The Two Smallest pubs (An Epic)

This one is a bit of an epic a 700-mile adventure to visit the two smallest pubs in the UK one is an actual pub the other is a shed that sells beer, both claim to be the smallest pubs, one claims to be the smallest on the planet, you can be the judge of that if you decide to take on this adventure.

I’m putting this route into the challenging purely because of the distance if you were to take on the whole route in its entirety. But you can choose to do the route in sections or however you like. But if you do decide to do the whole route you will get to go to these tiny little pubs the nutshell in bury st-Edmonds, a fascinating pub with a lot of character and not much room. Before heading up the East Coast to Cleethorpes to find yourself in an even smaller pub the smallest pub on the planet apparently, its an old converted signal box, so you can probably tell what the pubs name it.

This route takes you through a lot of different types of scenery and trail types from the north Wessex downs, the ridgeway, all the way through the Chilterns, then up along the flatter section of the country towards Cleethorpes. And then if you decide to do the return section you can add your second coast to coast on this adventure, a much more relaxing and faster riding can be expected here as you head back towards Oxfordshire and onto to Bournemouth, not before a nice cruise along some new forest gravel though.

Depending on what time of the year you take this on some of the trials can be harder than others the journey to the nutshell is probably the hardest section and has the rougher trails but is definitely manageable on a gravel bike, 45mm tyres and MTB gearing will be best of course, then the rest of the route is much easier and flatter. If you take this on in the summer than a gravel bike will be great, if its been raining heavily though, maybe consider the MTB. Some of the trails can become a little slippery, especially the Ridgway chalk.

It’s a fairly built up part of the country, so all over this route you will be able to find places to refill and refuel your supplies. Camping along this route was fairly easy, but with it being a bit built up you will need to set up late and leave early.