South Shore to Plymouth

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Quincy

   Planning note

   Quincy is where the day begins. Next is Cohasset.

2. 2. Cohasset

   Cohasset is where Boston's South Shore turns rocky. Most of the coast between the city and Plymouth is low and sandy, but here the granite pushes up through the turf, and the road along the water, Route 3A, winds past stone walls, big old trees and views of a harbour full of moored sailboats. The village green, with its white church and Victorian town hall, looks like a stage set, and the whole place has a polished, unhurried air.

   Read the complete Cohasset write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Cohasset comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Scituate.

3. 3. Scituate

   Scituate is a harbour town on the South Shore with two stories that people there tell with relish. The first concerns the War of 1812. In September 1814, a British warship was cruising off the coast, and two young sisters, Rebecca and Abigail Bates, who were alone in the lighthouse keeper's house while their father was away, are said to have grabbed a drum and a fife and hidden behind the dunes, playing as loudly as they could. The British, believing a company of militia was approaching, turned back. The story has been told so often that the sisters are known as the Army of Two, and the little lighthouse, built in 1811 on Cedar Point, is one of the oldest on the coast.

   Read the complete Scituate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   At least about 28 km into the recorded legs you reach Scituate. Next is Duxbury.

4. 4. Duxbury

   Myles Standish, the military man of the Pilgrim colony, retired to Duxbury, and so did John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, the couple Longfellow made famous in a long poem. The town was settled in the 1620s by Plymouth colonists who wanted more land than Plymouth would give them, and it still has a look of settled, well-kept age, with colonial houses along tree-lined streets and a long waterfront on a sheltered bay. A granite monument tower, put up in the nineteenth century to honour Standish, rises above the woods on Captain's Hill, and on a clear day it gives a long view over the bay and the coast.

   Read the complete Duxbury write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Duxbury, late in the day. Next is Plymouth.

5. 5. Plymouth

   Plymouth is a place where history is both obvious and slightly overstated, and it is better for knowing that in advance. In December 1620 the Mayflower's passengers settled here after a stop on Cape Cod, and the story of the Pilgrims has been told so many times that the real place can seem small beside it. Plymouth Rock, the granite boulder said to mark their landing, sits under a classical portico by the water, and visitors often say it is smaller than they expected, which is fair, since it has been chipped and moved over the centuries and its link to the landing is a tradition rather than a documented fact.

   Read the complete Plymouth write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Finish at Plymouth. That is the ride.