Yorkshire Dales Tour

By a nice coincidence Friday June 3rd, the day before the Harewood Hill Climb, is the precise 95th anniversary of the Motor Cycling Club’s 1927 London-Edinburgh Run, which crossed Yorkshire and included a number of hills which we can use or see today. This gave us the excuse to put together a tour, starting and finishing near Harrogate, which follows part of the route of the MCC 1927 event where it passed through the Yorkshire Dales. The run takes you northwards through Nidderdale, Wharfedale, Wensleydale, and Swaledale, then east and south through Arkengarthdale, into Swaledale and Wensleydale and finally back to Nidderdale.

Hills include Askrigg Bank and West Stonesdale, leading to Tan Hill, the highest pub in the UK, which were part of the 1927 event but also climb, descend or just pass by other sections no longer open to traffic, which were used for regularity trials and speed hill climbs before and after WW1. The route is spectacularly scenic and passes castles, an abbey and architectural follies. Many of the hills are steep but those we are going on are now all metalled. You have to remember that In the twenties they were little more than rough tracks with a gravel surface and therefore a very different proposition. The objective of the original London-Edinburgh Run was reliability over a long distance and many of the entries were what we would describe as Light Cars and although challenging are perfectly accessible by Chummy!

 The total distance between the start and finish at The Millstones cafe/restaurant on the A59 just outside Harrogate is about 120 miles, taking about 7 hours including a lunch stop at The Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes. There are opportunities to short cut if need be. We hope this Friday Tour will be an excellent complement to the speed events on Saturday and Sunday and make for an interesting vintage long weekend.