Photos please.

Will be on lightish loaded cross bikes so any tracks worth exploring – what about wild camping on either island – any really nice spots youd recomend ?

Planning a couple of weeks to have a scoot round both – and then zot down via tongue /crask to inverness onward to aviemore and onto don side via the lecht – home

All theoretical though as i havnt even looked at a map of either island but i am aware of the wind ! just coming up with ideas for summer hols

good luck to you, attempted the western isles at the end of may last year.

After 8 days of daily soakings and up to 100mph winds (one day we got a bus) my GF got blown off the bike and we gave up and hired a car and had a nice week!

It would have been lovely but….. have a back up plan!

Dont worry mrs tr is well versed in high winds and soakings after our new zealand tour and mull and ardnamuchan last year adds to the excitement really !- always get nice weather and views to reward the suffering at some point

Would be wrong to ride the crask road in anything but mist an rain !

Maes Howe tour (ditto Skara Brae)
Ring of Brogar, early in the morning (and standing stones over causeway)
Italianate Chapel
foot ferry to Hoy(Moaness), path to Rackwick (used to be YHA there), set camp/leave gear, cycle to Old Man, go back via Lyness (Scapa Flow Museum)
get yourself photographed at the village of (I jest not) Twatt.
set coast 2 coast record time at Mavis Grind
you might get to row a viking longboat in Lerwick (check tourist office)
have a Red Pudden supper at Lerwick chippie
get blown to B**gery

Ring of Brodgar at daybreak….fantastic

The one everyone forgets is the Tomb of the Eagles….the farmer who looks after it put a human skull in my hands for me to hold…still gives me goosebumps 10 years later

If it is really wild and windy – with winds blowing from the westish then get out to Yesnaby and watch the epic waves crashing ashore

I must have done the Crask Inn road the wrong way then 😉

(Hope these show up, they’re on Facebook).

This was the view from my tent on my night’s stay on Orkney en-route to Shetland:

Was supposed to have been staying at the campsite at Evie, but when I got there they had closed for the season (having called a few weeks prior and told to just show up…). I ended up on the beach to the north (here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=59.120109,-3.100135&spn=0.001155,0.002411&sll=59.120109,-3.100135&sspn=0.001155,0.002411&t=h&gl=uk&z=19 ) where there was a 24hr toilets. I found a spot for my wee one man tent, which was very sheltered!

Shetland is beautiful! Sad to say that I was only there for a couple of days, and camped in the site at the leisure centre in Lerwick.

And yes, both islands are/were MEGA windy. Was very hard work on my own…

P.S. The above were part of a 2-week trip following NCN Route 1 from Berwick-Upon-Tweed to Shetland. I took a photo each day with my phone which I uploaded as I went like a diary/blog. Photos and some waffle with each one here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.762219729001.2402754.61012415&type=3&l=cb6593aac7

I got a load of ‘proper’ photos with my DSLR but never got around to doing anything with them!

I stayed on Orkney for years.

Visit Rackwick on Hoy, camp next to the Bothy, it’s on the shore. Walk up to the Old Man. Catch the ferry over from Stromness. Ride down to Lyness, visit the museum then catch the ferry back to Houton. Pier Arts Centre in Stromness.

Kirbister and Corrigal Farm museums are cool. The Barony Mills grind Bere with water power. Check out te fishermans huts and Kitchener’s monument at Marwick Bay.

Yesnaby, The Bough of Birsay and Skipi Geo. See the Brochs at Gurness, and over on Rousay.

Catch the ferry from Kirwall up to Westray and on to Papa Westray, There are hostels and bunkouses if the weather is too bad.

There are some great cliff walks and bird watching.

I spent a week tutoring a plein aire landscape painting class up there a couple of years ago. Everyone had an easel, none blew over.

The three best places to get a fish supper are the chip shop in Stromness, The Pierowall Hotel on Westray, and the ambulance that with the mile long queue in the Finstown car park on a Friday evening and outside the joiners workshop in Dounby on a Saturday night.

Some of my pics of Orkney:-

120317 – 199 – Ring of Brodgar by D(i)rT, on Flickr

111218 – 109 – Yesnaby by D(i)rT, on Flickr

110921 – 21 – Stromness In The Rain by D(i)rT, on Flickr

More here:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66982909@N02/sets/72157628879277743/with/6170624440/

Take some small binoculars, and whenever you’re on a boat/ferry/high cliffs, look for dolphins/porpoise/whales. We saw something every single boat trip to/around/from Orkney – mostly dolphins, some small whales, some larger whales but too far to identify, and from the cliffs on the walk to the Old Man, a pod of 50 plus porpoises, some jumping which is unusual, which we followed for about 2 hours as we walked along the cliff tops.

Pretty much any of the archaeological sites are cool if you’re into that.

We were in a camper van with bikes on the back, only used the bikes for easy rides so no real idea about trails I’m afraid.

Have fun!

Spent my formative years growing up in Shetland.
Err on the side of caution when it comes to clothes, it never gets really hot and it can go downhill very quickly.

Sumburgh head, have a look round Jarlshof (the old Viking settlement), travelling north there’s the Broch at Mousa. Can’t remember the name of the chippy i used to like as a kid but it was up the stairs from where the Bressay ferry docks (i’ve sailed and rowed in the Viking longboat, the joy of being a sea scout). Get the ferry over to Bressay, there’s the lighthouse to the south, you could go up to the antenna on the Wart and over to the east of the island there’s Noss an RSPB reserve and also (supposedly) the inspiration behind the other half of the island that Doctor Doolittle ends up on, apparently it broke off and floated away.

Going north again, you’ve Ronas hill (a mighty 450m high) and Yell (most northernly castle here), Fetlar (lovely white beaches) and Unst where you can be the most northernly person in the UK.

I’m sure there are many other things to do.

Oh and in the summer it doesn’t get that dark.