Land's End to John o' Groats is the traversal of the whole length of the island of Great Britain between two extremities; in the southwest and northeast. The traditional distance by road is 874 miles (1,407 km) and takes most cyclists ten to fourteen days; the record for running the route is nine days. Off-road walkers typically walk 1,200 miles (1,900 km) and take two or three months for the expedition. Two much-photographed signposts indicate the traditional distance at each end.
The straight-line distance from Land's End to John o' Groats is 603 miles (970 km) as determined from O.S. Grid References, but such a route passes over a series of stretches of water in the Irish Sea.
According to a road atlas of 1964, the shortest route using classified roads was 847 miles (1,363 km).
According to a road atlas of 2008, the shortest route using classified roads was 838 miles (1,349 km).
According to an on-line route planner of 2011, the quickest route by road was 838 miles (1,349 km) and took 15 hours 48 minutes (this uses A30, M5, M6, A74(M), M74, M73, M80, M9, A9 & A99).
However, with the advent of modern bridges, the shortest route by road has been reduced to around 814 miles (1,310 km). This route, using minor roads in numerous places, roughly follows: Land's End, Okehampton, Tiverton, Bridgwater, M5 Avon Bridge, M48 Severn Bridge, Monmouth, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Tarporley, St Helens, Preston, Carlisle, Beattock, Carstairs, Whitburn, Falkirk, Stirling, Crieff, Kenmore, Dalchalloch, A9, Inverness, A9 (Kessock Bridge, Cromarty Bridge, Dornoch Firth Bridge), Latheron, Wick, John o'Groats.
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Expeditions from Land's End to John o' Groats have been undertaken using numerous forms of transport, and are often organised as charity fundraisers, sometimes involving celebrities: examples include cricketer Ian Botham's 1985 walk and athlete Jane Tomlinson's 2003 cycle ride.
The first recorded end-to-end walk (actually from John o' Groats to Land's End) was undertaken by the brothers John and Robert Naylor in 1871.[1] Since then the walk has been undertaken many times, more particularly since 1960, after a well-publicised road walk by Dr Barbara Moore. In 1960 the entrepreneur Billy Butlin organised a road walking race, which gave further impetus to the idea.
Since the 1960s, walkers have mostly chosen off-road routes, using the growing network of long-distance footpaths. A classic account is from 1966 by the travel writer John Hillaby.[2] Off-road walkers usually complete the journey in two to three months. There is a considerable choice of off-road routes, but all are much longer than the shortest road distance, usually 1,200 miles (1,900 km) or more. The walk is still undertaken by road walkers, often doing the walk, like Sir Ian Botham, for charity, or as a "challenge walk". They typically take a month or even less.
There is no continuous long-distance path from Land's End to John o' Groats. There are long-distance paths for substantial sections of the route, and where they do not exist walkers connect them by rights of way and minor roads. Most walkers broadly follow these routes:[3]
The official Road Records Association record for rider on a conventional bicycle is 44 hours, 4 minutes and 20 seconds, set by Gethin Butler in 2001.[5] The record for cycling from Land's End to John o' Groats is held by Andy Wilkinson, who completed the journey in 41 hours, 4 minutes and 22 seconds on a Windcheetah recumbent tricycle.[6] A more typical cycling time is ten to fourteen days. Ben Rockett, a postgraduate student from the University of Bath became on 27 August 2010 the record holder for cycling from Land's End to John O’Groats and back again in 5 days, 21 hours and 8 minutes.[7] From 1 to 4 March 2010, David Walliams, Jimmy Carr, Fearne Cotton, Miranda Hart, Patrick Kielty, Davina McCall and Russell Howard cycled in a team relay from John o' Groats to Land's End to raise money for Sport Relief.[8]
There have been several unicycle completions of the journey. The Guinness World Record for the fastest completion by unicycle is held by Roger Davies and Sam Wakeling, who rode 862 miles (1,387 km) (Land’s End to John O’Groats) from 12 September to 18 September 2009 in 6 days, 8 hours and 43 minutes.[9] They rode large 36" wheeled unicycles equipped with two-speed Schlumpf geared hubs.[10]
The one-way distance is similar to that of 875-mile (1,408 km) London–Edinburgh–London, the longest regular scheduled Audax cycle ride.
The fastest time in a wheelchair was achieved in August 2009 by US Navy Pilot Rick Ryan: 8 days, 10 hours and 9 minutes.[11]
The record time for a runner to complete the route, as reported by the Land's End John o' Groats Club, is nine days and two hours, by Andi Rivett.[12] In July 2008, Dan Driver became the first to run the route solo, meaning he carried all his equipment with him whilst he ran it. He completed the run in just over seventeen days.[13]
On 12 July 2009 British ultramarathon runner Kevin Carr successfully completed the first ever attempt to run the route off-road, becoming the first athlete to run the length of the UK as a Fell/Trail run. Like Driver, Carr ran unsupported and solo—a format commonly known amongst fell runners as a "Mountain Marathon". Carr ran the challenge as part of an event organised by Benumber1, an event that saw several top-level British athletes (mainly Olympians) completing the challenge. The event was designed to encourage school students to participate in sport and to realise the positive benefits of a healthy lifestyle, whilst raising significant funds for the British Heart Foundation. The run covered 1,254 miles over footpaths, bridleways, canal paths, river banks, National trails, fields, moorland and mountains. Over 80% of the route was off-road, the route resorting to tarmac only when necessary to link two trails, or where a trail passed through a village/town. The run took 6 weeks 3 days and 17 hours to complete (including three rest days). Factoring in the rest days, this run called for an average effort of just under 30 miles a day, every day, for more than six weeks.
The record time to complete the 980-mile (1,580 km) journey on a skateboard is 21 days, achieved by Matt Elver, Charlie Mason and Lee Renshaw, who travelled around fifty miles per day in order to raise money for charity.[14]
Motoring events between the two extremities have been held since the first decade of the 20th century, when the Auto-Cycle Union organised a series of runs for motorcycles. In 1911, Ivan B. Hart-Davies became the holder of the final Land's End to John o' Groats record for solo motorcycles. Riding his 3.5 hp single-speed Triumph, he covered the 886 miles in 29 hours, 12 minutes. As his average speed exceeded the then-maximum of 20 mph, further official record attempts were banned by the A. C. U.
The Motor Cycling Club (which had been running the London to Land's End Trial since 1908, still held today, at least in name) put on an annual Land's End to John o' Groats Run from 1923 to 1928 which included cars as well as motorcycles. These events were also known as the End to End. In 2006, BBC Television ran a series of three programmes called The Lost World of Friese-Greene covering Claude Friese-Greene's 1920s-era road trip from Land's End to John o' Groats. The trip had originally been filmed using the Biocolour process, developed by Claude's father William Friese-Greene and the film had degraded. The original print of Claude's film was subjected to computer enhancement by the British Film Institute to remove the flickering problem inherent in the Biocolour process.
In 1984, Neal Champion covered 884 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End in 11 hours, 14 minutes, on a Kawasaki GPZ750 Turbo.[15]
In 1993, John Brown initiated the Land's End to John o' Groats Historic Reliability Trial, a race for vintage road vehicles.[16] The race is held each December and is a tough, three-day rally for old and classic cars, built between the 1920s and 1970s. The route takes a long 1,400-mile (2,300 km) route, using remote upland roads of the west of England, Wales (during the night), the Pennines and Scotland. Medals are awarded in gold, silver and bronze categories.[17]
On 15–16 April 1997, Hugh Edeleanu drove the route in a JCB excavator in a time of 22 hours, 10 minutes and 30 seconds.[18]
On 22 May 2011, Kevin Sharpe and David Peilow completed the first end-to-end run from John O'Groats to Land's End in an electric car over two days, using only charging points available to the general public, in a Tesla Roadster Sport.[19]
Richard Elloway of Somerset claims to be the first person to complete the journey from Land's End to John o' Groats and back free of charge by local buses, using the English National Concessionary Pass (a free bus pass for people over 60, allowing free off-peak travel on local bus services throughout England) introduced on 1 April 2008, and the pre-existing equivalent concession for pensioners in Scotland. He completed the first leg of the trip in one week and six hours.[20] The entire journey was completed in two weeks, eight hours and thirty minutes.[21]
In 1954, Gertrude Leather travelled by seventeen local buses from Land's End to London, at a cost of £1 19s 6d (£1.97½), and the following year travelled from London to John o' Groats by 25 local buses at a cost of £4 5s 9½d (£4.29).[22]
The current fastest route on land public transport takes a timetabled 22 hours 45 minutes, departing Land's End car park at 14:35 on day 1 and arriving at John o' Groats ferry terminal car park at 13:20 on day 2. This involves a bus to Penzance, trains to Crewe to meet the London–Inverness sleeper train, then the following morning buses via Wick to John o' Groats. As of January 2011[update], an ordinary one-way railway fare for the rail section of the journey cost £216.[23]
M. Clark and G. Beynon are the last hitchhikers recorded in the Guinness Book of Records for the Land's End to John O'Groats trip (17 hours 8 minutes).
The Land's End–John o' Groats Association presents the Jack Adams/Richard Elloway Trophy annually to the youngest person to have completed the journey other than as a passenger in a motor vehicle. Henry Cole completed the journey in June 2006, he was aged 4. He cycled over 31 days. He started school in the following September, and was presented with the Jack Adams/Richard Elloway Trophy in January 2007.[24]
Reg Savill is oldest person to complete the journey on foot (although in the reverse direction from John O'Groats to Land's End), at the age of 74.[25]
There are two organisations supporting people undertaking the journey.
Until Union with England in 1707, Scotland's equivalent of the phrase was often "John o' Groats to Maidenkirk", as Maidenkirk was traditionally considered Scotland's southernmost point, a 388 mile trip. This can be found in Robert Burns' poem On Captain Grose's Peregrinations thro' Scotland[28] and the song, The Lady of Kenmure: