Pan Celtic Race: Beginnings

Words and photographs by Rupert Hartley

To know where we are going, we need to know where we’ve been.

In July 2019 the Welsh Embassy made its maiden voyage, north, to Inverness. It would meet up with the 84 riders who had signed up for the inaugural Pan Celtic Race - a 2000km self-supported trip through Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Wales, to the finish in Llandudno. On the doorstep of Matt and Rebecca Ryan.

Since then over 1000 riders have joined the Pan Celtic Clan, and made their own journey through the Celtic Nations.

That first edition was won by Inverness local Chris Pitblado, and this year for the fifth and final edition, he has designed the closing part of the route, as it returns to Inverness. The Welsh Embassy will have completed its five year journey around the Celtic Nations, and return to where it all started.

Here is a look back at that first morning in 2019, when the Pan Celtic Race came to life in a car park in Inverness.

“What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

T.S. Eliot.

The culmination of these five races - the Magnum Opus - begins today, the 26th June. A ride for those who have qualified through one of two means, either; winning the Pan Celtic Race, or having taken part in two or more of the races in the series over the past five years. These riders will cover over 1000km to the start line on the Isle of Man, where they'll be joined by the hundreds of riders setting off on Saturday 6th July.

You can follow all the action from July 6th on the Albion and Pan Celtic Race channels.