Vicars saddle up for 725-mile pilgrimage by motorbike

THESE ARE no Hell’s Angels but four clergy members who have hit the open road on a spiritual mission.
By Ben Barnett
Published 20th Apr 2015, 18:55 BST
Vicars from the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales Motor Cycle Club. Pictured riding past St John the Evangelist church in Bellerby.Vicars from the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales Motor Cycle Club. Pictured riding past St John the Evangelist church in Bellerby.
Vicars from the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales Motor Cycle Club. Pictured riding past St John the Evangelist church in Bellerby.

Their five-day pilgrimage by motorcycle and 725-mile round trip from Yorkshire to the island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland started this morning.

All the riders, including the vicars, are members of the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales Motor Cycle Club.

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They left from St Matthew’s Church in Leyburn, the church of one of the biking vicars, the Rev Canon Michael Hepper, and he was hoping for a smooth ride.

It was one of his maiden rides out on his Indian-built Royal Enfield single-cylinder Bullet which was originally made for the Indian Army. He said: “We will be riding as a group so it will be a good exercise in caring for one another along the way.”

Iona is said to be the ‘cradle of Christianity’, where St Columba landed by coracle from Ireland in 563 AD.

Related topics:YorkshireScotland