Down the Middle, why and what?
Why. 2000 we cycled Land’s End to John o’Groats. 2010 we cycled ‘the other diagonal’: Dungeness to Durness. So a logical completer finisher mind, not mine, saw the next link: Down the Middle. From Bettyhill to Portland Bill.
What. Cycling from Wick, we will start at Bettyhill, which looks almost in the middle of the North Coast of Mainland Scotland. Then, as far as road cycle roads permit, we’ll go south to take in as many of the geographic centres of the UK.
There’s no settled list of the geographic centres as it’ll depend on what you’re taking in. The mainland, islands, topography etc. Ours include:
- Centre of Scotland, near Dalwhinnie (with another disputed one in nearby Newtonmore)
- Old political centre of Stirling, including the strategic crossing point of Stirling Bridge
- Watershed in Central Scotland, near Harthill, Cumbernauld
- Centre of Britain in Haltwhistle
- Dunsop Bridge, another geographic centre of Great Britain
- Fenny Drayton, Centre of England
- Meriden, another centre of England
We’ll finish at Portland Bill, off Weymouth. Why there, a) why not it looks as good as anywhere, b) allows the routing to go via Avebury and my sister’s. Then we’ll cycle back to Wales.
1132 miles and about 58000feet of ascent, 58000feet of descent.
Travelling reflections 