Northern Ireland Four-Day Charity Tractor Run for Cancer Focus NI
Jubilee Road, Newtownards · County Down
Runs Wed 19 – Sat 22 Aug 2026
Next up: Northern Ireland Four-Day Charity Tractor Run for Cancer Focus NI — Wed 19 – Sat 22 Aug 2026, County Down.
A tractor run is the simplest formula in this directory: a convoy of tractors on public roads, drivers paying an entry fee for charity, and anyone free to watch from the verge. Spring and summer carry the daytime road runs. The Knaresborough Tractor Run each March sends hundreds of tractors of all ages through the town centre for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, a Young Farmers effort running since 2012. The Ladies Tractor Road Run at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk each July is the famous one, pink-decorated tractors covering 20 miles through the Waveney Valley from a wartime airfield, with over £1.3 million raised for breast cancer research since 2004.
December is when tractor runs go big. Illuminated evening runs now happen all over the country: the Banbury Christmas Tractor Run on 12 December 2026 sees around 100 lit-up tractors leave Spring Hill Farm at 5pm and tour north Oxfordshire for Katharine House Hospice, while Young Farmers clubs run their own from Clitheroe in Lancashire to the Light It Up parade around Cranbrook in Kent, with Arbroath and Nairn covering Scotland. Then Boxing Day has its own fixtures, including the Far Forest run around the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, held every 26 December since 2007.
Practical advice for spectators: the convoy passes any given point in a few minutes, so check the organiser's route map and timings, pick a village or a pub on the route, and get there early. Evening runs in December mean cold kids, so flasks and layers. Entry for drivers is usually £10 to £15 per tractor, watching is free, and collection buckets come along the route, so bring change. Runs are listed here with route towns and start times, checked weekly.
Jubilee Road, Newtownards · County Down
Runs Wed 19 – Sat 22 Aug 2026Far Forest Showground and Pavilion, Tenbury Road, Callow Hill, Callow Hill · Worcestershire
RunsR W Crawford depot, Writtle, Writtle · Essex
RunsClitheroe Auction Mart, Lincoln Way, Clitheroe · Lancashire
RunsMoor Farm, Cloughton, Cloughton · North Yorkshire
RunsParade through Goudhurst, Cranbrook, Staplehurst and Marden, Cranbrook · Kent
RunsBrecon Livestock Market, Warren Road, Brecon · Powys
RunsCrossgates Primary School, Crossgates, Llandrindod Wells · Powys
Runs100th Bomb Group Memorial Airfield, Thorpe Abbotts, Thorpe Abbotts · Norfolk
RunsThese events run most years but the organiser has not confirmed the next date yet. We check weekly and date them the moment they are announced. Get the weekly email and you will not miss it.
An organised convoy of tractors driving a set route on public roads to raise money for charity. Drivers pay an entry fee per tractor, spectators watch for free from the roadside, and collections are usually taken along the route.
Typically £10 to £15 per tractor. Far Forest's Boxing Day run asks a £10 minimum per tractor, the Masham YFC run charged £15 per tractor and £10 per passenger in 2026, and the Wolds Tractor Run in Lincolnshire was £15 per tractor.
Yes, almost always. You watch from the roadside or a village on the route, and organisers publish route maps and rough timings. Charity buckets come round, so bring some change.
Through December, mostly in the evening with tractors dressed in lights. Banbury's run leaves at 5pm on 12 December 2026, YFC runs like Clitheroe and Cranbrook's Light It Up parade fill the weekends before Christmas, and Boxing Day has fixtures like Far Forest and Larling on 26 December.
Most runs accept any road-legal, insured tractor, booked in advance with the organiser, and Christmas runs expect lights fitted safely. Some have their own rules, the Ladies Tractor Road Run in Norfolk is ladies only, and places on popular runs like Banbury are booked through the charity.