Catbaiter wrote:Yeah, I saw the books (I've not read them). Apparently only about 7 people are known to have walked the entirety of the Scottish Watershed, and it's probably damn near impossible with a bike (unless you're a certified masochist).

But I'm willing to bet that with some flexibility in route selection (as there is in the GDMBR, which doesn't exactly follow the continental divide either) it could be doable and vaguely enjoyable.

ianfitz wrote:I've thought about it quite a bit. Would be a good few days ride ;-)

I met a Peter Wright in Scotland a few years ago he wrote some books about the scotish watershed - http://www.ribbonofwildness.co.uk/ and now https://www.facebook.com/Scotland-from- ... 5/?fref=ts

Catbaiter wrote:Well, if no-one has actually come up with a route yet, then the combined experience of this forum ought to be just the place to do it! If we start with the list I gave (HT550, Pennine B/W, Cotswold Escarpment, South Downs Way) then it's a case of gluing them together with good locally known routes. But it would have to generally follow the route shown in the link I gave in the first post (not LEJOG).

Wylie wrapped up his trip in June 2009, by which time Wright had completed his Scottish walk. A couple of aspects relating to Wright’s effort have prompted unease, one being his assertion that the Duncansby end-point is the proper one, whereas Cape Wrath is not. My view was and continues to be that, because the route splits (or merges, if heading south), the main east-west watershed ends north of Loch Merkland, at a height of just over 750m on the western shoulder of a Corbett outlier called Carn Dearg. Beyond that, either continuation is equally valid. Actually, I agree with my friend Richard Webb – who gave thought to the watershed earlier than any of us – when he says that all the north-coast mini-watersheds are viable starts/finishes. Hence not just Wrath and Duncansby, but also Whiten Head, Strathy Point, etc.

Wright also went through a phase of claiming to have been the first to have walked the watershed and – even more absurdly – to have been the first to come up with the idea (eg, in 2011, he wrote of “the originality in my defining the Watershed for the very first time”). There is discussion of this elsewhere but basically he was at least the fifth person known to have undertaken the route in some form or other (and the second on the Duncansby branch, after Wylie, who finished the Scottish section in 2000), and goodness knows how many more might have given it some thought and map-perusal. There is mention of the whole-UK version in Martin Moran’s 1986 winter Munros book, for instance, with the accomplished hill runner Martin Stone describing it as “the last great challenge”.

Catbaiter wrote:I can see the lid coming off a highly entertaining can of worms here!

To tackle the q's in no particular order.

In my view (and it's not an especially important view), the divide is between oceans/seas. As such the east/west North Sea/Atlantic takes precedence over the north/south English Channel/Bristol Channel of Cornwall and Devon. Plus, it differentiates the route from lejog. For the purposes of what I'm thinking, the English Channel counts as the Atlantic, not the North Sea (pedants or those who know better, feel free to argue the point). I'm unsure about the same division in Scotland, and it seems there there has historically been some debate on this. A bit of research ought to clear it up. It'd be good not to have it as JOG though, just to be different.

The route should deviate to allow for good riding, but only to a reasonable level. That is; if the watershed is the Pennines for example, then we keep the deviation to the same mountain range. And if possible cross the divide a few times.

I don't have a better map at present. But I'm pretty sure that an evening spent with a relief/rivers map of the UK ought to give us the basics upon which to work. Feel free to drag any tame experts into the mix. I'm only a geologist, and as such easily outwitted by anything modern (less than a few million years old).

ianfitz wrote:this version of the scottish WS finished at cape wrath...

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/hewwat/hewwat0003.htm


And a test of your scottish river naming ability - http://lizardpoint.com/geography/scotla ... s-quiz.php

ianfitz wrote:this version of the scottish WS finished at cape wrath...

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/hewwat/hewwat0003.htm


And a test of your scottish river naming ability - http://lizardpoint.com/geography/scotla ... s-quiz.php

whitestone wrote:The Pennine Bridleway should suffice for the middle bit then lanes from Kirkby Stephen to join the BW over Cross Fell and follow your Northern 1000 route as far as the Scottish border. I've absolutely no idea about the southern part of England, I rarely venture that far.

its a real shame about Wales!

Bearbonesnorm wrote:

its a real shame about Wales!

I started mapping out the Welsh watershed a couple of years ago ... the amount of rivers makes things quite interesting, especially if you're trying to be as accurate / true as possible.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:

its a real shame about Wales!

I started mapping out the Welsh watershed a couple of years ago ... the amount of rivers makes things quite interesting, especially if you're trying to be as accurate / true as possible.

Can I just check what the term 'watershed' means? In my mind from the context, it's where rivers from the East, and rivers from the West form a divide if you follow them back to their source?

the Lon Las Cymru

Bearbonesnorm wrote:Yes but that's a pretty dull route if ever there was one. I'm certainly not saying there aren't some nice bits but they're far outweighed by the not so nice ones.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:
Yes but that's a pretty dull route if ever there was one. I'm certainly not saying there aren't some nice bits but they're far outweighed by the not so nice ones.


I liked it.