UKH

The longest UK straight line without crossing a paved road. Sounds interesting and hard work.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/01/it-was-about-the-simpl...

Very interesting that England pips Wales in the straight line stakes. No surprise that it's in the North Pennines. I would have thought that the actual longest would have been somewhere like Caithness rather than the Cairngorms. It probably doesn't include tracks that can be driven by estate vehicles.

Years ago I read a book by Nick Crane about his walk north to south down an OS grid line. That involved several swims and crossing Salisbury Plain army range. He had very strict rules about deviating off the line, even if a bridge was close by.

The cynic in me screams publicity stunt over genuine adventure/experience. It seems to have been reported via quite a few media channels and seems contrived to make a film (one report said they will be premiering their film ready at this years KMFF which seemed a bit presumptuous!)

I hope I'm wrong.

Shame to link the Grauniad and not UKH: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/2021/09/duo_go_flatlining_in_the_cairngo...

The OS map on which their route was based looks like it classes unsurfaced tracks as 'roads' - see for instance Glen Feshie, and the long stretch running west from Linn of Dee, both of which are gravel (the map is reproduced in yesterday's report on UKH, and we first published it a couple of years ago when the OS came up with it). I wonder if it's just possible a longer line could be drawn elsewhere, if only tarmac was counted as road?

I'm not losing sleep over it though. A bit of fun and doubtless had its challenges, but it's a bit contrived for me. 

Same for me. I very much walk for pleasure rather than 'challenge' these days. Hope to get north of the border next month when the midge horror has subsided!

These kind of challenges seem daft but I’ve watched a few of the Geowizard videos, referenced in the article. 
Strangely addictive. 

It’s obviously would be a serious suffer-fest of a winter or ski mountaineering challenge, due to the up and down, stretches at height , multiple transitions on and off snow, snow assessment and some proper crampon work. Stumbling and bumbling in summer as you say is just contrived backpacking.

But watching the weather and trying to predict snow cover and distribution over such a long distance at varying elevations, calling it right and then going light enough to make progress and have a bit of pleasure, plus the stamina, short days and winter navigation would all be impressive. I’m not volunteering!

Agree with the above poster that the fact that they felt the need to advertise it, and have clearly got the network in place to get it widely picked up by the media just screams of another outdoor self publicity stunt.

Why not a circle? Or etc

What's the longest stretch of UK coast line without meeting a road?

Sounds really great to me, interesting (as you said) and also lots of fun and also just the kind of bonkers (and apparently pointless - to some people at least) thing I've been doing for my whole life

Definitely my cup of tea, maybe I'll have a go

I'd be more impressed by a space-filling curve. A straight line is a complete cop-out.

At first I thought this was a trick question! But actually perhaps not, if you count slipways as roads or perhaps roads that weren't but now are going into the sea due to coastal erosion and bridges like the one to Skye or across estuaries. They'd get in your way I suppose. I imagine there are still very long stretches though.

Caithness has several northbound tarmac roads.

If allowing gravel tracks I would suggest the hills around the Coireyairack Pass perhaps, they feel pretty lonely! 

Probably depends how you define the length of  coaststline.

Sorry Dan I did do a search but missed that.

Sheigra to the Kyle of Durness?

Wonder how many ticks and scratches they picked up just pushing straight through any vegetation in their path.

I wonder if they used GPS? Proper straight-line ethics (in a friend of mine's opinion) is map and compass only, with a GPS tracker sealed in a bag to tell you how well you did afterwards.

What about an ever decreasing spiral? Then the 'challenger' disappears up their own @rse in the middle of nowhere.

I think maybe so, across the Monadhliath: from the A82 at NN223870 near Invergloy to the A9 at  NH894229 near Carrbridge is 76.0km.  The Cairngorms line can be extended to the A939/A944 junction, and the western end moved a little further south, but that is only 74.1km. 

Good work Mark!

Evanton to Elphin looks a long way too (assuming the Gleann Mor track isn't surfaced - I've not been there).

Or maybe something like Dornie to Strathconon.

I've not measured them

I reckon you could come up with something much longer if you started in the outer hebrides. Or maybe Northern Ireland.

They would be around 60km and 70km respectively. 

It's not.

I’d be interested to know where the longest walk in a straight line with no evidence of human use or presence might be. So no roads, tracks, buildings or other signs. I suspect it wouldn’t be very far, especially if signs of human land use like grouse moors were included.

Indeed. The fractal aspect of it isn't relevant, since a suitable minimum scale would be the human step and would apply everywhere, but when does a coastline turn into a riverbank? I suggest that rather than this be where a river ceases to be tidal, which can take you miles inland, far beyond what feels like 'coast', it be instead wherever waves might break. 

I good challenge would be to start at the furthest point from any road and then do a random walk - throw a tetrahedral dice to select either N,S,E or W and then walk a mile in that direction and repeat until you reach a road. 

It wouldn't be anywhere in the UK!

Now I'm wondering about internationally - where would the longest such line in the world be? Northern Siberia? Northern Canada? Australia? Antarctica? Probably not Alaska?

Gotta be a sand or ice desert, erases everything instantly even if you're not the first there.

How little trace of human use would you tolerate, I guess you have to ignore distant views as even those out to sea contain boats, turbines, plastic and smoke. You could probably find a good few dozen metres in ancient woods or a peatbog with no modern human footprint and little modern view. Otherwise, underground maybe after a life spent digging or diving.

jk

~5500km across Antarctica must be hard to beat and with near zero chance of seeing earthly traces of humans unless you planned to. You can even escape visible-spectrum satellites if you do it in southern summer! At that length it's really great arc rather than straight line.

Pretty much everywhere else is transected by roads, rails, fences and pipes.

There used to be a regular on the Ochils, a chap named John, sadly no longer around, who would deliberately take straight lines between summits as a means of improving his fitness. He would do stuff like Bengengie-Craighorn-Ben Ever (which are more or less exactly in a line), then take a slight dogleg and go Ben Ever-Ben Cleuch direct. This not only involved much more up/down than the natural line but was also more arduous in terms of terrain - tussocks instead of paths. He was still doing this in his mid 80s and I was always very impressed by it even though I hardly ever fancied trying it myself (too soft/lazy).

Yes, Antarctica's hard to beat, but maybe ice should be excluded..... in which case my money's on Northern Siberia - I've just been looking at maps.... 400 miles won't be hard, maybe up to 600 miles - which would be impressive in the world of 2021

I was thinking of the UK - I know it wouldn’t be very long. As JK says, woods and peat bogs would be the most likely places. I was thinking of the Flow Country although I suspect walking in a straight line might be tricky! 

This thread has me wondering what is the longest distance, coast to coast, on the British mainland? 

Something like Beachy head to Rubha - about 885km?

depends if you can allow bridges over the Firth of Forth - then a route from cape wrath could push you towards 900km.

In that case you'd better start in Canada and finish in Inverness

Why not start and finish in Inverness? The NC5000!