After a tumultuous few months/years, I quit my job this summer and took myself off for a little adventure. I wanted a mind reset in a beautiful place without it costing the earth (financially or in terms of carbon footprint). A month-long solo journey by bike around some of the islands off the west coast of Scotland seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Whilst I didn’t keep a diary, along the way I scribbled notes of the best and worst bits of each day – this blog is based on those scribblings.
Although I knew I’d mostly be riding on road, I wanted the flexibility to explore and head off-road at times. So I put lightweight cyclocross tyres which would cope with gentle rough stuff on Trixie, my battered Specialized Tricross, and loaded her up with a little luggage as I thought I could get away with: a one-person tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag, a change of clothes, bike repair and first aid kits, a midge net, a cooking stove and pan and plenty of snacks and coffee bags!
Over 26 days I visited 23 islands (plus one otherwise inaccessible peninsula), took 28 ferry rides (which in total cost me just under £140), cycled 912 miles, camped fourteen nights and stayed in five hostels, two bothies, one abandoned house, one kind person’s house and one hotel. The following posts summarise my adventure.
Best bits: – Waking up to amazing view from Lookout Bothy and dolphin watching as I cleaning my teeth – Finding a lovely place to camp on Raasay…finally
Worst bits: – Losing the key to my small bike lock (luckily not whilst it was locked to the bike) – Tired legs hiking the bike over the rough track towards Hallaig when I didn’t know if there would be a suitable place to camp
The sleeping platform in the Lookout Bothy is opposite the large windows so I woke up as dawn was breaking to a view out from Rubha Hunish across to the Outer Hebrides. Of course, I then had to manhandle Trixie back down the track towards the road, wearing a headnet as the midges were out but once I made it to a point where I could ride rather than walk I soon left them behind.
It was a beautiful morning and, despite there being more traffic on Skye than I’d experienced in the last couple of weeks, I still enjoyed cycling down the east coast in the sunshine. The sun came out and I stopped for vegan ice cream in Portree before heading on to Sconser for the ferry over to Raasay.
The new Raasay distillery is right by the ferry and there was a tour about to happen as I arrived. So I joined the tour to learn a bit more about whisky and gin distilling, before heading out to find a camp spot. An interesting looking road headed east, petering into a track which I thought might be cycleable. I followed the road, which featured some sharp hills. I could already feel the miles of the previous few days in my legs and hoped that I might find a nice quiet camp spot sooner rather than later.
Whilst the track was originally cycleable, soon it wasn’t and I was hiking Trixie along a rutted path surrounded by ferns and nettles. I began to wonder whether I would find somewhere suitable to camp or whether I should turn around. But then I rounded a corner and there was a clearing by a cairn marking the site of the former village of Hallaig, the perfect spot to camp.
Hallaig was one of numerous settlements whose inhabitants were cruelly forced to leave their homes by Victorian landlords who decided that sheep were more profitable occupants than people. It’s sobering to think that, whilst most of Britain has a much bigger population than in the 19th century, many of the islands I visited are now far less populated than they would have been then. Although the quiet wilderness of these places is fabulous, it was partially created through people’s misery.
Best bits: – Serendipidous routing by my Garmin over a nice gravel road – Skinny-dipping by a waterfall – Finding the ‘old road’ off the side of the main road on the way to Armadale
Worst bits: – Not having enough time to ride the whole of ‘Calum’s Road’ – Tired legs making me want to not ride too far
For the second morning in a row I woke up to a nice sunrise view over the sea, this time from the door of my tent. After breakfast I bumped my way back from my wild camp spot to the road and headed to see a bit more of Raasay before heading back to Skye.
Until the 1960s there was no road to the north of Raasay, meaning that people who lived that side of the island had to walk or take a boat to get around. Despite continued pleas, there didn’t seem to be any chance that the authorities would put in a road. So one local man bought a second-hand book on road building and took matters into his own hands, spending a decade building Calum’s Road to provide a much needed link. Sadly I didn’t have time to ride Calum’s Road, though a went to the start of it. To be honest, I would like to have spent a bit more time on Raasay but I was mindful of ferry schedules – I wanted to head to the Small Isles next, and with ferries only going to certain islands on certain days I needed to make sure I made it to Mallaig to get the ferry on to Rum the next day. A return to Raasay in the future is definitely on the cards.
I arrived back on Skye late morning and almost immediately was annoyed by the traffic on the A87. Whilst the traffic wasn’t bad by normal standards, it was much more than I’d been used to on other islands, with considerably less courteous drivers, many of them close-passing me in camper vans. So when my Garmin suggested a route across an unpaved road to cut off a corner I was happy to follow its suggestion.
It was a very scenic route – the gravel track went uphill with heather on both sides and even up the middle. And partway through there was a lovely waterfall with a perfect dipping hole. The sun was shining and no-one was around so I couldn’t resist a quick swim in the refreshing water.
I planned to stay at the hostel near Armadale, ready to get the first ferry to Mallaig the next morning. I was pleased to find the remains of the old single track road towards Armadale alongside the newer, wider route, which made a great, if slightly overgrown, cycle path. Nonetheless, I had tired legs and I was pleased to reach the hostel and get some rest.
365 days of adventure 