Cathedral verger to embark on a twelve hundred mile walk

A verger at Ripon Cathedral is aiming to fulfill a life-time ambition by walking more than a thousand miles from Lands End to John O’Groats.  Fifty year old Colin Belsey, a former policeman and part-time verger at the Cathedral will set off on the mammoth 1200 mile challenge on April 10^th,  raising funds for the Cathedral’s Organ Restoration Appeal, aiming to arrive at the northern tip of mainland Scotland by the end of July.

Colin’s previous experience includes walking the Pennine Way 33 years ago, but he will be aiming to complete 13 miles per day in order to complete the walk inside four months. He says it has always been an ambition to do the walk,.”Having developed a love of walking during my time in the Scouts in my native East Sussex and having completed the Pennine Way back in 1977, I have always had the ambition to go that bit further and walk from one end of the country to the other.  A career with the States of Jersey Police put paid to such ambition - until now!  Having retired at the age of 50 last July, moved to Ripon and married Wendy (a Ripon ringer), the dream was rekindled.”

Money raised by Colin will go towards the restoration of the 19^th century Cathedral organ.  Three hundred and fifty thousand pounds is needed of which £80,000 has been raised to date. The project will include the complete dismantling of the instrument: its 3,000 pipes will be removed to the organ builders, where they will be cleaned and restored, and returned to the Cathedral for re-commissioning; the work is expected to take  a year to complete.

Colin’s route of 1,210 miles will take him away from main roads and along walking country where possible:

South-West Coast Path (208 miles, north Cornwall and Devon)

Somerset (90 miles, skirting around Weston-Super-Mare and Bristol to the Severn Bridge)

Offa's Dyke Path (176 miles, English/Welsh border)

Cheshire (85 miles, skirting around Chester)

Pennine Way (270 miles)

Southern Scotland (skirting around the south of Edinburgh and north of Glasgow)

West Highland Way (100 miles, Glasgow to Fort William)

Great Glen Way (alongside Loch Ness)

North East Scotland (avoiding A9) to John O'Groats (206 miles)

If that wasn’t enough Colin will ‘warm-up’ with a week walking around the Scilly Isles and enjoy a ‘cooling-down' walk across the Shetland Isles of a further 80 miles following his arrival at John O’Groats.

ENDS