This tale begins in mid June.
We left Montrose at around 8am after a nice cooked brekky and agreed our initial rough plan and headed out for our ferry at Oban via various back roads to Dunkeld then turned off just before the Sma Glen and up over the wee unclassified on the back road to Kenmore.
It was pouring with rain at this point.
Then the usual road on the north side of Loch Tay onwards to the Green Welly for a well-deserved hot cuppy and bacon roll. (We like our food).
We had made good time and decided with the spare time to go down the B840 along the south side of Loch Awe. By the way that is a long loch!!
This is a pleasant enough road on the GS, but might not be my choice on a sports bike.
Now it was still peeing down and when we got to the end, common sense would have said pick up the main road (A816) south of Oban and travel up this.
But oh no for some masochistic reason that escapes me now we decided to go up the other side of Loch Awe and cut across about halfway up towards Oban and pass by Loch Avich.
From north side of Lock Awe, rain was starting to ease.
This was one of these it is only x miles on the map but took a great deal longer than we expected. Again not a bad wee road for the GS but dreadful for a sportsbike IMO.
In terms of the bikes we had all BMWs. There was an RT and two GSs. We all had good HG gear and given the sometimes monsoon like conditions we were all still dry by the time we got to Oban.
On the topic of gear my waterproof gloves had in recent past shown some leakage. So I bought one of these small Nikwax “proofing” bottles and done some treatment before this journey. I can report worked well. So £5 well spent, and still loads left.
Now at Oban we booked in with the ferry people. We had gone for one of the “Island Hopper” type deals.
Flat calm the whole way over, perfect.
Plan was Barra, Uist, Lewis, and then down the west coast of Scotland.
As it turned out that was to be our last day of rain, there was the odd misty morning on the Isles but in the main the rest of the trip was dry and indeed at times warm and sunny.
If I do this trip again I would probably take an extra day or two in Lewis-Harris.
It was a really relaxing trip, nice food, pleasant area and for those who might not have considered I would strongly recommend a trip to Lewis-Harris as a must do run at some point in your list of biking trips to do.
As I said we did Barra first arriving on a Sunday, then over each day worked up to Lewis this worked well with all the connecting ferries we had pre-booked.
Few photos from the Isles-
The war memorial on Barra, the main village Castlebay where we landed is in the distance.
Taxi to South Uist
Parked up on a beach on Uist. Looking south that is Barra in the distance.
Bit of a heave ho over the dunes to get there.
Uist has two hills, this is them!
Go on you know you want one.
One of these “just watch the world go by” moments.
Outside our hotel in Uist, fine wee harbour.
Lucky us the weather was clear enough to see the St Kilda Islands 45 miles away. By the way not the wee lumps on the right.
The golf club is built into the side of the hill. The beach in the background was voted in the top 5 of the world.
Looking over to the hills of Harris.
Popped up to the far away cliff in search of Sea Eagles. – nae luck.
Calanais Standing stones – built some 2000 years before Stonehenge.
An interesting juxtaposition – the old and the new but what will be standing in next 1000 years?
Also looked at other ancient monuments.
The old black houses.
Back on the Mainland –
When we returned to the mainland at Ullapool we travelled south to Applecross via Loch Broom, Loch Torridon… Crikey this for me was a great road and another one of those must do roads, be it in either direction.
On the back road to Applecross with Skye in the distance.
So popped through Applecross, it was packed with bikes, up the hill took in the viewpoint then carried on down the Bealach na Ba after the mandatory photos on the top.
Then across to Skye via the bridge to Broadford and from there a road down to the south of the island to Armadale for a ferry to Mallaig.
Managed to get a puncture on this part of the run– but sorted at the hotel in Morar.
This is10 pm at Morar. That is Mull in the distance. Funny that but beer seems so much better sitting outside on an evening like this.
The following day we went out to the lighthouse at Ardnamuchan. Now that I have done it rest assured doubt I’ll do it again for a while. Highlight of this section was watching two lads on quads with 9 sheep dogs bring a massive flock off the hill in a controlled manner. I was so mesmerised that I forgot to get a video clip. I applauded them as they went past. Masters at work.
Wee break in Strontian here it was actually hot. Yet another gem of a road was the A861 one of those “if Carlsberg did biking roads” a serious hoot.
Then we took our last ferry of the trip at Corran to Ardour ferry to get us back onto the A82 and up through Glencoe on to Killin, Dunkeld and again various back roads to Montrose.
Fair enjoyed it, lucky with the weather, and got to see a part of Scotland that is truly majestic.:scotsman
We left Montrose at around 8am after a nice cooked brekky and agreed our initial rough plan and headed out for our ferry at Oban via various back roads to Dunkeld then turned off just before the Sma Glen and up over the wee unclassified on the back road to Kenmore.
It was pouring with rain at this point.
Then the usual road on the north side of Loch Tay onwards to the Green Welly for a well-deserved hot cuppy and bacon roll. (We like our food).
We had made good time and decided with the spare time to go down the B840 along the south side of Loch Awe. By the way that is a long loch!!
This is a pleasant enough road on the GS, but might not be my choice on a sports bike.
Now it was still peeing down and when we got to the end, common sense would have said pick up the main road (A816) south of Oban and travel up this.
But oh no for some masochistic reason that escapes me now we decided to go up the other side of Loch Awe and cut across about halfway up towards Oban and pass by Loch Avich.
From north side of Lock Awe, rain was starting to ease.
This was one of these it is only x miles on the map but took a great deal longer than we expected. Again not a bad wee road for the GS but dreadful for a sportsbike IMO.
In terms of the bikes we had all BMWs. There was an RT and two GSs. We all had good HG gear and given the sometimes monsoon like conditions we were all still dry by the time we got to Oban.
On the topic of gear my waterproof gloves had in recent past shown some leakage. So I bought one of these small Nikwax “proofing” bottles and done some treatment before this journey. I can report worked well. So £5 well spent, and still loads left.
Now at Oban we booked in with the ferry people. We had gone for one of the “Island Hopper” type deals.
Flat calm the whole way over, perfect.
Plan was Barra, Uist, Lewis, and then down the west coast of Scotland.
As it turned out that was to be our last day of rain, there was the odd misty morning on the Isles but in the main the rest of the trip was dry and indeed at times warm and sunny.
If I do this trip again I would probably take an extra day or two in Lewis-Harris.
It was a really relaxing trip, nice food, pleasant area and for those who might not have considered I would strongly recommend a trip to Lewis-Harris as a must do run at some point in your list of biking trips to do.
As I said we did Barra first arriving on a Sunday, then over each day worked up to Lewis this worked well with all the connecting ferries we had pre-booked.
Few photos from the Isles-
The war memorial on Barra, the main village Castlebay where we landed is in the distance.
Taxi to South Uist
Parked up on a beach on Uist. Looking south that is Barra in the distance.
Bit of a heave ho over the dunes to get there.
Uist has two hills, this is them!
Go on you know you want one.
One of these “just watch the world go by” moments.
Outside our hotel in Uist, fine wee harbour.
Lucky us the weather was clear enough to see the St Kilda Islands 45 miles away. By the way not the wee lumps on the right.
The golf club is built into the side of the hill. The beach in the background was voted in the top 5 of the world.
Looking over to the hills of Harris.
Popped up to the far away cliff in search of Sea Eagles. – nae luck.
Calanais Standing stones – built some 2000 years before Stonehenge.
An interesting juxtaposition – the old and the new but what will be standing in next 1000 years?
Also looked at other ancient monuments.
The old black houses.
Back on the Mainland –
When we returned to the mainland at Ullapool we travelled south to Applecross via Loch Broom, Loch Torridon… Crikey this for me was a great road and another one of those must do roads, be it in either direction.
On the back road to Applecross with Skye in the distance.
So popped through Applecross, it was packed with bikes, up the hill took in the viewpoint then carried on down the Bealach na Ba after the mandatory photos on the top.
Then across to Skye via the bridge to Broadford and from there a road down to the south of the island to Armadale for a ferry to Mallaig.
Managed to get a puncture on this part of the run– but sorted at the hotel in Morar.
This is10 pm at Morar. That is Mull in the distance. Funny that but beer seems so much better sitting outside on an evening like this.
The following day we went out to the lighthouse at Ardnamuchan. Now that I have done it rest assured doubt I’ll do it again for a while. Highlight of this section was watching two lads on quads with 9 sheep dogs bring a massive flock off the hill in a controlled manner. I was so mesmerised that I forgot to get a video clip. I applauded them as they went past. Masters at work.
Wee break in Strontian here it was actually hot. Yet another gem of a road was the A861 one of those “if Carlsberg did biking roads” a serious hoot.
Then we took our last ferry of the trip at Corran to Ardour ferry to get us back onto the A82 and up through Glencoe on to Killin, Dunkeld and again various back roads to Montrose.
Fair enjoyed it, lucky with the weather, and got to see a part of Scotland that is truly majestic.:scotsman
Used to camp at a weavers house in Shawbost. His sister did the laundry for people staying. Superb rideout you had there! 
