My inbox hums with feedback: warm fuzzies, cold pricklies, and scads of blunt similitudes from across the pond that read something like this:
Bloody when will we see a McDistance map of the UK, you dodgy punter?
Alrightee then… so, apparently, British folk want to keep tabs on the local McDonald’s. But why, exactly? Are they drawn by ancestral kin blood to Ronald? Burnt-out on the curry and crumpets? Or simply trying to evade the crushing tire treads of American McCulture?
Whatever the reason, for many months, I’ve wanted to help, but I didn’t have the necessary information… until now.
For the kind souls at AggData have granted me access to their geolocated database of all 1,100+ United Kingdom Maccy D’s restaurants, and bolstered with a quick scrape of McIreland, I humbly present the British Isles as visualized by the distance to the nearest McDonald’s:
The British Isles visualized by the distance to the nearest McDonald's.
By my calculations, to reach the McFarthest Spot in the United Kingdom – the place most distant from Maccy D’s, minus outlying or disputed territories, as the crow flies – one must sail polewards through heaving swells to the Shetland Islands. There, at the northern tip of the archipelago, uninhabited Out Stack punctuates the Atlantic, 379 kilometers from the nearest McDonald’s at Peterhead, Scotland.
And, on the isle of Great Britain, proper – anywhere reachable from London on foot, aka the mainland – Cape Wrath ranks McFarthest. From its restless shores to the nearest McFix, the hungry traveller must traverse the Scottish Highlands to Inverness, 136 kilometers inland.
Anyways, enjoy the map, my tea-quaffing lovelies. Cheerio!
Attention, Yanks! Read all about the McFarthest Spot in the contiguous United States here, here, and here.