Get on yer bike ... in Lisburn

Bike Week starts in Lisburn on Saturday 12 June and continues until 25 June ... a fortnight later!

Between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 12 June, Market Square and Bow Street will host biking activities, face painting, a free bicycle limo as well as “a spectacular BMX stunt show”.

Uncle Hugo Duncan will be entertaining crowds in Market Square from 11am to 4pm on Tuesday 15, with the Mayor and local councillors participating in a static cycling challenge in Smyth Patterson’s shop window.

If you haven’t cycled for a while or want to start off gently, there’s a Beginners Cycle leaving the Island Centre Car Park at 6.30pm on Thursday 17 ands Thursday 24 that will be guided along the tow path to Drumbeg (for a snack) and back.

An hour long family cycle along the tow path departs from the front of Castle House (opposite Castle Gardens) at 11am on Saturday 19, with a longer 2 hour 16 mile trip around Lisburn leaving earlier at 10am for more adventurous families. And from 10am to 4pm there’s a Midsummer Fayre in Castle Gardens complete with “a historic village ... demonstrating traditional skills, crafts”, face painters, banqueting food together with 17th and 19th century characters explaining the history of Castle Gardens.

As an incentive to cycle to work, there’s a free breakfast in Market Square between 7.30am and 10am for anyone pedalling into Lisburn on Bike to Work Day (Friday 25).

If your bike needs a once over, you can book in for a free health check between 12 and 19 June with Bike Week sponsor John M Hanna Cycles who are based at 11-15 Chapel Hill.

Sadly, with a lack of joined up thinking, although Lisburn City Council is one of the sponsors of Bike Week, only the Midsummer Fayre is listed on their tourism portal at VisitLisburn.com.