Big Rides: Great Britain & Ireland

Big Rides: Great Britain & Ireland is an inspirational guide to the most iconic, epic and popular long-distance cycle trails in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, including two excursions from mainland Britain to Northern France.

The twenty-five featured routes showcase the best of Britain on two wheels. For those who prefer to pedal on-road, the routes take you along the historic Way of the Roses trail through Lancaster and York, as well as across Scotland’s Atlantic perimeter on the Hebridean Way. The trails head off-road to Northern England’s hills on the Sea to Sea (C2C) and past iconic monuments in Southern England on King Alfred’s Way.

Mountain bike enthusiasts will find plenty to challenge them in the Sarn Helen and through the Scottish Highlands on the renowned Highland Trail 550. The routes then head offshore, to Ireland’s coast on the Wild Atlantic Way and from Devon and Dorset’s Jurassic Coast to Normandy’s alabaster cliffs on the Tour de Manche.

Vertebrate Publishing’s Big Rides books are designed to inspire big adventures. Rather than being carried along the route, this guide provides everything you need to plan and explore further, including a general overview of the trails, specific technical information, overview mapping, key information and stunning photography. As well as this, each route specifies approximate timings which allows for you to plan your adventure at your own pace.

Whether you’re completing routes at a leisurely speed or racing towards the finish, let Big Rides: Great Britain & Ireland be your guide.

Kathy Rogers is a guidebook researcher at Vertebrate Publishing. She researches and writes content for books and guidemaps about long-distance trails, such as the Tour du Mont Blanc and Hadrian’s Wall Path. She is an enthusiastic, if unaccomplished, walker, fellrunner and cyclist and when not at her desk, is usually found knee-deep in a bog in the Peak District.

Markus Stitz is a German-born filmmaker, photographer and writer based in Edinburgh. After cycling 34,000 km around the world on a singlespeed bike, he founded Bikepacking Scotland and has worked extensively across Scotland, designing gravel and bikepacking routes. He has co-operated with private and public sector organisations to create immersive films about the Cateran Ecomuseum, the John Muir Way, the Highland Perthshire Gravel Trails, the Wild About Argyll Trail, Go East Lothian Trail and others, which have been watched by audiences worldwide. He is an ultra-endurance racer, with succesful finishes of the Highland Trail 550, Silk Road Mountain Race and Atlas Mountain Race, all completed in the course of less than a year. Markus writes for a wide variety of magazines and online publications including Singletrack, Cycling UK, Cranked, Cyclingtips and Yellow Jersey. More information can be found at bikepackingscotland.com and markusstitz.com.

Discounts & P&P

From Friday 1 April 2022, we offer 25% off to all newsletter subscribers. Simply sign up to our newsletter here to receive your discount code. If you're already a subscriber, we'll remind you of the code every time we send out a newsletter.

In addition, we offer FREE standard UK P&P for orders, along with options to upgrade the delivery service at checkout.

Postage costs are dependent on order weight (book/s weight plus packing materials) and are calculated automatically upon checkout, before payment is taken. Full details of our delivery and returns information can be found here. 

UK Delivery

We offer FREE standard UK P&P for orders: orders are sent Royal Mail Second Class as standard and should arrive within two to three working days. The option to upgrade UK shipping to Royal Mail 24 Next Day Delivery is available at checkout.

International Delivery

International orders are sent by Royal Mail International Tracked. Deliveries can take between a few days and a couple of weeks to arrive, depending on the delivery location. Please contact us if your country is not listed.

Dispatch

Update: September 2022. Most orders received through the Vertebrate Publishing Adventure Books website are dispatched from Gardners in Eastbourne, UK; some orders (such as signed copies of pre-orders, or limited stock items) are sent from our office in Sheffield, UK. If your order is for multiple items, you may receive more than one package, though we try to avoid this (if applicable, you would only be charged once for shipping). Orders received before 11 a.m. are dispatched the same day; orders received after 11 a.m. are usually dispatched the following business day. You will be sent a notification email when your order has been dispatched. If we are temporarily out of stock of a title we will advise by email.

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Gift card purchases are delivered electronically – we do not dispatch physical gift cards. Full details are provided with gift card purchases.

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Returns

We will happily refund or exchange any item that is returned to us in an unused, as new condition. If you want to make a return, contact us with your details. Once we've received the item(s), we will credit your account. If the item is faulty or damaged or we have sent the incorrect item we will refund postage.

If you're returning something because it's not suitable, you'll need to pay the postage costs to return it to us. We process most returns the day they arrive with us, and certainly within seven working days. Goods must be returned to us within 21 days.