I’m considering making the drive from Land’s End to John O’ Groats over the weekend after the next bank holiday. Being an American, that’s a long weekend for me. Would it be feasible to do over a 4 day weekend? Google Maps says it’s about a 15 hour drive. I’d have a 7 hour drive to Land’s End, then about 12 hours to get home from John O’ Groats. Assuming 10 hour driving days, there won’t be a large margin of error. It looks doable but I don’t know the traffic patterns.
If it makes a difference, I’m not planning on touring anywhere along the way. It’s just to make the drive so I can say I made the drive. Later I’ll visit interesting spots I see on this trip. I may start out for Land’s End after work to cut a few hours out of the weekend’s driving if I work isn’t exhaustive.
I drove from John O’Groats to Land’s End about 20 years ago. I was accompanying a friend who was cycling it. It took us 10 days at 90 miles a day.
Shame you don’t want to sightsee - there’s some pretty cool stuff on the way. But yeah, if you want to do it just so’s you can say you did it, it’s easily done. It’s about 900 miles and eminently do-able even in one day, but exhausting.
Here’s my little plan for you:
Allow much less distance on day 1 and day 4, and up to 300 miles on the middle two days, which will be on the motorway network and therefore relatively fast. Once you hit the M5 at Exeter it’ll be motorway all the way to Scotland. If you stick to the speed limit (70 mph) on the motorways, you’ll average about 50 mph.
Day 1 Land’s End to Bristol - about 200 miles and 4+ hours.
Day 2 Bristol to Carlisle - about 275 miles and 6-7 hours.
Day 3 Carlisle to Inverness - about 250 miles and 5+ hours.
Day 4 Inverness to John O’Groats - about 120 miles and 3 hours.
A note though: driving in the UK is much more stressful than in the US. The roads are smaller and the traffic pretty dense and much faster than you’d expect. Take lots of breaks.
How you going to get back?!
ETA: I should also add that the worst traffic you’ll get will be in the stretch through Birmingham, and then again through the Manchester area. The rest should be pretty clear, unless you coincide with a holiday weekend, in which case the traffic getting out of Cornwall will SUCK.
After you’ve ticked off John o’Groats (there’s nothing of interest there - it’s just a tacky tourist trap) you might like to take the short detour to Dunnet Head, which is the real northern point. It’s very nice with great views over to Hoy.
This doesn’t sound so much like a holiday as an exercise in self-abuse, and not the good kind of self-abuse. Transport Direct offers reasonable journey planning, if you need to modify jjimm’s suggested route (use ‘Land’s End, Cornwall’ and ‘John O’ Groats, Highland’ as destinations). A one way trip, neglecting stops is c. 16 hours, will cost about £100 in fuel for an average car, and will emit 228kg of CO[sub]2[/sub]; comparable to flying for that distance. Land’s End is not the most southerly or the most westerly extent of the British mainland either, so you may want to detour to Ardnamurchan Point and Lizard Point along the way. Or maybe take a holiday instead.
If you do this, don’t go via the M25. The traffic will be horrendous. Go from Cambridge to Bedford to Milton Keynes to Buckingham to Oxford and possibly to Swindon.
But really, I think you should do your journey in reverse: go from Cambridge to John O’Groats to Land’s End then back to Cambridge. This should give you more time to enjoy the South-West.
Wow, that was fast! Thanks for the suggestions. To everyone who’s commented on why I’m not doing a leisurely trip, I’m want to see what’s out there for planning future holidays. What better way than to go from one end of the country to the other? And it’ll give me something to tell the younguns when I’m old and decrepit and can’t fit my Micra into a Tesco parking spot.*
Quartz: They need to put your advice in all the tourist books. The M25 is unpleasant at the best of times.
Jim, how could you forget that I live here. Has anyone else ever sent you Girl Scout cookies from East Anglia?
I saw an old guy who couldn’t fit his Corsa into a spot, even after 5 tries.
Just a point, which you probably know anyway, but John O’Groats is not the northernmost point of the Scottish mainland. That is Dunnet Head- a short drive away.
My sincerest and most abject apologies. You may not believe this, but I didn’t register who posted the thread, just replied to it.
I am very very sorry to have apparently overlooked your kindness. (I still have half a pack of the mint ones. Might crack them open later in your honour.)
