NI to Scottish Western Isles 10 Ferries 67mpg

[Noel McCutcheon]

Trip renewed my interest in the bike, the bike and the trip were both superb… Destination Isle of Lewis & Harris (Calanais Standing Stones) Northern Stonehenge 

 

1st Day 06/06/2023 departed Belfast Port 11:30 Ferry to Cainryan, Scotland.

 

North Coast road via Ayr to Ardrossan 1 hour ferry crossing

16:15 to Isle of Arron (Brodick). Nice coast road north on Arron up to for 18:25 ferry Lochranza

 

For (Isles of Argile & Bute) Clanonaig, to head north to Tarbert, Lochgilphead

 

 

Fuelled up then onwards north to Kilmartin, Ford, up the top single track side of Loch Awe through Dalavich, onto classy Taychreggan Hotel at Kilchrenan

 

 

sea-bass dinner, burnt fire pit and supped whiskey at edge of loch to 1:30am.

 

Day 2 Oban Ferry 13:10 out to Barra (Castlebay) dolphins jumping across ferry, napped, eat and met cool cyclist couple.

 

 

Arrived on Isle of Barra about 6pm and rode to Campsite at north near the beach runway Barra Airport.

 

 

Feed by nice German couple at campsite.

 

 

Slept by and under the bike. 

 

Day 3: 11:10 Ferry to Isle of Eriskay, rode across the nice causeway roads north onto the isles of South & North Uist then

 

Got the Berneray Ferry to Leverburgh (South Harris), fuelled up, headed north taking in the class scenery, no golf clubs with me .

 

 

Passed the omg best unspoilt natural golden beaches that I’ve ever seen!

 

 

Carried on ride north on Isle of Lewis & Harris onto Stornoway (Royal Hotel) for the night.

 

Day 4: Rode a single-track road west over to Callanish (> 4k years old) Site,

 

Calanais Standing Stones

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Roam among the megaliths at one of Scotland's most magnificent Neolithic monuments.

 

Then rode north to Blackhouse village and back east to Stornoway for 14:00 Ferry to Ullapool.

 

I refuelled up and rode NC 500 route south to

 

Applecross, via class coast road

 

 

to

 

 

(See deer on beach) Applecross campsite pod for the night. 

 

 

Day 5: Out from Applecross east over the Mountain Pass switch back hairpins 

 

 

Onto Lochcarron for lunch, refuelled up. Did a relaxing easy ride from main Skye road east onto Invergarry, Fortwilliam, Oban

refuelled again, 8.5 litres for 150 miles that is an awesome 80mpg.

 

Then east in land onto stay at quint quirky Dalmally Train Station accommodation. (Watch video in embedded link below)

 

Dalmally Railway Station – Travel to another world!

 

Day 6: Left Dalmally Station 9am to the near by Duncan MacIntyre monument then onto Oban and south A816, Kilmartin, Tarbet lunch &

 

13:00 Ferry to Portavadie, onto Dunoon Ferry to Gourock rode south staying coastal to catch the 19:30 Cainryan ferry back to Belfast.

 

All with CoPilot Nav App on iPhone linked to Cardo intercom and rear tyre still legal 

 

Brilliant 10 ferries, super 6 day trip about 1200 miles with an average 67mpg even after dicing with Multistrada and fast single track riding….

All class. 

 

[Alan M]

Making me jealous, I done the west coast route the last couple of years and like you, got lucky with the weather.

 

The beaches are amazing on the west coast and the roads are perfect for the T7………….just need to watch out for the occasional gravel patch on the corners. 

[Noel McCutcheon]

47 minutes ago, Alan M said:

Making me jealous, I done the west coast route the last couple of years and like you, got lucky with the weather.

 

The beaches are amazing on the west coast and the roads are perfect for the T7………….just need to watch out for the occasional gravel patch on the corners. 

True Alan… Cheers. Of course, envy is grand, lol and envy is so much better than jealous but I know exactly what you mean. It was great on western isles, very natural, weather made it exceptionally good.  Lovely place. . Yeah, spray and chip (loose stones) on some single track roads but stand up and the standard tyres semi ok on gravel, brilliant in general. Agree Tenere ideal machine, as long as sole / one up. Loved it

[Rossy NI]

Looks a great trip!

[Noel McCutcheon]

1 minute ago, Rossy NI said:

Looks a great trip!

island hopping was great, it was a class trip 

Day 1 route . 

[Lewie]

That looks a great ride

something I’d like but Europe is so close to me 

[Noel McCutcheon]

7 minutes ago, Lewie said:

That looks a great ride

something I’d like but Europe is so close to me 

Yeah. Weather is big factor Scotland wise, I saw a rare opportunity and I went for it.The  Western Isles were fabulous, excellent and unspoilt gems. I loved all the ferry crossing for time out, planning routes, booking accommodation and charging things and refuelling me

[chadio]

Excellent pics and story of your trip!!!

 

Thank you for taking the time to share with us 

[Noel McCutcheon]

On 6/21/2023 at 2:49 PM, chadio said:

Excellent pics and story of your trip!!!

 

Thank you for taking the time to share with us 

 

Thank you for the thanks. I'm still benefiting from having done both the trip and the sharing.

Cheers

[Bergtinn]

Thanks for sharing, looks awesome!

[Noel McCutcheon]

1 hour ago, Bergtinn said:

Thanks for sharing, looks awesome!

 

Cool thanks. It was great, I got amazing weather.

 

I’ve now changed rear rack from 12kg Yamaha one to a light alloy Adventure Spec kit.

 

 

[DT700]

Looks like a great trip. Beautiful part of the world. Drove a while back from Glasgow to Campbeltown and remember wishing I were on a bike the whole time.

[Noel McCutcheon]

12 hours ago, DT700 said:

Looks like a great trip. Beautiful part of the world. Drove a while back from Glasgow to Campbeltown and remember wishing I were on a bike the whole time.

Yeah,

so enjoyable, especially in the amazing June weather that I grasped/  got . I'd do similar again.