Scotland and Hebrides end of August - beginning of September
 

Starting August bank holidays weekend I'm planning to ride to Scotland for 10 days. I don't have a fixed plan but I would like to go as far as john'o'groads and then follow the coastal route along northern parts and then go down along west part of scotland to Ullapool to catch a ferry to Isle of Lewis. Then I would like to do some island hopping to Uist and Barra and then catch the ferry back to mainland (Oban).
Perhaps I'm being too optimistic and 10 days is not enough for all this? I don't know and I guess I will find out. Has anyone done similar journey in the past?
Any recommendations about scenic rides on the way, any attractions to see, good wildlife spots are welcome.
I'm 36 years old, female rider and I'll be riding alone. If anyone would like to share some parts of this journey with me, do some camping together, have a beer or do some hiking along the way somewhere, that would be great!
I'm planning to camp most of the time (weather permitting) but I will also stay in B&Bs when I'm too cold and fed up of camping:-)

Hello Syliak,

Sounds like a good trip. I’ve thought about heading that way but never really got round to it. Ten days should be ok but I guess it depends on where you’re starting off from and what sort of millage your comfortable with riding.

I’ve not long returned from riding round the Pyrenees and wouldn’t mind heading up into Scotland if you fancy a riding partner for a few days. End of the month, early September could work. Male, slightly older and ride a KTM 690.

Hey pheasant, that would be so great if you could join, even just for few days. It's always more fun to ride together. How much time have you got and which parts of scotland would you like to visit? I'm planning to start on friday 28th of august after work from luton and be back on sunday 6th of september. I would like to get to scotland as quickly ad possible (don't mind long riding for the first 2 days) and then take it easy from there, enjoy the scenery. I've heard that north-east should be really beautiful. Pyrenees have also been on my mind for a while so would be interesting for me to find out more about your trip. Pm me for more details and we can arrange something.

Ah forgot to mention: i'm riding bmw f650 gs and don't mind some off road detours as long ad it's on the easier side :-)

Have a look at the information page I stuck up at Shetland, Orkney, Hebrides.

Rather than B&B you might want to look at the low cost independent hostels.

I'm planning a two week trip starting about a week before you (so long as the weather forecast isn't dire) but in reverse of your route and possibly including Orkney and Shetland. Will probably stop at Haggs Bank bunkhouse on the way up and back down.

There's not a lot of offroad around, but you could try the route north from the 'Bridge to Nowhere' on Lewis.

Might see you on the road!

Thanks Tim that's awesome, i'll have a good read later.

Sylwiak, looks like your only just down the road from me, anyway i'll pm you my email and maybe we can arrange something. Not sure how much time i can spare at the mo, i'll have to play that by ear.

No preferance on where to go but i'll have a read through Tims post first. I'm good at route planning and all things gps so could easily cobble a little Scottish trip together after a bit of research.

Pyrenees are amazing, highly recommended.

Wow Tim, thank you for all that info, that's so usefull! I couldn't open your waypoints though, perhaps i try later from laptop rather than phone. Now i will have to add orkneys and shetlands on my list for some other trip in the future! I always thought it's too cold and windy there for motorbiking :-)
I hope to see you on the road somewhere!

You'll need some form of SatNav programme to make sense of the waypoints file—Garmin Mapsource, Garmin BaseCamp or TomTom Tyre on the PC.

Or Osmand on your phone ... takes in .gpx files ...

Offline mapping with lists of waypoints (Shallow Thoughts)

sylwiak, I did a similar trip beginning of June this year and re visited some of the routes I have done before. Went all up and around the west coast and Skye. Although I've done it before it was still just as breathtaking as the first time, even in the rain. But on a sunny day it is just a piece of heaven! For me I would say WEST IS BEST :thumbup1:

+1.

However, when the "Scotch Mist" is down and you can't see your proverbial in front of your face (not to mention the fogged up visor) then it is good to head toward the East - frequently, the weather can be very different between the East and West coasts of Scotland and it is not all that far at some latitudes.

Thanks guys for all the advice. I have recently ridden wild atlantic way in ireland and i didn't have a single day without the rain so i'm used to being wet (and i don't like it that much). I hope luck will be more on my side in Scotland and there will be few sunny days. West is a must! I visited isle of sky long time back but that was in the car and i loved it. Motorbike should be more fun though and this time i will explore much more. I'm really looking forward to hebrides. Tim, i managed to see your waypoints in garmin base camp and i will be going very similar route. If i somehow get this on my garmin nav it will be really handy to know the location of all these hostels, campsites and attractions. Great stuff!

I'm with g6snl on this one, stay on the west and the islands if its scenery and interesting roads you want, I would recommend the Lochinver/ Assynt area ,the single track roads in that area are wonderful, as scenic as any anywhere. Hope the weather is good for you!

Don't ignore the eastern side, the Spey valley, Strathdon, The Lecht Road and Glenshee for example are all well worth riding.

On the western side try to get to Torridon and Applecross, and cross over from Skye to Mallaig on the ferry and ride down to Fort William past Glenfinnan, taking a small detour to the Silver Sands of Morar (pic).

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u...g/P9080319.jpg

Near there the Ardnamurchan peninsular is very remote and beautiful. Glen Coe is spectacular, but watch out for cameras and wobbly Sunday riders at the biker hangout The Green Wellie in Tyndrum.:rolleyes2:

There is plenty of good riding in Argyll, I do like the run over Rest-and-be-Thankful to Loch Fyne and on to Crinan.

And the weather? End of August, beginning of September is usually pretty settled, but there are no guarantees up this way...

I guess the Cairngorm mountain range is in the middle ................ neither East nor West.

The weather forecast for Scotland for the next few days is a case in point of the above.
One day rain for the East coast (perhaps 50 mm), the next day rain forecast for the West.

You will be passing my house in the northeast could pop in for a cuppa, maybe do a few local lanes upto Alnwick or take the coastal route to Berwick,
Once over the forth bridge head for Perth then head for glen-she though the Cairngorms upto Inverness, once you hit Alness you can take a easy road round the coast or cut across do some great rural camping, all great riding road what ever you do m8

Could be of interest to you.

North Coast 500 - Home

Good link pheasant, it's good to know the route I'm planning to ride has a name. I like the motorcycle itinerary mentioned, I would probably be partially following it without knowing it. Btw I've sent you an email.

I will be passing Sunderland on Saturday so if you're about we can share some local lanes :-) Let me know your location and I will message you once in your area

Walkabout, I don't like that weather forecast at all...To follow the sunshine I would have to do some slalom there...

ROYMACNIC, reggie3cl: Thank you for your recommendations, I will add them on to my plan. Seems like my plan will have a quite good shape now. I wish I could have some more time.

You have a choice of Scottish ski resorts for that, the Lecht, Cairngorm, Glenshee and Glencoe come to mind (I skiied all of them over 30 years ago when they used to get proper winters in Scotland).

I am based in Sutherland - some great biking roads to be had. The route up the east coast to John o Groats - A9 is fine. Your suggested route along the north coming down the west coast is fantastic. The A9 actually start near Dunblane. Be very aware of the average speed cameras all the way north and south on the A9. having said that the scenery is good so enjoy the 60 mph speeds.

Great campsite at Clactoll just a few miles from Lochinver

Some places for good food.
House of Bruar. Blair Atholl. Just off the A9. Might appear at first instance expensive but huge portions.

Lairg- The Pier. very popular with bikers who do the loop from Inverness round through Ullapool easily done in a few hours or longer

Kylesku hotel- fantastic location - the local seafood is very good. Fish n chips

Lochinver. The Bistro. Just as you enter the village on the right.

Island hopping is good too- from Ullapoll to Stornoway then the Uists. The ferry from Lochboisdale to Oban is worth a trip. Divert to Mull and head for Iona.

Or if time is an issue just take the road south from Durness in the north all the way south to Ullapool A835. Divert on A832 for Poolewe and Gairloch. For breath taking ride divert to Applecross just north of Kishorn - "Belach Na Ba" Good camping at Applecross and the local hotel serves greta food

The A87 is another great biking road to Kyle of Lochalsh and the bridge to Skye- where there are some good B & Bs and camping- Sligachan is good- a bit rough camping but the scenery is awesome.

From Skye take the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig and pick up the A830 to Fort William - now this is a great biking road with long sweeping bends and scenery too. Rough camping at Arisaig on the beach.

I could go on and on- but you can't go wrong with the highlands in what every route you take. My advice though is to take some midge spray- the little bastar** are nuisance

Good luck and safe riding

I'm a p/time coach with durham FA and some of my weekends are took up, if closer the time I'm free then yes I'll take you up some of the lighter lanes

Thank you for so much for such a useful info MR Sloane, much appreciated. I'm currently undecided if I should take a ferry from Ullapool to Isle of Lewis or if I should continue to Isle of Sky and take a ferry from there. This "Belach Na Ba" near Applecross sounds really tempting.
If I took a ferry from Ullapool and then took a ferry from Barra to Oban, I still probably could head north from Oban to experience this famous "Belach Na Ba". It all depends on timing, I have currently no idea how fast will I be going and what is the distance I will be doing per day.
I've heard about the midges and I hope the mosquito spray will solve the problem

You are quite right to not underestimate the speed of travel and the amount of time you will spend in looking around at the views.
The pass of the cattle is a case in point: ideally, you would ride it in both directions - it is not a particularly long way from, say, Lochcarron to Applecross but you just have to stop and take it all in. From the top, Scoth mist allowing, you will see a great view of Skye.

Similarly, winding roads following the coast do take time to traverse - the single track road to Ardnamurchan "goes on for ever".

I'm going in the opposite direction, but if I were you I would carry on to Skye and get the Uig to Tarbert ferry which lands you in Harris. The map shows Ullapool in top right and Applecross bottom left. On this route you would also go via Gairloch which is lovely.

Updated 2015 route file (GPX) here.

I think I will do exactly that Tim (time permitting) as it would be shame to miss so many nice spots. Really looking forward to this single track roads!
I wish there was a good app for the phone that could open your gpx file, it works perfectly on my laptop with garmin basecamp but with basecamp on the iphone it just shows all the waypoints connected with straight lines which is not very useful. The same with other apps I tried: OSMANd MAps, GPXviewer and GPX tracker. Does anyone know a good app that can edit gpx files?

Have a great trip Tim, you must be starting sometime soon

A couple of points:

1. Within Scotland your route is usually channelled by the landscape/geography.
So waypoints to aim for will do the trick IMO, rather than trying to follow an "exact" route.

2. I've just loaded the GPX download provided here into Mytrails running on a smart phone (I am experimenting with Mytrails at present).
I saved it into my phone as Tracks rather than a set of waypoints.
The result is that it also shows as mainly straight lines between the waypoints except for 2 or 3 routes/tracks that follow roads around the north york moors.

All news to me
 

This might be what is happening with the file download:-

"Choose either TCX or GPX file format and click the DOWNLOAD button:

TCX - includes any turn by turn directions/notes and lets you specify a Virtual Partner speed/pace
GPX - no directions or notes, just the route (less storage space needed)"

- - abstracted from looking around the web (my red highlighted text).

All packed, setting off in eight hours (Saturday morning), overnight Saturday at Haggs Bank Bunkhouse, then on to Oban and the Monday ferry to Barra. Up through the Uists to Harris, eventually get the ferry to Skye, then the North Coast route via Applecross.

I'm riding a KTM 690 Enduro with black panniers, might see you on the road. Ride safe and have fun.

Tim

From further reading, maybe not:-
http://nycc.org/message-board/garmin...rections/57226

Garmin have their own ways of handling data! :innocent:

I would just follow the waypoints: Scotland is not a complicated network of roads, outside of the cities.