Cycling to and from every historic county's county town

Over the next four years I will cycle to and from every county town of a history county of the United Kingdom.

But why?

It seemed fun! I like doing hard things for not very much reason; I enjoy bikepacking; I enjoy seeing different parts of my homeland; I want to improve my local geography.

Why this route?

The list of historic counties and their areas is published by The Historic counties Trust. For each county, I read the wikipedia page and tried to decide what the historic town is. For some counties, like Staffordshire, this is easy (Stafford). For other counties, it is more difficult as there have been several county towns, or an old county town no longer exists. In these cases I have tried to route past all options. The actual start and end point will be some civic building in each.

The order was decided with this simple, naïve algorithm: 0) start at Nottingham. 1) Go to the nearest county town you have not already visited. 2) Repeat until you've done them all, then go back to Nottingham. I wanted it to be possible to, in theory, compute this route without a computer. I also wanted it to have as few choices in as possible.

How can I support you/this endevour?

Send me a message :)) say hi!

Donate to the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (née SusTrans, rip great name) who maintain the national cycle network and lobby to make it possible to walk and cycle around this country. Vote for the Green Party, who are the only political party not committed to eliminating my rights as a trans person, or to bringing about a fascist regime. Volunteer for your local community cycle groups, wildlife trusts, rambling groups, who do valuable work maintaining and looking after the rights of way we all rely on. If you are a powerful person in society, do something useful with that.

The route: all distances as the crow flies. Actual routes will be populated as I do them.

From Nottingham to Matlock (33.68km)
From Matlock to Stafford (53.14km)
From Stafford to Shrewsbury (44.39km)
From Shrewsbury to Montgomery (31.17km)
From Montgomery to Llandrindod Wells (39.05km)
From Llandrindod Wells to Brecon (32.89km)
From Brecon to Hereford (47.89km)
From Hereford to Monmouth (27.37km)
From Monmouth to Gloucester (33.26km)
From Gloucester to Worcester (36.30km)
From Worcester to Warwick (44.20km)
From Warwick to Northampton (47.86km)
From Northampton to Bedford (30.87km)
From Bedford to Huntingdon (30.29km)
From Huntingdon to Cambridge (24.66km)
From Cambridge to Hertford (47.40km)
From Hertford to City of London (33.14km)
From City of London to Kingston-upon-Thames (15.58km)
From Kingston-upon-Thames to Reading (47.09km)
From Reading to Oxford (38.56km)
From Oxford to Aylesbury (31.57km)
From Aylesbury to Chelmsford (89.73km)
From Chelmsford to Maidstone (51.07km)
From Maidstone to Lewes (57.21km)
From Lewes to Chichester (55.85km)
From Chichester to Winchester (44.91km)
From Winchester to Trowbridge (69.10km)
From Trowbridge to Dorchester (69.15km)
From Dorchester to Taunton (57.63km)
From Taunton to Exeter (44.37km)
From Exeter to Cardiff (87.57km)
From Cardiff to Carmarthen (89.00km)
From Carmarthen to Cardigan (34.59km)
From Cardigan to Haverfordwest (38.21km)
From Haverfordwest to Dolgellau (128.42km)
From Dolgellau to Caernarfon (51.18km)
From Caernarfon to Llangefni (13.14km)
From Llangefni to Denbigh (60.16km)
From Denbigh to Mold (19.16km)
From Mold to Chester (16.47km)
From Chester to Lancaster (95.62km)
From Lancaster to Kendal (31.06km)
From Kendal to Carlisle (64.50km)
From Carlisle to Dumfries (46.93km)
From Dumfries to Kirkcudbright (38.92km)
From Kirkcudbright to Stranraer (63.34km)
From Stranraer to Ayr (66.89km)
From Ayr to Renfrew (49.14km)
From Renfrew to Dumbarton (13.70km)
From Dumbarton to Rothesay (32.91km)
From Rothesay to Inveraray (44.28km)
From Inveraray to Stirling (71.72km)
From Stirling to Alloa (8.95km)
From Alloa to Linlithgow (19.02km)
From Linlithgow to Edinburgh (26.87km)
From Edinburgh to Haddington (25.15km)
From Haddington to Duns (33.79km)
From Duns to Jedburgh (35.92km)
From Jedburgh to Selkirk (20.27km)
From Selkirk to Peebles (24.75km)
From Peebles to Hamilton (55.22km)
From Hamilton to Kinross (61.23km)
From Kinross to Perth (21.26km)
From Perth to Cupar (27.50km)
From Cupar to Forfar (36.89km)
From Forfar to Stonehaven (54.59km)
From Stonehaven to Aberdeen (21.69km)
From Aberdeen to Banff (63.29km)
From Banff to Elgin (47.28km)
From Elgin to Nairn (33.82km)
From Nairn to Cromarty (14.50km)
From Cromarty to Dingwall (25.27km)
From Dingwall to Inverness (18.01km)
From Inverness to Golspie (57.09km)
From Golspie to Wick (74.80km)
From Wick to Kirkwall (59.18km)
From Kirkwall to Lerwick (166.13km)
From Lerwick to Newcastle upon Tyne (577.64km)
From Newcastle upon Tyne to Durham (22.16km)
From Durham to York (96.33km)
From York to Lincoln (88.97km)
From Lincoln to Oakham (63.44km)
From Oakham to Leicester (27.32km)
From Leicester to Norwich (164.24km)
From Norwich to Ipswich (64.02km)
From Ipswich to Truro (477.91km)
From Truro to Downpatrick (454.17km)
From Downpatrick to Antrim (54.73km)
From Antrim to Armagh (50.18km)
From Armagh to Omagh (50.62km)
From Omagh to Enniskillen (35.39km)
From Enniskillen to Coleraine (107.69km)
From Coleraine to Nottingham (434.78km)