When author and lving legend, Bill Bryson sat his British Citizenship test, he was asked for the longest distance you can travel in the UK. The “correct” answer was Land’s End to John o’ Groats, but he didn’t buy it. That route has kinks, crosses salt water and skips much of the country. So he laid a ruler across a map and let it pivot until it settled on the true longest straight line: Bognor Regis on the South Coast of England to Cape Wrath in the far north of Scotland. He named it the Bryson Line.

In August 2020 I set out to cycle it. I took everything I needed to camp on the bike and planned on around 60 miles a day, and treated the line as a beacon rather than a rule, finding the quiet roads and cycle paths that would carry me north. The first few days were a slog through the commuter belt and cities, with an empty Oxford, a surprisingly good cycle route through Birmingham, and rain on arrival in Manchester. Then the Yorkshire Dales opened up, with a steam train gliding across the Ribblehead Viaduct as I arrived. After that came three glorious miles riding between the north and south carriageways of the M6, a flooded Perth after a night of storms, a river to wade through to reach a wild campsite, and the magestic Forth Road Bridge almost to myself.

The Highlands saved the best for last. Beyond Lairg I had what may have been the best hour of cycling of my life: empty roads, near-perfect tarmac and endless blue skies. The finish was a boat across the Kyle of Durness, 11 rough miles of track and a lighthouse at the north-west tip of the mainland, where I celebrated with soup and a sandwich. From Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, this is the story of how I rode the longest straight line in the UK.