So my BF and I had planned a road trip around Slovenia, Italy and France staring next week but the lovely people at the UK Border agency have decided that they will keep his passport just a bit longer (14 weeks isnt enough apparently), nice of them really because now we get to see Scotland instead!

I'm now planning in a week what I had been planning for months so, need a bit of help. We like the idea of taking in some of the islands (skye?), are looking for out of the way places with great views with good ride opportunities. We are taking the camper so wild camping spots esp welcome!!

We've got two weeks to play with, leaving from London. what should go on the dont miss list?

Torridon is good, great riding and not far from Skye. Get the new Vertabrate guide, or the Kenny Wilson one, his Torridon ride is one of the best rides I have ever done.

Try the Western Isles. get the Calmac Island hopper package for you and a bike. Take the train to Oban, ferry to the WI – Barra, work your way up the island chain to Stornoway, hopping ferries as required, ferry to Ullapool, do the short offroad C2C – Ullapool to Bonar Bridge via Loch an Damh, catch the train at Ardgay south!!

Applecross to Torridon road (pref on a sunny day) – best views in UK – honest, you can camp on the beach not sure about campers – pub within walking.

Different Accom – http://www.ruareidh.co.uk/

Walk to Sandwood bay and campover at beach (*NO facilities)

There are two good rides on the Isle of Harris (*check ferry fares first) and stunning white beaches ……………

The Sligachan trail on Skye is supposed to be good. We camped at the start of it but thought it would be too much msjimmy so went for a pootle round some forest fire road trails, but I can't remember what they were called.

Given that the current weather is unpredictable…

The western highlands is wetter, Coz the east is in a rain shadow created by the mountains.

It might be worth aiming to work your way round routes/trails in the East and doing that side until you see weather opportunities in West. Makes for a more dynamic plan, but would make more enjoyable riding.

Having a camper makes this easily achievable too.

Thanks guys, great place to start & thanks for the tip on the rain / coasts.

I'm in Wales at the moment. It's much better than Scotland where I normally live. Have you considered a holiday based a Wrexham?

Thanks Devs but for us Scotland is so far that if we ever go it needs to be for a few weeks so this is our opportunity. We do weekends to Wales and I agree the riding is great 🙂

I would start off by visiting galloway area, then arran, bute, mull, ardnamurchan, trip into knoydart, skye, harris and lewis then torridon. Island Hopscotch ticket would be great for that.

No no no jacksta. Just think how much extra riding you can get in with the reduced travelling times. Scotland pales compared to Wales.
TZF – They say a drunken man always staggers to the left. Were you drunk whilst visiting Scotland? You appear to have stuck to the left hand side of the map!

devs – Member

TZF – They say a drunken man always staggers to the left. Were you drunk whilst visiting Scotland? You appear to have stuck to the left hand side of the map!

There's nowt worth seeing at the other side.

rabyoung – Member

Try the Western Isles. get the Calmac Island hopper package for you and a bike. Take the train to Oban, ferry to the WI – Barra, work your way up the island chain to Stornoway, hopping ferries as required, ferry to Ullapool, do the short offroad C2C – Ullapool to Bonar Bridge via Loch an Damh, catch the train at Ardgay south!!

Great idea. And It gives me an excuse to post a link to this again…..


(Click on the photo for more)

As Horse said. I've got both books, the main difference is that Kenny Wilsons book just covers north of the central belt. But there is only four or five routes from the south in the other book. There is quite a bit of duplication between them as well. How about starting at Drumlanrig. NOt far of the M6 and you could have a big day in the hills or go for a wee ride in the woods at Drumlanrig. Also they have showers and a cafe there. It will take you best part of a day to drive there. Then head up the west if the weather is good spend a day or two around Fort William and then up to Torridon/Applecross/Gairloch. Then head East to Aviemore/Cairngorms. A good general guide book is Scotland the best by Pete Irvine, I think he's the guy responsible for Hogmany in Edinbrgh and the outsider a couple of years ago. We used it for our holidays a couple of years ago when we went Applecross and Gairloch and it was a great help especially for cafes.

druidh – please dont tell me that's summer?

jacksta – Member

druidh – please dont tell me that's summer?

Eh?

That was May/June 2008. We had one hour of rain over the whole week, and the locals told me that was the first they'd seen for around 6 weeks. Bit of a headwind most days though.

Oh – just in from the Beeb..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8183063.stm

The north of Scotland had 22% more hours of sunshine during July than the monthly average for the region, according to the Met Office.

Forecasters recorded 157.4 hours of sunshine for the area, which includes the Western Isles and Northern Isles.

During July, Inverness had 153.8mm of rainfall – 36% above average. However, despite frequent thunderstorms it was one of the driest places in the UK.

Wales was the country's wettest, with 215.9mm of rain.