Solar System Cycleway: The ultimate lockdown bike ride into outer space

York’s galactic trail provides more than mere exercise, finds Paul Kirkwood

The York Solar System cycle way (Pau Kirkwood)

How can you home school, exercise and go on the longest lockdown journey imaginable all at the same time? The solar system cycle way in York, one of my favourite routes in the north of England, might just be the answer.

Scale models of planets set at scaled down intervals provide landmarks on an off-road cycle track. The ride follows the track bed of the East Coast Mainline before it was re-routed further west to make way for the Selby coalfield in the 1970s. Sustrans adopted the old route and, by 1987, four years after its closure, turned it into the first section of what’s become the National Cycle Network.

Walking or cycling along the track provides a gentle, novel and educational family micro-adventure. I first did the ride with my kids 11 years ago and repeated it with my cub scout pack. Cycling the route recently I was reminded of the number of interesting spots to pause: ideal for dealing with short attention spans and tiring young legs. Not much had changed other than the addition of signs to socially distance – difficult to achieve as the path is only two metres wide. It’s strange to think about the implications of the rail engineers’ choice of gauge 150 years on.