The First True South-North Traverse of the British Isles
South
North
Adventures
Join Us to Conquer the Top to Toe of Britain
How We Started
The idea for the South-North adventure was created and founded by Professor Kevin Dutton, who is passionate about celebrating resilience and a “can-do” attitude in young people. He put together a team of liked-minded people, Stephen Feeney and Billy Taylor to take on the challenge of the TRUE south-north of Great Britain over APRIL, 2025. The team will be raising funds for a group of amazing charities all focused on children’s mental health and wellbeing. Our journey is a celebration of the psychological strengths of our young people.
Coming soon!
April 2025
The South North Adventure: A mental health pilgrimage aimed at giving young people a voice, celebrating their wisdom, creativity, and leadership in the face of adversity, and shining a wide and brilliant spotlight on their emotional and psychological well-being.
Forget Land’s End to John o’ Groats…
We bring you a festival of resilience and positivity as we take on a world-first challenge to travel the TRUE South-North of the British Isles – Les Minquiers in the south to Out Stack in the north – touching base with inspiring youngsters on the way and listening to their stories of hope, courage and transformation.
Children are 100% of our future.
They deserve 100% of our attention.
"Totally and utterly bonkers - 2k was enough for me!! But what a challenge and a great cause. Good luck making history, fellas - and when you pass through Henley, there's a couple of beers with your name on them!"
"Kev and the boys are going for a full clearance. A 147. A maxi. First one in history! Best of luck mate - and be sure to drop in on me on the way!"
"Ocean rowing and a tuk-tuk? Can't see it catching on as a sport but CAN totally see why no one has attempted this challenge before! Crazy idea but all for a great cause. Go well lads - there's Yorkshire Tea and cake waiting for you up here in Bramhope. "
"The SAS prayer, The Road to Samarkand, begins: 'We are the Pilgrams, master; we shall go always a little further...' Well, Kev and his team are taking this to the extreme! Wishing you a fair wind and a following sea, lads... and I'll be waiting for you at the Poole Harbour with a brew and a bacon sandwich. You're paying!"
THE MISSION
Land’s End to John o’ Groats. For time immemorial, it has symbolised “the full length” of our nation, with everyone from endurance athletes to intrepid fundraisers traversing its path to conquer the “top to toe” of Britain.
There’s just one problem… it isn’t!
Because all along, a longer, higher, tougher “peak” has lurked within our midst - hidden from view beneath the thick, dense cloud of conventional thought. The unconquered “south-north” face of the British Isles. The TRUE south-north of Britain.
Unconquered that is, until now.
Our 1500-mile mission is to be the first to successfully complete the “ascent” from Les Minquiers (a group of small islands 15 km south of Jersey and the true southernmost point of Britain) to Out Stack (a lump of black, pre-Cambrian rock jutting defiantly out of the waves of the North Sea 2 miles closer to the Arctic than the furthest tip of Shetland: the true north of Britain.)
And we’ll be doing it in style!
First, we’ll be rowing across the English Channel from Les Minquiers (Coordinates: 48°58′14″N 02°03′43″W / 48.97056°N 2.06194°W) to Poole, with a brief stopover in Jersey. Second, we’ll be hopping on our custom-built tandem-rickshaw (the only one in existence!) and cycling to John o’ Groats. Finally, to top it off (quite literally), we’ll be jumping back in our ocean rowing boat and paddling our way to Out Stack (Coordinates: 60.8603°N 0.8741°W.)
Ours will be the First TRUE South-North Traverse of the British Isles.
While we are on our journey, we’ll be stopping off to spend time with young people who have triumphed over adversity. We are on a mission to embrace resilience, to celebrate those who have overcome adversity, and along the way to learn what our young people can teach us about mental health.
Followed every stroke and pedal of the way by some of Britain’s most well-known and best-loved celebrities - and we’ll be dropping in on some truly inspiring projects, with the aim of raising money for, and shining a light on, children’s mental health across the country.
This is the story of three men in a boat and a tandem-rickshaw…and then another boat!
Of an iconic, world first challenge…on home soil.
THE CHARITIES
Every Child Our Future - Peter James
Dream Factory - Harry Redknapp
Women in Sport - Brian Moore
Ambitious about Autism - Gregg Wallace
Big Kid Foundation - Michel Roux Jr
Guide Dogs - Susie Dent
Action for Children’s Arts - Sir Philip Pullman
Bright Young Dreams - Dame Jess Ennis-Hill
The Brownlee Foundation - Alistair and Jonny Brownlee
Fight for Life - Gary Lineker
Heavy Metal Truants -Bruce Dickinson
Tackling the Blues - Sean Dyche
Our time - Alastair Campbell
Reading Agency - Andy McNab
How Donations Will Be Distributed
In the interests of full disclosure and transparency, a quick note on the allocation of funds. Once we have recovered the costs of getting The South North Adventure on the road – and water! - all monies raised from the challenge will be divided up equally among our chosen charities. We would like to explicitly state that no individual member of the South North Adventures team, nor South North Adventures itself, will in any way benefit financially from involvement in The Big Adventure.
OUR SPONSORS
Gold Sponsors - £25k +
- Bruce Dickinson (Mandrake Project)
Silver Sponsor - £15k - £24k
Bronze Sponsor - £10k -14k
- Ashcroft Foundation
- Trooper Beer
Major Sponsor - £5k - £9k
-Madison
- Pedersen Properties (T/A Mid Lincs Commercials)
- Condor Ferries
“The South North Adventure team are hugely grateful to all of our sponsors and donors. We are making every effort to raise enough sponsorship to cover our costs so that we can distribute as much of the funds raised on our GoFundMe page to the charities we are supporting.”
OUR SUPPORT TEAM
ROWER FOR LES MINQUIERS TO POOLE AND SCRABSTER TO OUT STACK
Andy is an experienced coastal rower and world record holder as the first person to row solo around Britain. He now uses his knowledge of the coast to help other teams on their adventures. Andy is the practical one, able to bodge and repair almost anything. He knows ocean rowing boats inside and out. When he's not on a rowing shift, he'll be making sure that the onboard systems keep running until the pair make it to the Caribbean. Andy also drinks a lot of coffee and is the crew member most likely to sleep through his alarm... or a hurricane!
CHIEF CARTOGRAPHER
Anthony Goddard is the Founder of ZeroSixZero Adventure maps where he spends his days, nights and dreams combing through code and satellite images to make maps for expeditions. Anthony has worked on expeditions at the North Pole, South Pole and everywhere in between. His favourite maps are of incredible people telling extreme stories, never before attempted feats and epic adventures, so working with Kev, Stephen, Billy and the whole team at South North adventures was a natural fit. https://zerosixzero.com
DIRECTOR OF ON-ROAD SUPPORT
TBA
HEAD OF LOGISTICS
Professor Elaine Fox is an affective scientist and cognitive psychologist and became Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide in February 2022. Prior to moving to Australia, she held a Professorship of Psychology and Affective Neuroscience at the University of Oxford since 2012. A leading scholar on the science of resilience and mental health, Elaine’s work was awarded with a prestigious European Research Council Advanced Investigator fellowship in 2013 to investigate why some people are emotionally vulnerable (to anxiety, depression, & addictions) while others are resilient. She was appointed to a national role by the UK Department of Research and Innovation in 2019 as the Impact & Public Engagement Co-ordinator for Mental Health Research Networks in the UK, which she held alongside her Oxford Professorship until her move to Australia in February 2022. She has served on the executive committee of the Society of Affective Science (SAS) and served as President of SAS throughout 2021. Elaine was elected to a Fellowship of the Association of Psychological Science in 2009 and to a Fellowship of the British Psychological Society in 2012. Apart from her academic work, Elaine is an engaging writer and speaker with a passion for the science behind how our mind works. Her latest book SWITCHCRAFT: The Hidden Power of Mental Agility has recently been published. Switchcraft is a highly accessible introduction to the science of mental agility and is packed full of helpful ways to help us cope with a complex and uncertain world. The former Leander Captain competed at 2 Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo, 7 World Championships, 11 Europeans and 24 World Cup Regattas, collecting a plethora of medals along the way. After Tokyo, John and Kev teamed up to complete the gargantuan ‘Metro Marathon Challenge’ a gruelling 348 mile running challenge around the tube stops of London.
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Barry Hayes