Scotland 2024 - Two weeks summer holiday

I have been wanting to go on a bike trip to Scotland since I got back from South America and for one reason or another have so far never managed to do it. Our son was born 4 months ago and my partner Nathalie said that she wanted to go to Germany for two weeks to spend some time with her friend who also recently had a baby, so I jumped at the chance to get out my camping gear and head off up to Scotland for a couple of weeks.

I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go, I wanted to visit as many islands on the west coast as I could and I wanted to try to get to the Butt of Lewis and back. I left the car in a small town called Stewarton, just outside of Glasgow. I spent the first rainy night camping by the river in the town. In the morning I got up early and headed down to Troon to catch the ferry to my first island, Arran.

Arran was really nice, there is basically just one road in the Island which circles its way around the perimeter, so I took that in the clockwise direction. I wanted to get to Lochranza in the North of the island by the evening. The south west part of the ring road started out with quite a few hills going up and down some steep hills but on the east side of the island it flattened out. All along the views were good and there wasn't too much traffic. When I arrived in Lochranza, there was a ferry to Claonaig on the Mull of Kintyre, scheduled to leave in about 30 minutes, so I decided to take it. I had originally planned to camp close to the ferry terminal on the other side, but there wasn't really a suitable place, so i ended up getting almost all the way to Tarbet before I found a good spot in some bushes at the side of the road.

The next day I followed the National Cycle Route 78 up the west coast of the Kintyre Peninsula. The road was quite hilly, but there isn't really anything out on the west coast, just a couple of scattered houses. There was a pub at some point, but like so many things in Scotland, it was closed. I arrived in Lochgilphead around lunch time and found a take away and got macaroni cheese supper, which is macaroni cheese with chips. The next part of the route followed the Crinan Canal, which was really nice, easy going cycling. It started to get hilly again around Loch Awe, but I wanted to get as close to Oban as I could, so I could get an early Ferry to Mull in the morning. I took a detour from the official route 78 and cycled up some forestry tracks which eventually turned into sheep tracks, it was really nice to feel a good sense of remoteness in this area, I crossed the hills, found a tarmac road again a found a nice camping spot by a river in the valley.

I got to Oban early in the morning, I wanted coffee and a breakfast of some kind, but the only thing open was a small corner shop, they had coffee machine and I got an egg sandwich. It was raining gently on the ferry but there were nice views along the coast and it was interesting to see lots of houses in unlikely locations on the various small islands and in the bays. Once arrived on Mull I took the A849 to the south of the island, but it was a little busy, at some point I could see there was a track running parallel along the road (I think it was the old road) so I took that instead. It started out well, but at some point I regretted my choice as one of the bridges had washed away and I had to carry my bike over a river and beyond that the track was non existent, so I was pushing my bike through a bog. I eventually rejoined the main highway, but I had seen another possible off-road section on my map. I wanted to see the interior of the island. I could see from the start of the track that it was going to be impossible to ride my bike on it, but as it was just 10km to cross the ridge, I decided to push my bike. It started off very steep and overgrown but it became easier as I got higher up. There was gentle rain and mist and lots of frogs. There were a couple of big rivers to cross on the way down the other side, but once I reached Loch Ba I could cycle again. I saw a track heading off in another direction and I thought it looked nice, but as it wasn't heading towards Tobemory I decided not to take it, maybe next time I will do an investigation to see where it leads. It was a relatively easy ride from the end of Loch Ba to Tobemory. I took another detour off the main road at the end along some easy forestry tracks and ended up on the hill above Tobemory where there was a nice camp site. I decided to pay so I could have a shower as I felt like I needed it after spending a good part of the day pushing my bike through bogs. Tobemory was a nice town, I cycled down in the evening and had a fish and chips from a van on the harbour which was excellent.

In the morning I got up early and got the Ferry to Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. The road along the Peninsula was great, since its a dead end there wasn't much traffic and there were good views. I stopped to get a coffee in a small village called Salen where the road met the A861. Heading north on the A861 was nice and there were good views out across the various Lochs. At some point you meet the A830 which is the road to Mallaig. This road was very busy and not good to cycle on, but luckily it was just a short stretch to Arisaig where there was a alternative route closer to the coast. This part of the coast seemed very popular with tourists and there were many huge motorhomes and camper vans everywhere. The beaches looked quite nice, but not tempting enough to stop as it was quite grey and windy and busy with people sheltering behind vehicles trying to look like they were on a seaside holiday. I arrived in Mallaig in time to get a Ferry to the Isle of Skye. Just outside the ferry terminal in Armadale I found a nice camping spot by a beach, there was a small stream running down to the sea and I could hear the waves crashing on the shore. I had a dinner on the beach and could see an otter playing on the rocks in the distance.

Cycling across Skye was relatively easy, there weren't too many options for diversions from the main roads which were relatively busy. I took a diversion on a closed road around the coast at some point. There had been a landslide so the road was closed to cars, but it was possible to pass the landslide carefully on a bike. At Silgachan everyone was busy taking photos of the Cuillin mountains, which you couldn't really see as they were covered in cloud. I continued east on a quieter road towards Dunvegan, but I didn't do the full loop round as I was tired and wanted to get to Uig to catch the ferry to the Outer Hebrides. In the end it was quite an easy day and I arrived in Uig with plenty of time to spare. I spent some time exploring a rainforest area by the river there and got fish and chips before getting on the ferry. On the ferry it started to rain heavily and as we approached Harris the visibility got less and less, I had a rough idea to try and go out to a small island called Scalpaigh where I had heard there was a bothy. But as I was cycling out of Tarbet I could see it was getting windier and windier so I decided that it was a bit silly going out to a very exposed area to try and find shelter. So I decided to retreat a bit back towards Tarbet and put my tent up in a spot that seemed reasonably sheltered. However, shortly after putting it up it started to get windier and windier and rain even more heavily, soon the ground where I had camped (which previously had seemed quite solid) started to become a bog and it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to sleep as my tent was making so much noise with the wind. I waited for a while, but it wasn't getting any better and at some point around 1AM I packed everything up and cycled back to the town and ended up sleeping in a bus shelter for a few hours until just after it got light.

It was still raining and windy the next day, fortunately I had already booked a hostel in Stornoway so I knew I had somewhere dry to get to. I wasn't getting much rest in my bus shelter (it was draft and not that dry) so I decided to get going early. The road north starts out with a big hill, I think it would have had good views, but there was way too much cloud to see anything. To make things worse, on the way down the hill the tyre in my back wheel ripped. It had been a new tyre and I'm not sure what caused it to rip. Luckily I was able to do an emergency repair on the side of the road with a tyre boot (small piece of flexible plastic) and I was able to continue on my way. I had no idea how well my emergency repair would hold up, so I took the most direct route to Stornoway I could (which wasn't my plan as there was a more scenic route I had wanted to take). Luckily the tyre held up and I arrived in Stornoway and found a cafe and did some research on bike shops. As it turned out there was a very efficient bike shop, so I was able to get a new tyre straight away. The hostel was very well setup for cyclists (there are many as the Hebridean way is a very popular route) and I could dry my stuff and have a shower and it was good to sleep in a bed. I stayed there for two nights as I needed a bit of time to recover.

I ended up not making the effort to get to the Butt of Lewis. It was a relatively flat 40km ride from Stornoway. The way there would have been easy due to the tail wind, but the way back would have been hard and as I wanted to rest I decided just to hang out in the town instead. I left the morning the next day, on the first ferry to Ullapool. From Ullapool I was planning to follow the HT550 route down to Fort Augustus where I could pick up the Badger Divide route which would take me back to Glasgow. The first part of the HT550 out of Ullapool was quite tough as it was on a steep rocky footpath, but once over the hill there were some nice smooth gravel roads and after another bit of walking up a hill the road through Alladale Wilderness Reserve was very nice. This was the only day of the whole trip where there was a good amount of sun and it felt like summer. I met a guy in the evening who had been out climbing up Munros and he told me of a good camping spot by a river close to Garve.

After refueling at the village shop in Contin the route headed up another estate track towards Loch Orrin. This track started out easy, but at the top there were lots of puddles which are totally black and you can never see the bottom of them, so its hard to judge if you should try to cycle through them or not. The road down from these hills towards Struy was very rough and it was good to have a nice smooth stretch of tarmac at the bottom of the valley heading towards Cannich. The next hill was a big one and it was my plan to get over it and find somewhere to camp close to Fort Augustus on the other side. At the top of the hill the track just finished at a Loch and the way to continue was pushing around the rocky shore of the Loch. It was quite tricky to find a path through the boulders and rocks here, but once around the Loch there was a huge wind farm with lots of building activities so there was a well maintained track to follow down to Invermoriston. I camped in the woods just outside Fort Augustus.

The next day I wanted to get some good breakfast because I knew there was going to be allot of climbing up the Corrieyairack Pass. I found a cafe and had a veggie breakfast and stocked up with energy bars in the petrol station. The climb up the pass wasn't difficult but it was quite long. I didn't see anyone else going up. The road is one of General Wade's military roads built in the 18th century to help the British army move troops around the Highlands. At the top it was cloudy and there was an array of huge electricity pylons. The decent down the other side was very rough and ready, basically just controlled falling and there were lots of stream crossings and drainage ditches to cross. As I was going down I met a guy going up, he had left Glasgow the evening before and was trying to do the whole of the badger divide in one day. There were also a couple of groups of guided tours who had just finished their lunch and were heading up the pass. The next part of the route was very nice, relatively flat estate tracks around various small Lochs heading towards Corourr station. It was quite damp, but the clouds added to the atmosphere. I arrived at the station in the evening, there is a good restaurant there, which I had been hearing stories about so I decided to stop and get dinner. I had Macaroni cheese and a beer and it was excellent. The staff at the bar said there would be no problem if I decided to camp outside the station, and as it had stopped raining when I finished my dinner I decided to do that.

I was aiming to get to Killin the next day. The road was quite hilly but scenic and there were some nice views of Loch Rannoch and the Black Wood of Rannoch. I had my sites set on a Tearoom in Glen Lyon, but when I arrived it was closed (specifically on Wednesdays and I was there on a Wednesday). So I had to continue without coffee. At Killin I found a supermarket and found a good camp site by a small Loch in the woods on the way to Callander.

The next day I was planning to get to Glasgow. I had a good breakfast in Callander and then headed down the cycle path towards Aberfoyle. It felt like here I was back in more relative civilization, there were lots more people out and about (even though it was raining) and the cycle path was well sign posted (At this point the Badger Divide follows the Eurovelo 1) The last part of the route was along the west highland way into Milngavie. There were lots of people with big heavy back packs heading out in the opposite direction, I don't envy them. Eventually I reached the train station in Milngavie and got the to Glasgow central and then back to Stewarton where everything had started.