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