Why?My first "3 cases" bike trip with my wife was back in 2001, to Scotland. We reached up to Orkney, but we didn't go to the Western Isles, some islands where there seemed to be (hardly) nothing.
At that time, with no youtube or GMaps, you could download some pics in the internet that showed empty landscapes, just hilly extensions of grass with some farms here and there. Isolation had made possible that their ancestral language, gaelic, was still usually heard.
Riding to there became a dream for me. A dream that has finally come true this 2024.
How to go?By plane it is easy. By motorbike, you need to take one ferry, like from Ullapool (our choice), Uig in Skye or Mallaig (our choice for the return trip). Also a ferry is needed to go from one group of islands to its neighbour. Routes and times change every year, being the summer timetables published in February.
There are three main groups of islands. Within each group you can ride from island to sland over a bridge or a causeway. These groups, from N to S are:
-Lewis-Harris and Great Bernera
-Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay
-Barra and Vatersay
We went from Ullapool to Stornoway (Lewis) and later to the Uists, etc. For Barra and Vatersay we took the ferry in Eriskay and another one for retour in the same day, because it was more convenient for us to take the ferry back from Lochboisdale, to Mallaig.
According to the tourism websites, it is recommendable to reserve accommodation first, and then book the ferries. Certainly all ferries we took could have fitted another bike if needed. But acommodation is just a different matter. There are (still?) few tourists, but there are also few hotels or B&B.
Also few cafés or pubs. We stopped at Great Bernera for a coffee but that day it was closed by cause of a funeral! The closest cafés were 25 min (W) or 20 min (E) away.
We had downloaded some 2 page leaflets that proved to be very useful. Among them one with the list and map of restaurants, etc. and another with the list of village shops.
To see what?In my opinion, its greatest asset is that there isn't (hardly) anything. Neither true mountains, nor (hardly) any castle, nor (hardly) any church (well, there are a few modern protestant churches with no touristic interest), nor ruins of medieval abbeys,... Even there isn't (hardly) any tree!
Another leaflet let us choose the buildings and archeological sites to visit.
Stornoway is a little Scottish city, with its streets, gardens, a small metropolitan area,.. where half the inhabitants of the isles dwell.
Beyond there it is peat land. With some sheep and granite. And a few Atlantic sandy beaches.
Houses are quite isolated. FArms, but also residential homes. When you ride you can see some almost all the time, because roads are meant to be links between inhabited places. This makes much of the land to be unreachabe by road (near the summits for instance) just because there is no farm or harbour there.
Are they worth?This depends of course on everyone's taste. For me, absolutely! Because of this (hardly) anything to be seen, and also for the people, kind and friendly. Tapadh leat! (Tap-a-leif for thank you) Sláinte! (Slansh, for health and toasting).
As I said there are few tourists. Americans seeking the trace of their ancestors, British seeking peace&quiet or birds, cyclists and hikers seeking themselves... I believe though that there are more and more foreigners, visitors or residents. You can see new houses that are not the traditional style, or even sorrounded by trees. You can see new B&B. They have just built a new terminal in the beach-airport of Barra...
In my opinion they are well worth a visit, but you'd better hurry! Before they lose their best asset: that there isn't (hardly) anything. And far fewer tourists than in the Highlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Hebrideshttps://www.visitouterhebrides.co.ukIn the following pictures there are none about:
-Stornoway
-Sheep (nice with their white round body, black head and short legs)
-Croft ruins. You can see many of the old houses, seemingly abandoned at some point and just replaced by a new house next.
-Gearrannan. A restored old style village.
-what we missed
Our first time under the Channel
Peterborough Cathedral
preparations for a rock concert
Holy Island
Dalwhinnie
Urquhart Castle
Towards Ullapool
Ferry to be taken the day after
Ullapool beach
Towards Lewis!
Bridge to nowhere
North Tolsta beach
St. Columba
Rare tombstone in gaelic
Peat
Inland Lewis
Callanish Circle. The isles' most important monument. An "interpretation center" is being built next to it.
Norse mill&kiln
Butt of Lewis
Sands of Uig
Calloway Broch
Arriving to Harris
Beach under Macleod's Stone
St. Clement's Church. Rodel
Inland road from Leverburgh to Rodel
Location of the "whisky galore" real-life incident. Eriskay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_Galore_(novel)
Vatersay
Flight from Glasgow arriving to Barra
Kisimul Castle. Barra
View on "Am Polititian". Eriskay's pub
South Uist
Howmore Chapels. South Uist
B8043 on Loch Linnhe, mainland Scotland
Oxford
Metz
Guess where
S'Agaró, for a final refuel lunch
And that's all, folks!
