Four Weeks+ in England/Scotland - suggestions?

For the Lake District I'm going to take a slightly different tack to before-

We have two principal cycleways-
The C2C and Hadrian's Cycleway.
The C2C starts from Whitehaven or Workington - you could do the first two days from Whitehaven to Langwathby which has a rail station on the Settle to Carlisle line- trains direct to Leeds- change there for York.

Hadrian's Cycleway is much the easier I suspect (I'm no cyclist)- 3 days. As far as Maryport and on from Carlisle there are lots of local stations to board trains- both the class 156's (the same as the Whitehaven line) and the 158's have cycle spaces. Our conductors/guards will always find space for all cyclists who turn up.

I have however walked all the Cumbrian section of the Hadrian's route and almost all of Day 1 of the C2C so am familiar with them.

Coming up from Stratford or the Cotswolds you can get to Whitehaven easily by train- to Birmingham, change, thence to either Lancaster (to come up the coast) or Carlisle (to come down the coast).
All our local trains take bikes all the time, that simply isn't a problem. They have dedicated cycle spaces.

And in Whitehaven we even have at least 1 cycle hire place- Haven Cycles.

But sometime next year there is a new outdoor pursuits centre opening harbourside (The Edge). I would have thought they would also do cycle hire among their services. They will also provide overnight accommodation. Clearly details are sketchy as the centre is currently in build- currently on internal fit-out.

I was talking with our Community Development Officer last week and apparently there are plans to rectify the fact that a national cycleway has no dedicated cycleway for the first 800 metres or so- in time for when The Edge opens. Of that 800 yards probably only 200 yards or so is actually on road- but it is a strange little blip. I didn't know that- it just cropped up at a meeting I was at with the CDO.
And, although technically unlawful, people cycle on the sidewalks all the time.

Re the cycling, are you planning to acquire an e-bike and take it round with you or plan to hire them as and when you need them, maybe as part of a tour? I think the former would be challenging to organise and the second option much easier.

Despite being a keen cyclist and knowing Skedaddle well I have never taken one of their tours. They are highly regarded and my dealings with them have also been very positive. They do now have a number of tours in the UK, as well as the rest of the world, both guided and self-guided.

I would note that, apart from a couple of nice off-road cycling trails, Cornwall can be very challenging to cycle - lots of very narrow roads and some seriously steep inclines. There is a popular long distance cycle challenge from Lan's End to John o' Groats at the top of Scotland (LEJOG) - everyone always says that the very hardest part is getting out of Cornwall and Devon.

Johnew52, My hope is to find to find/arrange “self guided” bike touring which we have done in the Dordogne (hilly), Loire (not hilly) and Puglia (not hilly, other than to the final approach to Ostuni). 3 separate arrangements.

Looks like the shop isn31c identified in Whitehaven rents e-bikes and I think a loop from there to Keswick, Ambleside and back to Whitehaven could be done, but I haven’t yet explored that too deeply. Macs and Cornish Cycles both appear to set-up self-guided, i.e., hotels, maps, routes, baggage transfers and can provide bikes.

Your comment about hills in Cornwall is a good one. Of the three self-guided trips we have taken, plus a guided one in Croatia (also hilly), the e-bikes we had in the Dordogne were not adequate on one short hill and one significant climb.

One advantage of self-guided is better flexibility on dates. The other advantage is less expensive than guided - typically by a lot.

Thanks for your thoughts.

We have done a number of self guided cycling trips across Western Europe, In France, Italy and Spain, and they work very well if the day riding is right for you. The trips we did were with Headwater Holidays (https://www.headwater.com) and were some years ago - I got more involved in cycling and wanted to do more distance and my wife was happy to give up!. I see that now they have a few UK holidays including one in the Cotswolds.

Whitehaven to Keswick is a well established cycling route via Sustrans converted rail lines at the start. Then down to Grasmere using the car free road on the west side of Thirlmere, thence a pretty new segregated route at the side of the A591 from Armboth over Dunmail Raise then quiet back roads to Grasmere then the back roads via Langdale to Ambleside.

Then you have a key choice to make to get round the loop to Ravenglass- see here- https://www.strava.com/routes/6853496

You can then take the relatively easy route south down the back of Coniston Water and Broughton in Furness.

Or go for it and over the Wrynose and Hardknott passes- two of the steepest motor roads in the UK this is tough stuff even in a modern car, but the views are rich reward indeed. This is also part of the famous (or infamous) Fred Whitton Challenge.
Both variants end at Eskdale Green. From there go through Nether Wasdale to Gosforth and pick up Hadrian's Cycleway back up the coast.

TY isn31c. The Ambleside to Whitehaven route is looking like too much, esp. with the Wyrnose Pass and Birker Fell climbs. Perhaps using Keswick as a base for 3 one-day loop trips makes more sense.

I also enjoyed your post about Wray near Ambleside/Lake Windermere as well as Carlisle and other castles and stately homes. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/best-castle-in-lake-district

I’ll look into cycling Keswick to Ambleside and back, with a journey on to Wray, to see if it works as a day trip. It might be a bit much for a single day.

I believe there is a cycling route between Glasgow and Edinburgh, along the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals. In Edinburgh, I highly recommend the Water of Leith Walkway, which is also suitable for cycling, according to its website.