Lands End to John O'Groats Cycle Route

Ever since the invention of the bicycle people have been inspired to ride the 'End to End'. The first official time recorded over the distance is 65 days, 16 hours and 7 minutes, ridden on a penny farthing in 1880, and since then the route has been covered on everything from a bed to a motorised bar stool! Today the record is held by Andy Wilkinson who in 1990 covered the distance in an incredible 45 hours, 2 minutes and 18 seconds. The ladies record of 2 days, 6 hours, 49 minutes and 45 seconds is held by Pauline Strong.

There is no 'official' End to End route and thus no official distance. There are various published guides - they all vary in the route they take, but most make the distance around 1,000 miles.

Shap is roughly halfway, so well done for getting over Shap Fell if you are coming from the South. In the village you will find everything you need for a good overnight stop. We have some great places to stay and eat, our fish and chip shop and cafe are local favourites, the newsagents open early and will make sandwiches for you to pick up in the morning if you call them the day before. We get a lot of questions about camping in the village - the only place is The Bulls Head Inn. We hope you enjoy your stay and the weather smiles on you as you head out towards Scotland if your going South then Shap Fell is not that bad REALLY!.

Most trips start from Land's End, the main reason being that the prevailing winds in the UK are usually from the south-west, and so if you are lucky you could have a tail wind all the way to Scotland.

Walkers can visit the excellent Sherpa Van Project chat forum