Atlantic Highway, A39

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Barnstaple

   Barnstaple lies at the head of the Taw estuary, and it claims to be one of the oldest boroughs in England, with a charter said to date from the tenth century. It is the largest town in North Devon, and it is the natural start for the Atlantic Highway.

   Read the complete Barnstaple write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Barnstaple is where the day begins. Next is Bude.

2. 2. Bude

   Bude is where the long Atlantic Highway comes to a stop against the sea. The town sits at the top of north Cornwall, on a coast of black, folded cliffs and long sandy beaches, with big Atlantic swells rolling in and surfers in the water at almost every hour of daylight. It is not a pretty harbour town in the manner of south Cornwall; it is a windy, bright, slightly salty place, with a canal, a sea pool and a handful of old streets behind the beach.

   Read the complete Bude write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bude comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tintagel.

3. 3. Tintagel

   Tintagel has been selling King Arthur for a long time. The twelfth-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth first placed Arthur's conception here, in his History of the Kings of Britain, and the legend grew from there, helped by a Victorian love of chivalry and a ruined castle on a dramatic headland. Archaeologists have since found that the site was an important trading post in the fifth and sixth centuries, when imported Mediterranean pottery and glass came in by sea, so something notable did happen here, but whether it involved a king named Arthur is another matter. Cornwall, characteristically, has chosen to believe.

   Read the complete Tintagel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Tintagel. Next is Padstow.

4. 4. Padstow

   Padstow has two reputations, and they get along rather well: it is an old working fishing port on the Camel estuary, and it is the town that Rick Stein turned into a food destination. His seafood restaurant opened in the 1970s and drew so many diners that the place became known to locals, half in jest, as Padstein. Today the harbour is packed with restaurants, delis, bakeries and pasty shops, and on a summer day the quay is a crowd of holidaymakers eating crab sandwiches and ice cream in the sun, while the gulls plot the theft of their chips.

   Read the complete Padstow write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Padstow, late in the day. Next is Newquay.

5. 5. Newquay

   Newquay is the surf capital of England, though it started as something humbler. The name means new quay and goes back to the fifteenth century, when a harbour was built to replace an older one, and for a long time pilchards were the business. On the headland above the harbour stands the Huer's Hut, where a lookout watched for shoals and shouted to the fishermen through a megaphone. Victorians then brought the railway and the first visitors, and in the 1960s surfers arrived with boards from Australia and California.

   Read the complete Newquay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Newquay. That is the ride.