Cycling UK Forum

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Chatton Park Bunkhouse is an excellent independent hostel not far from Route 1 and is a good base for seeing some of the best of the northern part of the county. Be sure to visit Holy Island.

It's OK, the council has created a new river crossing for cyclists ...

The beauty of Scotland is that you can wild camp in a lot of places, including many areas on the Inner Hebrides. Apart from that, here are some suggestions: On Arran, there is a fairly basic site near Brodick, just off the road over to the west coast, and this is likely to be open. Also, the camp si...

Thinking about it, I guess the best approach in such circumstances is to stay polite and calm but insist that you have a valid ticket and bike reservation and therefore intend to stay put. Pointless, though, if you are standing on the platform!

Interesting points. But would, for example, a guard on an East Coast train in Edinburgh accept their word that they had been refused legitimate travel and allow them on without valid tickets? And what if all the bike places were taken?

The following happened to two friends of mine recently. After a week spent touring with me around Mull, they stayed a night B&B in Oban, having paid for tickets the next day to travel with ScotRail to Glasgow for their connection to Newcastle. They had also reserved places for their bikes in the...

Here's another option. When I set off to do the NSCR several years ago, I decided to miss out Sweden and get the Hirtshals to Kristiansand ferry. I stopped in the campsite at Kristiansand and the friendly manager there advised me that a much more interesting and scenic ride was to forget the coastal...

Has anybody ever attempted the rough track across the northern part of the Ardnamurchan peninsula? This would mean from Shiel Bridge, heading west and skirting Kentra Bay then maybe about 8 miles to the road at Ockle and south to the Kilchoan – Tobermory ferry. I've looked at this closely on the exc...

Thanks, I'll remember that for my next visit – maybe next year. My map is 7.5 miles to the inch which saved weight on carrying stuff but didn't give me enough detail to follow the very minor roads, so I ended up getting lost a few times (like a lot of others touring the Republic :? ). It's a pity th...

Well, I hope that both of you publish accounts of your tours so that I can get some ideas for my next visit in that direction!

That would have helped. I researched some info on the internet and marked some on my map but found it difficult to plan each day's ride to end up in the right place – strong winds etc. I guess I was optimistic in expecting to find sites spread out at nice intervals, but plan B was always to camp wil...

Map - I bought a Collins touring map of the whole of Ireland (north and south) before the tour and used it to plan a rough route. Unfortunately, it doesn't show campsites but the map which did was only for the Republic.

I always work out a rough route and never book anything in advance. Then, when I'm getting tired, I look out for a campsite sign and ask local people. The only real difficulties finding a site in Ireland was the north-west, but folk seem friendly enough to direct you to suitable places. I would have...

Hi jags, don't let me put you off, my tour last year wasn't as bad as it looks, it's just that it was wet and windy all the time I was in Ireland. Also, after years of traffic-free cycling in Europe, I wasn't ready for the Irish roads, so perhaps a bit over-critical – overall, it was a good tour (es...