, takes riders on a 250-mile route from the misshapen foot of the Mull of Galloway in the southwest to the fish-and-chip shops of Eyemouth on the country's nape. Hoy might complete it in four days, but more leisurely riders take up to eight. It wheels through some stellar Scottish history — the poetic country of Robert Burns, John Buchan, James Hogg and Walter Scott offers long, sensational days in the saddle, with evenings spent nursing beers and, um, a sore posterior. Hermitage Castle near Newcastleton GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN Scotland's love affair with cycling has genuine provenance. In 1839 Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith from Dumfriesshire, created the velocipede — the first pedal-driven bicycle — and this summer Glasgow hosted the UCI Cycling World Championships. It's estimated that cycling is worth more than £500 million a year to the Scottish economy. I'd arrived at Lockerbie train station from Edinburgh to pick up my hire bike and begin the 68-mile first leg. With the sun blazing high in the sky, I crested gentle hills, rolled past meadows and pedalled frantically alongside the){kind=link}
Did the cycling supremo Chris Hoy ever have to shove two jumbo car wash sponges bought from a local Spar down the back of his Lycra to assuage saddle soreness? I doubt it. Needs must, however, and as a non-cyclist tackling my second day on the Kirkpatrick C2C, Scotland’s new cross-country cycle route, I was grateful for those makeshift seat cushions. Who knows what the shoppers buying milk at 8am made of me . . .
Locals in this unsung stretch of southern Scotland are pinning high hopes on the C2C, keen for it to emulate the success of the North Coast 500, the Highlands road trip route that’s brought thousands of petrolheads to the region since it launched in 2015. After being battered by foot-and-mouth disease, Covid then Storm Arwen, it’s a region that needs a break, and cyclists could be the ones to provide it.
The C2C, which launched in July (signs will be added by next September), takes riders on a 250-mile route from the misshapen foot of the Mull of Galloway in the southwest to the fish-and-chip shops of Eyemouth on the country’s nape.
Hoy might complete it in four days, but more leisurely riders take up to eight. It wheels through some stellar Scottish history – the poetic country of Robert Burns, John Buchan, James Hogg and Walter Scott offers long, sensational days in the saddle, with evenings spent nursing beers and, um, a sore posterior.
Scotland’s love affair with cycling has genuine provenance. In 1839 Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith from Dumfriesshire, created the velocipede – the first pedal-driven bicycle – and this summer Glasgow hosted the UCI Cycling World Championships. It’s estimated that cycling is worth more than £500 million a year to the Scottish economy.