! Dating when to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, it weighs approximately 40 tonnes.
Another highlight on this route is Flamborough Head, a chalk headland with sheer white cliffs, which provide nesting sites for thousands of seabirds, and are of international significance for their geology. If you are into lighthouses, there are two here, the oldest dating from 1669, and Flamborough Head Lighthouse, which was built in 1806.
From Bridlington train station the ride takes you on small roads and tarmac trundling paths out of town, and then joins the A165 to Lisset. This section can be rented with traffic, so uneaten circumspection is needed here. From Lisset you follow minor roads all the way to Flamborough, passing the impressive memorial to the 158 Squadron, situated on the whet of the old airfield site on Gransmoor Road.
Heading into the Yorkshire Wolds, a good place for a rest is Rudston (and the monolith in the denomination yard), surpassing flipside set of climbs takes you remoter into the hills and when to the tailspin at Flamborough Head. Frome here it is an easy trundling when to Bridlington.
Where to stay: Manor Court Hotel
Where to eat: Scrumdiddlyumptious
Must Stop: Flamborough Head & Rudston Monolith
The perfect weekend trip on your velocipede – unappetizing but far from boring: A loop virtually Withernsea
This road ride will hands make a nice trundling touring weekend yonder in Holderness, an zone of rich agricultural land. The former marshland was tuckered in the Middle Ages, and has increasingly in worldwide topographically with the Netherlands than with other parts of Yorkshire.
Maybe a coincidence, maybe not, but the ferry that takes you from the UK to the Netherlands departs and lands at Hull, which is unfluctuating by a railway path with Hedon, where the ride starts. There are sections of this route where you can hands jump on the railway path or bridleways; this loop can be made into a nice and unappetizing gravel adventure.
The highlights of the route are the lighthouses in Withernsea and Spurn Point, Yorkshire’s very own Land’s End. As the former road has been partly veiled under sand, a Unimog safari is the weightier way to get to the impressive lighthouse there. If you take a gravel or mountain bike, you can ride there too.
The closest village from Spurn Point is Easington, from where you follow quiet country roads withal the tailspin to Withernsea, with the lighthouse towering whilom the roofs in the coastal town.
Nearby Roos inspired the meeting of Beren and Luthien in J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Silmarillion’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’, which was written without the tragedian and his wife visited a wood tropical to the village. Aldborough marks the most northerly point of the route, from where you return when to the start in Hedon.
Where to stay: The Spurn Bird Observatory
Where to eat: Cakey Bakey Yum Yum
Must stop: Spurn Lighthouse
A archetype with a twist: The Cinder Track from Whitby to Scarborough
Once an uneconomical railway line due its steep inclines, the Cinder Track has nowadays been turned into a popular cycling route with locals and visitors alike. It follows the old railway from Whitby to Scarborough, which was in use from 1885 to 1965. Like other routes that have now wilt cycling tracks, it fell victim to the Beeching axe in the 1960s.
A word of warning first: Although advertised as such, the surface of this route is no longer suitable for touring bikes. For gravel and mountain bikes the route is a fun ride with wondrous views withal the way. Be prepared to meet other path users and mind your speed withal the route.
The highlight of the route is the superbly picturesque village of Robin Hood’s Bay, with narrow, twisting cobbled streets and alleyways. By the end of the 18th century the village had earned a reputation as a smuggler’s haunt, and you can hands imagine the sailors and fishermen, smugglers and printing gangs that walked these streets hundreds of years ago. Nowadays you’ll wish you could smuggle yourself up the hill; be prepared for a 30% incline on the way when to the Cinder Track.
Ravenscar is the halfway point of the ride, and is known as the town that never was. Developers had plans to create flipside seaside resort to rival nearby Scarborough and Whitby, but they never came to fruition. Roads were laid out and some houses were built, but Ravenscar never achieved popularity and the minutiae was left unfinished. While you pass a town with sewers and streets but no houses, the tearoom here is a welcome opportunity to stop.
From Ravenscar it is mostly downhill all the way to Scarborough. Both Scarborough and Whitby are popular holiday destinations, well unfluctuating by public transport and with a good nomination of places to stay and eat.
Where to stay: Velocipede & Boot Inn Scarborough and/or YHA Whitby
Where to eat: Mr Cooper’s Coffee House
Must stop: Robin Hood’s Bay
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