Bike Touring Scotland

After returning from Iceland in mid-August, I had a 10 day break from bike touring before heading up to Scotland with my old friend Will.

The plan was roughly 3 weeks cycling north along the West Coast and islands, starting in Glasgow. My photo-taking was a bit lax on this trip, so some days I simply didn't take any (worth posting). Consequently, I will do this one a bit differently: one long post with lots of pictures and not much text.

Here goes!

We cycled straight out of Glasgow on an NCN route, to the coast, where we caught a ferry to Arran. We cooked dinner outside Brodick castle, then camped in its woods. It rained heavily that night and the following morning, so we booked it north to the Mull of Kintyre (via a ferry onto the mainland). This is the view from our second night's camp site, on a high headland near Killberry

People warned us about the midges in Scotland. We thought we were prepared, with bug head nets and insect repellent. 

Sunset from our private headland on the Mull of Kintyre. Wild camping is legal in Scotland, but not all the places we wild-camped were ones where it was legal ;-)

After Killberry, we spend two nights at Will's aunt Mary's house in Easedale, then biked to Oban, and took a ferry onto the isle of Mull. A half-day's cycle later, we got to Thomasleibhe, a bothy maintained for the free use of cyclists and walkers. 

Only 5 miles (and almost all rideable) from the road, it felt infinitely more isolated. We had the entire glacial valley and the basic but enjoyable accommodation of the bothy, completely to ourselves. It was so good we decided to eke out our food and stay two nights!  

The morning after arriving at Thomasleibhe, we hiked up the peak visible in the background of the previous photo, Beinn Taleidh. Unfortunately cloud swallowed the summit

Below the clouds. The bothy is just this side of the two tree plantations, from which we harvested several downed trees for the bothy's wood store.

Sunset on our second evening at Thomasleibhe. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, which we spent mostly sat against the outside wall of the bothy, reading.

From Thomasleibhe we continued cycling north-west on Mull, through Salen, and then round the north coast of Mull, which was hilly, but pretty. This is Calgary beach, which was beautiful but the weather had turned cold. 

We reached Tobermory in the late afternoon, and then took a ferry to the almost-nonexistent town of Kilchoan, and began looking for a spot to camp. We found this, just a couple hundred yards from the road. Oh Scotland, how you spoil us!

The following morning was showery and chilly, so we stopped for an overpriced (but worth it?) cream tea. By lunch it had cleared a bit. This is the slipway at Salen (not the same Salen as the one on Mull).  Our aim for the evening was another bothy, called Peanmeanach, so we continued on with pretty riding along Loch Ailort.

 After spotting the turning for Peanmeanach, we struggled with the bikes down an unrideable path, before ditching them and continuing on with our panniers. After doing1 of 3.5 miles to the bothy, we gave up and camped here, right next to the shore. We had a chilly dip in the sea before dinner. That night we almost had a great mishap, as the site we originally pitched the tent flooded as the tide rose! Thankfully we had thought better of our original site, but the water was still only feet from the tent. 

In the morning we battled our way back uphill with bags and bikes -- tiring and frustrating. Then continued north against a strong headwind, past Arisaig, and had lunch at this spot, on the so-called "Silver Sands of Morar." From there, we headed a inland to Loch Morar 

We were in search of a headland on the north side of the Loch, described as being a couple hundred feet from the path, and a half-day's-walk-for-a-9-year-old beyond the end of the road. This was the very spot, about 50 years earlier, where my dad, aged 11, led his younger brothers Chris and Nick on their first independent camping trip! It was exactly as described, if a half-day's-walk-for-a-9-year-old is only about 500m!

As they had, we pitched the tent right up on the headland, with sweeping views of the loch. We washed our clothes and ourselves in the chilly loch. While Will went for a run, I read my book and admired the view. The site was very midgy, but by this time, our midge-avoidance techniques had improved. Will's aunt had given us citronella incense, which we would burn in the entrance to the tent before getting in or out. With this technique, you might only let 10 or 20 midges inside each time!  

From Morar we biked to Mallaig where 1) Will bought two whole smoked kippers, and 2) we caught a ferry to Skye. Onboard, we ate very messy and odiferous kipper sandwiches, which drew a lot of looks. Then we biked north on Skye, aiming for yet another bothy, which we knew to be 2.5 miles from the road. We reached the trailhead late, around 6pm, but decided to try the trail and if it were too rough, camp alongside. It was indeed rough, and we pushed our bikes almost a mile, to the top of the ridge separating us from the bothy. Will managed to convince me several times to just keep going. 

It was worth it. We ditched the bikes at the ridge, and headed down on foot, accompanied by a stunning light show as the sun poked out from behind the racing clouds. 

This is the view from the bothy, Camisunary, which lies right on the coast, in a huge glacial valley, at the foot of the dramatic Cuillen Hills. That night we shared the bothy with a young chap named Harry. He had hiked, alone, over the Cuillens that day, in complete cloud cover, rain, and strong wind. Poor chap. For dinner, we made a surprisingly tasty pasta carbonara alla kipper! 

Yep, that's the bothy. In the morning, we decided to spend a second night there, so embarked on a hike in the Cuillens. We walked right along the coast on a path round the nearest headland. After warming up, we went for a quick dip in the ocean, then sunned ourselves dry (although it was perhaps a bit cold for that - some pushups were involved). 

The Cuillens are spectacularly beautiful with 1000m+ peaks rising straight out of the ocean, and we were blessed with the perfect weather. The day before, Harry saw none of this! For someone who loves mountains, and loves the sea, this was heaven. After our successful hike, we returned to the bothy, read on the beach, and collected driftwood for the fire. That afternoon, a friday, a constant stream of people arrived at the bothy. Some were forced to camp outside, but spent the evening inside. In total, there were 18 or so people -- now we realized why this bothy was described as "popular." Fair enough, the views are worth it! We spent the evening chatting and drinking other people's whisky, after claiming pole position in front of the fire. A different sort of bothy experience, for sure

The following morning, we hiked out, then got back on the bikes and finished the last of our food - two pieces of salami each. We then headed north, stocked up on food in Broadford, then looped around to the western coast of Skye. After a night there, we headed back east to Portree, then north to a campsite near Staffin. This was the only time we paid for accommodation in the 3 week trip. After a relaxing evening which included *gasp* a shower, the next morning we rose early and biked unloaded to the foot of the Quiraing.

The Quiraing are on the left of this photo...hidden in the mist. They are a series of around 20 grotesquely shaped volcanic rock towers, which in fact were well suited by the misty, mysterious atmosphere. We clambered around for 45 minutes before bombing back down to our campsite, packing up, and heading south. 

 INTERLUDE:

We had a few day's left of our planned 3 week trip, and had run out of Skye. Instead of continuing to the Outer Hebrides, we decided to head inland to the Highlands to finish off our trip. So, from Staffin, we biked all the way down Skye over the course of 24 hours, a distance which had taken us almost a week on the way up. Mind you, the previous time we had taken just about every detour possible, and spent two nights at Camisunary. Unfortunately, the northerly wind which we had been cycling against for two weeks chose this exact moment to turn southerly, so we still had a headwind! Nevertheless, the weather was just beautiful, and with views to match. We took the ferry back to Mallaig, then hung out for several hours before catching a train to Rannoch Station, one of the more desolate train stations in the UK.

We left Rannoch Station and rolled less than a mile downhill to a beautiful highland campsite.

 The following day was actually one of the best day's cycling of the trip. We had a tailwind, and sun, and the roads were almost devoid of cars -- which in contrast to the rather busy roads of the islands was fantastic. I didn't take very many photos that day, perhaps I was too busy enjoying life! The day encompassed loch-side riding, river-side riding, and two long climbs. We camped at the top of the second one, an exposed site next to the small Loch na Lairige. The strong wind meant for perhaps the first night's camping -- no midges!

The following morning we gave up our plan of climbing the 1200m Ben Lawers, as the cloud ceiling was too low. Instead we headed up the ridge on the other side of our camp, which was a much more modest peak, and mostly below the clouds so at times we did have views better than that shown above. Back at camp, we picked and ate delicious bilberries (a relative of blueberries)

 The ridge was, however, incredibly windy. Check out Will playing in the wind below.

After our hike, we had a roaring descent down to Loch Tay, and then biked along the loch for the afternoon. We lucked out and found this spectacular loch-side campsite, simply by following an unmarked but promising dirt track towards the loch. Ben Lawers is visible across the loch, just above Will's head. Our previous night's campsite is in the notch to the left of Ben Lawers.

The following morning we woke to rain, and a distinct chill in the air. We breakfasted and read in the tent until 11am before accepting that the rain would not stop. So we packed up and headed out. With driving rain and steady wind, we were soon very cold, but we had to do a minimum of 30 miles that day in order to make our train back at Rannoch Station the following day. We ate a shivering lunch at a bus shelter, jumping up and down, pretend boxing, and generally acting foolish in order to keep what little warmth we had left. We finally reached the long climb up to the shoulder of Schiehallion, and I can say I have never been so relieved to start up a big hill. We had both been fantasizing all day about how warm it would be! We camped on the other side of Schehallion, in an old quarry next to the road, and had a surprisingly tasty dinner of pasta with leek and creme fraiche. The following morning we cycled back to Rannoch station, made sandwiches in the station's visitor center, then hopped on a train back to Glasgow.

Overall, a superb trip with a good balance of hard days, easy days, lazy mornings, bothies, midge-management, views, swims, climbs, descents and strange food concoctions! It was also great to spend so much time with Will. We have known each other for about a decade, but there is nothing like spending 24 hours a day within 5 feet of someone for weeks on end to make sure you really do want to be friends with them!

Fin