Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Known for creating Sherlock Holmes, one of the most famous fictional detectives, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1855, and studied medicine at Edinburgh University. Here he met Dr Joseph Bell, one of his lecturers, who relied only on observation, logic and deduction and diagnosis. This was the persona for Sherlock Holmes. In 1887, and now a doctor in practice, Conan Doyle published A Study in Scarlet. It was to be the start of 60 adventures for Holmes and his partner Dr Watson, which would involve three other novels, and five volumes of short stories.

After a long stay in Dartmoor, Devon in 1900, Conan Doyle wrote the novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. It was much influenced by local folklore about an escaped convict, an inhospitable manor and huge hound. Today, Dartmoor is still one of Britain's most dramatic landscapes, which is popular for cycling, walking, horseriding and other outdoor pursuits. 

Many other places in Britain were mentioned in his stories. Watson described the Stroud Valley in Herefordshire as 'beautiful’ and Ross as ‘pretty little country-town’ in The Boscombe Valley Mystery. The Wye Valley Walk passes through Ross as it winds through the border into Wales, and it is a crossroads for a number of cycling routes including From West to East, Land’s End to John O’Groats and the Castle Tour of the Welsh Borders.

Sussex has a number of links. St Mary’s House in Bramber, a beautiful timber-framed house was said to be an influence on the story of The Musgrave Ritual and is open to the public. In the Second Stain, Holmes is revealed as ‘definitely retired’ and was now ‘bee-keeping on the Sussex Downs’. Holmes reveals his own villa in one of the last stories The Lion’s Mane, describing it ‘situated upon the southern slope of the Downs, commanding a great view of the Channel’.  In reality, Conan Doyle had moved in 1908 to Windlesham near Crowborough in Sussex and lived there until his death. Today, the South Downs Way, gives a great opportunity to enjoy the whole of the Downs area and is perfect for cycling and walking.

Norfolk and Suffolk also were settings for some of his adventures. In The Gloria Scott, Holmes was invited to spend a month in the Broads ‘basking in the sun and admiring the view across the Broads’. In The Dancing Men, Watson describes the ‘enormous square-towered churches bristled up from the flat green landscape and told of the glory and prosperity of Old East Anglia’. There are plenty of opportunities to enjoy cycling in East Anglia. These include the Circular Tour of East Anglia; and the eastern ends of the From West to East, the Furthest East to Furthest West of the Britain Mainland, the Furthest South to Furthest East of the British Mainland routes and Coast to Coast Challenge from Snowdonia to East Anglia. Walkers can enjoy the Peddars Way & Norfolk Coast Path.

Further information

The Sherlock Holmes Society (www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/) 
Dartmoor (www.dartmoor.co.uk)