Grape Expectations: Suffolk Cycling (& a spot of Dickens)
Castles, villages, vineyards and great gentle cycling – it’s a classic holiday combination, real vintage stuff. Surprisingly though, it’s also one that’s right on your British doorstep. Follow your nose and discover Suffolk cycling tours for the discerning palate to savour.
It’s amazing how feet stay focused and wheels whirr with purpose when there’s a vineyard, appealing alehouse or tempting tearoom cleverly incorporated into a cycling tour. Somehow, it adds just that extra drop of local flavour as well as a welcome excuse to sit and sip a while in the sunshine.
A cycling holiday in Suffolk soon reveals a county overflowing with beautiful places and full to the brim with delicious home-produced nectar from apple juice to ales and red and white wines to sun-kissed cordials.
Here are just a few lip-smacking stop suggestions to quench your thirst for something different – and get a really great taste of Suffolk.
Shaw thing – Castles & Vineyards, Cycling around Framlingham Suffolk
Just a pedal push away from 12th century Framlingham Castle and an easy ride from the Suffolk Heritage Coast, Shawsgate Vineyard is a must. Park up your bike and take a wander in the company of Bacchus, Quercus and Muller-Thurgau before meeting up with one of the team to taste the fruits of their labours.
From oak-dried whites and sparkling rosés to Venus, an attractive medium-bodied red and Neptune, a robust dry white, there are all sorts of winning wines to fall in love with. Enjoy a leisurely sip in the shop or on the sun terrace as you work out how to make space in the panniers for a bottle of something to wash that picnic down with later on…
On the Cycle Breaks HQ doorstep – Mid-Suffolk Cycling & Vineyards
Pick up your bike at Cycle Breaks’ Needham Market Suffolk HQ and the wonderful on-site farm shop has temptations enough to fill those panniers in milli-seconds, but there’s a delightfully local invitation to tour, sit and sip just a short pedal away. Family-run Burnt House Vineyard at Little Finborough shares a beautiful blend of tradition, innovation along with a true love for winemaking. Chardonnay, Bacchus, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier all have their place on these gentle rural Suffolk slopes, delivering a delicious selection of wines with notes and aromas ranging from orchard fruit, citrus and honeysuckle to elderflower, basil and pomegranate – a truly ‘exotic’ taste of Suffolk in a glass!
What the Dickens..? Introducing a real Bury St Edmunds Star
A super-stylish historic inn where Charles Dickens himself stayed. Set in a location featured in the 2019 adaptation of The Personal History of David Copperfield. Opposite wonderful monastic ruins and the site of medieval vineyard slopes. And all with superb rollingly rural half-timbered village (and modern-day vineyard) discoveries just a pedal push away. What a wonderful pairing!
The Angel Inn is at the heart of vibrant market town, Bury St Edmunds, and the Cycle Breaks Bury St Edmunds Star single-centre cycling stay. The curious arty quirkiness of the Georgian boutique hotel totally complements the delightful eccentricities which await in this oh-so-charming historic corner of Suffolk.
The town – or rather the Abbey at Bury – once had its own extensive vineyards to provide for both the community and the many pilgrims travelling here to worship at the shrine of St Edmund.
The holy shrine, abbey and all their riches met a sad fate in The Reformation, leaving only impressive monastic ruins dotted around the extensive grounds.
A wander through the beautiful Abbey Gardens today reveals glorious views of St Edmundsbury cathedral with its millennium tower and there are traces of the vineyard slopes to spot behind the ruins of this massive monastic site, just across the River Lark.
Brew with a view – Even if you’re more one for the grape than grain, be sure to take a brewery tour when in Bury St Edmunds.
The Greene King brewery whose heritage buildings still currently share the historic heart of the cathedral town. It’s not just fun and informative, but leads to some of the most magnificent rooftop views of the town including its elegant Georgian squares and Norman Tower.
Oh, and don’t miss another refreshing discovery in town here… ‘The Nutshell’, reputedly Britain’s smallest pub and almost a museum in itself, complete with all sorts of eccentricities including a mummified cat!
Head for the Suffolk hills – Cycle the historic towns & villages of Suffolk
Just north of Long Melford – half-timbered Lavenham’s medieval sister- Suffolk’s countryside is really on a roll. This is High Suffolk and just about as hilly as it gets… ie. not very (cycling Grade 2/easy), but you’ll soon notice the views! An enchanting spot right at the heart of some of Suffolk’s most beautiful cycling country, it’s a great area to stay and defintely something to write home about.
Head for the picturesque wool town of Hartest with its colourful cottages on the vast green. The old moot hall here is now conveniently The Crown pub, and just up (literally) the road, lie the vine-filled slopes and the delicious wines of Gifford Hall Vineyard.
Family owned and planted 35 years ago, the vineyard slopes feature everything from pinot blanc and noir to Bacchus and Madeleine Angevine. Call in the Cellar Door Shop, or look out for event days for tours and tastings.
While away a moment in Wissett – Spin off for a Suffolk heritage coast encounter
Spin off north of Framlingham castle and Shawsgate Vineyard before looping across to Southwold and the beautiful Suffolk coast and Valley Farm Vineyard near Halesworth and the village of Wissett is a short detour not to be missed.
The vineyard is set in an idyllic corner of very rural Suffolk, just up from the charming round tower Church of St Peter. The vineyard owner and his family have been learning their new craft since their relatively recent arrival at the vineyard and their cellar gate is regularly open for self-guided tours and sales.
Pinot Noir, Mernier, Gris and Madeleine Angevine vines have been established since 1987 onwards. Production includes a blended sparkling ‘blush’ as well as elegant single grape wines, including appropriately names Sundancer and a ‘View East ‘ rosé (an obvious take-home!)
Rooted in history – Colourful Suffolk traditions of vines, veg & glorious gardens
Suffolk’s vineyards go way back. Wyken Hall near Stanton is just a pedal’s push from the Waveney Valley’s villages of Botesdale, Rickinghall and the celebrated gardens and fairground gallopers at Blooms of Bressingham near Diss.
Wyken Hall is well known locally for its weekly farmers markets, walks, chic shop, pizzas, café and fine dining restaurant. Its magnificent Royal Horticultural Society garden is highly acclaimed too. But its real pedigree lies in its vineyard.
Today’s 1980s planted vines line the very same south-facing sandy loam slopes as vineyards in Roman times. Who can resist a taste of Wyken Moonshine? Well, it has a certain sparkle.
Push your pedals this way…
Noted for its tiny wool towns, pink thatched cottages, village greens and idyllic country pubs, the Stour Valley on the Suffolk /Essex border makes for quirky, thirst-quenching Suffolk cycling country.
Spot the 32 pint beer jug at St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Clare – a vicar’s gift to his lucky bell-ringers in 1729. Follow Maltings Lane beyond Claret Hall to Stoke by Clare, home to the Church of St John the Baptist’s famous wineglass pulpit. Surely made for less corpulent medieval preachers who had their glass half full, it’s only 50cms in diameter – allegedly the smallest pulpit in England!
Tasteful Suffolk Cycling Tours – It’s all in the detail
There’s nothing quite like having some expert guidance to really savour what’s on offer. At Cycle Breaks the team relish sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for their local area of Suffolk (and all the other marvellous cycling destinations they have experienced around Europe!).
Packed full of insider top tips for refreshment stops and places to explore, the route descriptions are extremely detailed and comprehensive, so you can fine tune your Suffolk cycling holiday experiences day by day to meet your own interests and requirements, whether that’s taking your fill of culture, grazing on the idyllic scenery, savouring an a well-deserved pint in country pub or visiting vineyards.
And just in case…
Sampling a vineyard on a Suffolk cycling tour and desperately fancy taking a case or two of local wine home with you? Book your holiday with Cycle Breaks and help is at hand…
Transferring luggage between your accommodation stops is all part of the service, so collecting a case or two of wine en route is only a phone call away. Simply pedal on with peace of mind and light panniers, whilst the Cycle Breaks team collect and store your booty until the time comes to put it in your car at the end of your holiday!
Suffolk Cycling Tours for vineyard visits
Cycle Breaks offer an extensive portfolio of Suffolk cycling tours, as well as cycle tours in Norfolk and overseas.
Gentle countryside cycling around Framlingham including Shawsgate Vineyard (3 days/ 2 nights – Cycle Breaks Grade 1).
Cycling holidays in Suffolk – View the full range of Cycle Breaks cycling holidays in Suffolk.
Single-centre Suffolk Cycling holiday, staying at the Angel Hotel in historic Bury St Edmunds with circular day rides. (3 days / 2 nights – Cycle Breaks Grade 1-2).
Cycling in ‘High Suffolk’ including Lavenham and Hartest with chance to visit Gifford’s Hall Vineyard (5 days / 4 nights – Cycle Breaks Grade 2)
Cycling through rural East Suffolk to Southwold / Suffolk Heritage Coast with chance to visit Shawsgate Vineyard – Framlingham and Valley Farm Vineyard – Halesworth (4 days/3 nights – Cycle Breaks Grade 3)
Cycling in North Suffolk and the Waveney Valley with a chance to visit Wyken Hall Vineyard / Gardens and Blooms of Bressingham (4 days/3 nights – Cycle Breaks Grade 2)
For the ultimate Suffolk cycling tour, the Grand Tour of Suffolk (Tour 14A) 14 days / 13 nights from Cycle Breaks includes castles, coast countryside, vineyards and so very much more. (Cycle Breaks Grade 3).
———————————————————————
Contributed by: Sonny Slope (Suffolk)
