Critique my Scottish Tour Route

[FifeingEejit]

And there's the option of the Kylerhea ferry to get from Skye to the mainland.

Good point, Mam Ratagan is way more insteresting than the Col d' Skeh Bridge

[IanDG]

Have you been to the Hebrides before? 
IMO the spinal Hebridean Way misses some of the best riding there.  It's hard to come up with circular routes, but it's all stunning enough to ride out and back.  Harris is also worth a full circle, the contrast between West and East coasts is stark, I did a little reading on the clearances before going, the scenery put it into context.
My advice would be to cover a smaller area and explore it more thoroughly. There's probably 400+ miles of touring just in the Hebrides.
Whatever you do will be good, I just have some regrets about missing parts of an area toured which I can't now visit unless I retrace a lot of the original tour.

It becomes monotonous after a while   

Seriously though (as Paul says) - the "Golden Road" and "dead-end" out and back roads on Lewis and Harris are worth exploring if you have the time. Ticking off the Hebridean Way will give you a feel for the islands and maybe entice you back for a longer tour.

[bobb]

This tour is now officially ON! Just booked a train for me plus bike from London to Glasgow on the 23rd May 

Edit: A bargain at 35 quid!

[Mr Q]

Looks a great adventure. I see you have gone for route 7 through the Cairngorms national park with a wee visit up Cairngorm. I suggest a nicer route down to Perth is head to Tomintoul from Grantown on Spey. Continue south over to Corgarff then Crathie to Braemar. Plenty of fuelling opportunities there. Then continue south through Glenshee to Perth.

My suggested route is hillier but is one of the best routes in Scotland.

[SpaceBadger]

I hope you have a great time. You probably don’t have much of an option, but the road on Skye east of Portree is the worst road I have ever cycled on for frequent, fast close-pass traffic. My recommendation, if not too late, is to get off of it asap and take the road to the ferry rather than the bridge.

It’s a road I will never cycle again. If you go that way, I hope you have a better experience.

[bobb]

Looks a great adventure. I see you have gone for route 7 through the Cairngorms national park with a wee visit up Cairngorm. I suggest a nicer route down to Perth is head to Tomintoul from Grantown on Spey. Continue south over to Corgarff then Crathie to Braemar. Plenty of fuelling opportunities there. Then continue south through Glenshee to Perth.

My suggested route is hillier but is one of the best routes in Scotland.

I hope you have a great time. You probably don’t have much of an option, but the road on Skye east of Portree is the worst road I have ever cycled on for frequent, fast close-pass traffic. My recommendation, if not too late, is to get off of it asap and take the road to the ferry rather than the bridge.

It’s a road a will never cycle again. If you go that way, I hope you have a better experience.

Cheers!

The route I unitially posted is just a very rough outline of where I want to go. I am starting to plan in more detail now - taking in the advice from everybody here!

[Wowbagger]

I'm assuming that Spacebadger means the A87 south of Portree to the bridge via Broadford.

Our experience is probably not that relevant as when we went, there were massive road works along there and a convoy system in operation. It seemed that when the road was originally built it was probably done on the cheap and where it crossed what I assume to be a peat bog, it sunk. We were also there in early April (apart from the first day, we had fantastic weather, astonishingly warm and sunny) so maybe there wasn't so much traffic about as there is likely to be in the summer.

I would recommend this coast road though as an alternative to the A87. It was virtually empty and utterly beautiful. A few extra miles, but worth every pedal stroke.

[bhoot]

We cycled from Uig to Armadale about 4 years ago, breaking the trip at Broadford overnight. My recollection is that Uig to Portree was fine on the main road. But after that it was not a fun experience, not helped by increasing rain and wind, but the traffic would have been grim in any weather.
Wow's suggestion is seconded, we took that road as an escape from the main road and it was beautiful, but the tarmac seemed to be vanishing! It would make a great cycle only through route with a little maintenance.

[FifeingEejit]

Check the coast roads status I believe there is or has been a big chunk of part of it missing.

Ive ridden the a87 from Kyle to Broadford before in summer and found it to be fine.
It was early evening, Phishing doon and most of the traffic was going the other way.

Broadford to Portree wasn't too bad the next day except I was crawling due to a stiff head wind, and I was riding  with the tourist traffic. Maybe it got worse later, I went via the quaraing to Ùig for the ferry

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk

[SpaceBadger]

I'm assuming that Spacebadger means the A87 south of Portree to the bridge via Broadford.

Our experience is probably not that relevant as when we went, there were massive road works along there and a convoy system in operation. It seemed that when the road was originally built it was probably done on the cheap and where it crossed what I assume to be a peat bog, it sunk. We were also there in early April (apart from the first day, we had fantastic weather, astonishingly warm and sunny) so maybe there wasn't so much traffic about as there is likely to be in the summer.

I would recommend this coast road though as an alternative to the A87. It was virtually empty and utterly beautiful. A few extra miles, but worth every pedal stroke.

Thanks Wow. I didn't know that was there and certainly one I'd check out if travelling that way again.

[woollypigs]

That's the bit of Skye I warned about up thread, beautiful but don't take your eyes of the road.

[bobb]

Typical. A month out and CalMac ferries go into meltdown 

[bobb]

Due to CalMac's knackered ferries, I'm having to shuffle things around a bit. The Oban - Castlebay route isn't running on the day I want, so I'll have to use the Oban - Lochboisdale route instead.

Although it's listed as sailing on the day I want, it won't let me book a ticket. The timetable is completely changed for that week only, so.... I might have to go old skool and phone them up. To save me making a complete tit of myself, can someone give me the proper pronunciation of "Lochboisdale"?

I'm hoping it's simply Lock Boys Dale, but I've no idea if it's one of those places that's pronounced nothing like its spelling would suggest!

Ta

[Jaded]

The 'ch' is soft, if that helps...

[bobb]

The 'ch' is soft, if that helps...

Oh, I know that! But I think English people pronouncing Loch the proper Scottish way just end up sounding like pretentious pricks, so I stick to Lock (maybe softening the ck slightly)

Edit: *Practises saying "Loch"* Actually, it doesn't sound too bad. So now I just add Boys Dale.... 

[hbunnet]

The 'ch' is soft, if that helps...

Yes, like Johann Sebastian BaCH