As per title really. Looking for a week long (7-8 day) tour on road in the UK or Ireland.
Prob doing around 50 miles per day with 1 day off in the week or if really bad weather strikes. Will be camping mainly maybe with the odd hostel if they are handy.
My girlfriend and I did the Outer Hebridies tour last year and it really was one of the best holidays of a lifetime experience (great weather).
Thinking maybe north Scotland but not sure of a route with these distances to link in with trains etc. Or Cornwall maybe or west coast of Ireland but again boat,train and route logistical problems.
Any ideas or experiences
Thanks in advance.
Bump for the day crowd.
Come on people share your adventures.
This summer my dude and I cycled from Brora to Ullapool to Durness (the whole ride was centered round getting to the chocolate shop in durness), along to Melvich and back down to Brora. We camp all but in Ullapool where we stayed in the hostel. The trip could easily be extended by heading further east and south. The views are absolutely amazing!
That the kind of riding I'm after. Cheers
What sort of mileage is that tour?
It was around 400Km. The hills were quite hard work at times with a loaded bike but the downhills were amazing (managed a speed of 70km/h!!). Get an OS touring map of the area and have a look at the diferent routes you can take. Im hooked!
Just plugged the route into google maps at it came up at about 275 miles. Looks ideal.
mema - I know the coast roads will be beautiful but what's the roads like across the width of Scotland i.e from the Black Isle to Ullapool? Views good? Are they busy as it looks like a main A road?
Yeah they are A roads but that could be questioned! They aren't busy but can be fairly narrow at times, yet pretty safe. The views are mainly of forested areas and lochs.
Use streetview to get an idea of views!
Rik
Here's an easy one.
Get the ferry to Dublin, get off the boat and turn left. After 6/7 days follow signposts to Dublin. get back on boat.
Many types of accomadation are available including hostels all over Ireland.
Enjoy your trip.
No brainer, Sutherland. Get a bothy in too - Glendhu is reachable easily on a road tourer. And pop into Sandwood for an evening. Scourie campsite is good as is Durness.
The coast roads are brilliant, especially the Lochinver - Nedd route.
Basically I'm backing Ricks idea.......
Rik, what time of year did you do the Hebrides trip?
I've persuaded my wife to take a camping trip up there next year - not bike touring, but I will have a bike with me :-).
Any tips, problems, etc?
Easier yet for the road tourer would be Kervaig (the bothy and the bay) assuming you can get the ferry over from Durness its then about 10km on almost tarmac roads.
Cocoa Mountain is the chocolate shop, its great! 😀
If you can, starting at somewhere like Achnashellach train station would allow you to ride up behind the Torridon hills, then to circumnavigate the Fisherfield hills before finishing on Destitution Road past An Teallach. This then leads to the relatively flat road into Ullapool.
A route something like [url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=A890&daddr=A896+to:A832+to:Unknown+road+to:58.228958,-5.263138+to:A838&hl=en&geocode=FSYzbAMdSCSt_w%3BFWAUbQMd0Y-q_w%3BFRjCcgMdUs-s_w%3BFfOEdQMd_mWw_w%3B%3BFe6kfQMdgnu3_w&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=4&sz=11&via=1,2,3,4&sll=58.158388,-5.171814&sspn=0.205761,0.52803&ie=UTF8&ll=58.509479,-4.852524&spn=0.203727,0.52803&z=11 ]this[/url]
Thinking this (if it works)
For a Scotland trip - any views?
Hebrides trip - was in May so no midges and great weather, although we had unusal wind that was opposite than normal. We traveled From Oban - Barra - Uist - Harris - Lewis - Skye.
Amazing place - Harris was my fav the most beautiful empty beaches in the world on the west side and gorgeous moon scape on the east.
Anybody can do it on a bike as the mileage is very small for the scenery that you recieve in return.
Thanks Rik. Sounds good.......
We also did Hebrides in May (2008) and had the wind against us going North! We rode the west coast of Harris to Tarbert in a full on rain storm and howling northerly wind. Particularly memorable bit was having to pedal our heavily laden bikes [i]downhill[/i] into Tarbert against the wind. Never was a pint in the Harris Hotel more richly savoured...
Would agree with what Rik said - absolutely awesome trip. Scenery and wildlife were amazing, and it was also one of our best holidays ever. As well as Harris, I really liked the NW coast of North Uist - really open and wild and not so much traffic as on the main Harris coast road. The east cost of Harris (The Golden Road) is also stunning.
South Uist can appear a little featureless in parts, but some great mountains on the East side (almost completely deserted), and cracking beaches on the other side. We rode a good portion of the trip on the beach or tracks across the machair.
We travelled S to N but then got the bus back down the islands with our bikes and spent the last couple of days chilling on Barra and Vatersay before getting the ferry back.
I really fancy doing a ferry from Oban, a circuit of Mull, over to Morvern / Ardnamurchan on the foot ferry from Tobermory and then on up to Skye sometime - anyone done that route?
Rik, heading south from Ledmore to Drumrunie would allow you to follow the wee mad road of Sutherland to Lochinver. You would get great views of Stac Pollaidh (a short climb if you wanted) and Suilven, then would reach Lochinver and could continue your route from there.
NW Uist - def beautiful - remember trying to hide out of the wind behind a wall and having my chocolate bar blown out of my hands!! But that road led to Bernaray hostel - again a beautiful spot with crystal blue water and white beaches.
As sproket says 'the best holiday you'll ever have'!!
Cheers for the advice 13th I'll have a look at that.
I almost forgot about Berneray.... we stayed there the night before getting the ferry to Leverburgh. we sat on the beach at 11 at night (still light almost) listening to the seals and looking out to the Sound of Harris. Really beautiful spot. I need to go back, but next time it will have to be with a baby trailer! 😀
How about either biking from Fort William or getting the train from Glasgow.
From Fort William either train to Mallaig (amazing journey) or bike.
Fort William
Mallaig
(if you have a day spare go to Knoydart for a good evening)
Armadale Castle Gardens
Tokavaig, Highland, United Kingdom
(This takes the quiet back road up Skye with great views)
Kyle Of Lochalsh
Plockton
Applecross, Strathcarron
(great pub, used to be best in the world)
loch shieldaig
Loch Garry
Fort William
I'm doing the S2SFS first week in September.
Its the Sea to Sea from Sheffield. Approx 60 miles per day.
I'll second Ireland. No problem for a week. We just got the ferry to Dublin and headed West. We thought we'd get to West Coast. We only made it to Cork and got the train back. But every day was different and beautiful and the independent hostels were fab
If I did again I'd train across to the West coast and then head back because of the winds
Hi guys just found this thread and wanted to ask a quick question about peoples hebredies trips. Im looking at two weeks 'very' vaugly along these lines [url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=M8&daddr=Ardrossan+-+Brodick+to:A841+to:B8001+to:Soroba+Rd%2FA816+to:Oban+-+Lochboisdale+to:A859+to:57.37773,-6.19746+to:A830&geocode=FdoyVAMdriW-_w%3BFawUUAMd5MSx_w%3BFUoPTgMd1vuw_w%3BFZRsUwMds4qs_w%3BFcadXAMdhn2s_w%3BFYISaAMdxI2Q_w%3BFXYdeAMdZAOe_w%3B****DawMdLG-h_ynXTGS-czGMSDFRCnTcGWgMEw%3BFThhYwMdigWy_w&hl=en&mra=dpe&mrcr=6&mrsp=7&sz=9&via=7&sll=57.73935,-6.053467&sspn=1.054089,2.458191&ie=UTF8&ll=56.674338,-6.668701&spn=4.340793,9.832764&z=7 ]this[/url]
How did you find ferry costs up there? how much are the ferry crossings going to add to our costs?
cheers
This spring i rode part of the national cycle route 7, from Glasgow to Inverness- Lochs and glens route. Nice riding and you can extent it for a longer (7/8 day-er)
@titus - google CalMac ferries you need something like Hopscotch 23 ferry ticket this will do all ferries from Oban, northwards through the hebrides and then back to the mainland via Skye. Its something like £30.
I was out for only six days due to time commitments. I got as far as the Callanish stones then headed for the mainland via Skye.
Others are correct - it was definately the best time I had spent in a Long while. The icing on the cake was siting in the resturant carriage on the sleeper train back to London from Fort William - beer in hand watching the sun setting over Rannoch Moor.
Mid august was when I went and it was midge free bar Sligachan campsite.
The recommended route is northwards thru the outer hebrides to avoid the prevailing wind. But I was unlucky 🙁