Cycle Touring - Northern Scotland

Following on from our Hebridian adventures we swiftly embarked on the next leg from Ullapool around the coast to Thurso.

Here's a handy map of where we went.

The geology in the northwest was amazing, with huge slabs and volcanic plugs. Unfortunately unlike the Hebrides this means we had plenty of hills to climb!

Here's an extra-curricular one we climbed on foot. It's called Stac Pollaidh and it's a popular day-scramble. We camped at the bottom the night before. We woke up to a light but consistent pitter-patter on the tent, which we soon discovered was not rain but midges. Uggh.

I'm sure a derailer isn't supposed to look like this. Mark managed to salvage the chain and Sylvia had to limp along the last two days on a single gear.

The decommissioned Dounrae nuclear power station, which was the subject of a facinating museum. It provided (and the decommissioning process still provides) the majority of local employment. Mark was very excited by the chance to touch a real reactor core. The wind turbines in the background provide an interesting comparison.

Fencing Caithness style using flagstones. The quarrying of flagstones is also huge part of the local industry. We went to an open-air flagstone museum.

Thuso, where we ended up for the last three days. We planned to go to Orkney but instead did a little day trip out to Dunnet Head (the most northerly point in Britain).

A video case in our Thurso Hostel.

Cycle Touring - Outer Hebrides

We're briefly back in Edinburgh after Phase 1 of the cycle touring - up through the Outer Hebrides and around the northwest coast of Scotland. This post only covers the Hebridean leg but there will be more to follow.

This was at our first night's campsite. Hopefully not an omen?

Peat cutting is quite widespread in the islands - people cut the peat, stack it to dry, and then use it as fuel to heat their homes during the winter.

There are beautiful white sand beaches all up the west coast of the islands. A bit cold for a swim though.

I enjoyed it more than this photo suggests! Perhaps this was on the day we biked straight into a headwind all day. We were pretty lucky with the weather. In 2 1/2 weeks we didn't get any major rainfall (a few showers) except on the last day and that was a rest day anyway. We did battle headwinds a lot though.

We had some wonderful campsites. The long daylight hours were particularly noticeable in the tent - we could be happily reading inside by daylight at 11 pm. I only saw darkness one time in the whole trip, when I woke up at 2.30 am, and even then the sunrise was beginning.

The slightly undulating, sandy "machair" pasture that tends to lie behind the dunes along the west coast

Welcome to Barra airport - you're looking at it. Apparently it's the only airport in the world with a scheduled service that varies with the tides.

There were other people cycling through the Hebrides at the same time as us. These guys were also travelling south to north at about the same pace as us so we bumped into them frequently.

We camped every night in the Hebrides, except the night we stayed in this hostel (the nearest building). It's a restored "blackhouse" (typical crofter's home until the 20th century).

Carloway Broch - well preserved stone age defensive tower

Callanish Standing Stones

Training wheels

A few weeks back, Sylv and I did a "Training run" for cycle touring in Perthshire. Check out the orange sheep! We saw some of these in Ireland as well. Explanations welcome.