Bringing home the
Arrivée152Summer2021
The wild and tempestuous seas around England’s south-western corner have seen many wrecks – hence the reason the rugged peninsula is dotted with lighthouses. Barbara Hackworthy and her biking pal Jo Corban, decided to string together a route of 14 of the iconic structures in May 2019 for an undulating 550 mile ride through landscape and history.
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I’VE BEEN THINKING of doing a cycle tour to all the lighthouses in the south-west for a few years – and when my cycling buddy Jo expressed an interest in joining me I was galvanised into action. I decided arbitrarily to only include working lighthouses on the mainland. Once I got into the planning it seemed reasonable to also include iconic lighthouse hotspots as well – like Smeatons Tower on Plymouth Hoe and Lands End with a view of Long Ships for example. It’s always good to have a theme for a cycling adventure: it adds direction and purpose. I live in Dorset, and I’ve walked the South West Coast Path, and kayaked around the coast over the last 20 years or so. The sea kayaking took us out to places like Lundy Island and Long Ships off Lands End which were definitely not possible on the cycling tour. A lighthouse is a structure, usually a tower or other type of structure, built as an aid to navigation for ships at sea.
Their function is to provide a visible and, in poor visibility, audible warning against hazards such as rocks or reefs. Today Trinity House maintains more than 60 lighthouses in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. These highly visual aids to navigation range from isolated offshore towers like the Eddystone to shore-based locations like the Lizard. Today all the lighthouses are automated and their accommodation has been converted for use as holiday lettings. I decided to start on the south coast with the lighthouse furthest to the east which is Anvil Point in Dorset. From there the route went to Portland Bill and then followed the coast through Devon and Cornwall all the way to Land’s End. From Land’s End the route went to St Ives and then followed the North Cornwall and Devon coast up to Lynmouth. The last lighthouse on the tour was Lynmouth Foreland. The total distance planned was 900 kilometres (550 miles) but with more than 11,000 metres of climb (36,000 ft).
