Cycling UK Forum

Anyone travelling in the Western Isles area, be aware of this bus:
http://www.road-to-the-isles.org.uk/wes ... flyer.html

I used it a couple of years ago. At that time, it was a one-man business, running Oban-Mallaig and back once a day. He drives a mini-bus, with a substantial closed trailer that can carry bikes & luggage.

Although both Oban and Mallaig have rail connections, they are at the ends of different branches, so if you're trying to complete a circle, this bus link can be very efficient. And the new service advertised on the site shows that you can get the bus all the way too/from Uig on Skye.

If you go all the way to Stornoway and get the ferry back to Ullapool, there's a bike/bus service run by Tim Dearman coaches that will take you to Inverness.

Mary

Stella wrote:
The Outer Hebrides is exactly what I'm looking for in terms of natural beauty, amentities, climate (hopefully!) and size.

Well, if you're there at the back end of August you might see my wife and me on our recumbent tourers: do say hello!
The main problem, aside from getting there of course, is probably that in the words of a friend who's been there and who's wife spent some time on medical placements there, is that there's pretty much nothing to do if the weather's cack. Obviously that hasn't put us off, but do bear it in mind.

My biggest fear is getting stranded or lost between A and B in the middle of nowhere, but each isle or region is small enough to make it a non-issue.

There just aren't enough roads to get lost! it also means you're unlikely to be stranded, since all the roads are effectively "main", so you'll quickly be found if you have some mechanical disaster, and I would be surprised if not helped.

The main difficulty for me is the logistics of getting there in the first place! It looks like the Caledonian Sleeper to Glasgow (there aren't any options available for anywhere closer to the coast), the earliest of which I can get is the start of September, and then a train to Oban might be my best bet unless anyone else has another option? Then ferry to Barra hopscotching north up South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis, ferry to Mallaig and train back to Glasgow. For a newbie, is it doable within a week?

The ferry to Mallaig goes out to Skye, so you'd have to cross Skye from Uig (where you'd get from Tarbert), so you'll have to figure an extra 50 miles in, or wangle a ride on a bus (probably not impossible). But even with the extra you're well under 200 miles, and you can cut short easily by not going much past Tarbert or catching a bus on Skye. That should be well within what's possible in a week, and the bail out option at Tarbert makes it almost certain.

(I've yet to ask my boss for the time off!) I would love to visit Skye too but it depends whether I can cram another day on top.

if you're going to go back to Mallaig I think you'll have to. The Stornoway ferry goes to Ullapool.

The visit.scotland website indicates that the Outer Hebrides routes are for road cycling, so I presume I won't miss anything by bringing my Trek road bike with slick tyres? It has no suspension, and the London roads are a pretty bumpy ride on it.

Well, that depends... we're planning to stick to the roads but there should be no shortage of tracks if you fancy that too. If by "road bike" you mean racer I'd put fatter tyres on for touring (say, minimum 28, max 38 mm) and you'll want some means of carrying luggage, preferably that isn't a rucksack. Mudguards are worth having too, unless you like being sprayed with dirty water any time the road is wet...

HTH, Pete.

just got back off of my weeks holiday....

cycled a bit some days were easy others a bit harder.....i went up the west coast of scotland and back down.

General hit list

day 1. Skye.
Train to mallaig, ferry to armadale and cycled to kyleakin

Day 2. Skye to Applecross
up round lochcarron, over to kismore and up over the pass to Applecross

Day 3. Torridon
Round The Applecross peninsula up past sheildig to Torridon

Day 4. Loch Marree
Torridon, via kinlochewe, Gairloch Poolewe to Laide

Day 5. Ullapool
laide to Stornoway via Ullapool

Day 6. lewis adn harris
Stornoway via Callanish to South Harris

Day 7. Uists
South Harris to Lochboisdale via North Uist and Benbecula

Day 8. Home
Ferry from Lochboisdale to Oban, Bus to Glasgow train to Edinburgh and straight to the pub.

When i get some pics and a proper story together i'll post some more.

few mechanical problems a bit of sun burn, a crash and new personal distance and speed records

Jamie

my friend ian and i are planning to cycle the hebrides in the spring from south to north. i had a post about this a few months ago and all you out there were very helpful about wild camping and pierhead showers. now i wonder, does anyone know how to get us and our bikes from ullapool back to tayside by public transport. there are no trains unless we cycle to inverness. does the bus take bikes? otherwise we will have to leave a car at the carpark near tesco in ullapool for the two weeks. we wonder how vulnerable it will be to theft/vandalism. probably not as vulnerable as a car left in a southern city, but nevertheless it will be there for quite a while. any ideas would be welcome...

Do you really want to cycle from Barra to the Butt and then the Butt to Barra? A journey of this distance could prove uncomfortable on a hired bike.
You might consider, taking the train with bike to Oban, and ferry to Castlebay.Return from Stornoway by ferry to Ullapool ,then take bus to Inverness and train from Inverness. Or cycle Ullapool to Inverness(approx 60 miles).
Confirm beforehand that bus company will carry your bike from Ullapool to Inverness.