[Closed] How to ride the Hebridean Way

You could ride to Inverness.

Or ride to Garve and get the train from there.

Or contact https://www.tickettoridehighlands.co.uk as they run a taxi service from Ullapool to either Inverness or Oban. If you can be flexible with dates that will help as they can hook you up with other passengers to share the costs. *

That route has seen a massive increase in cyclists over the past 3-4 years, but this year particularly. And with good reason. Its stunning.

* I was working with them up until last winter.

Personally I did the hebridies as a circuit from oban

Ferry to barra ride up the island chain. Back to Harris. Ferry to skye. Ride down skye and ferry to Mallaig. Ride through Arisaig and out to ardnamurchan ferry Kilchoan to Tobermory. Ride across mull and ferry back to oban

The return was as good as the islands

TJ, that sounds awesome but, unfortunately neither time nor 11 year old legs will allow for that distance. Perhaps there is a compromise though by not ridding the full Heb Way and cutting off early to make it into some sort of loop

I'd go with TJ's route though we didn't go beyond Tarbert on Harris so just got the ferry over to Uig from there.

Six steady days: B&Bs on Barra and North Uist; hostel in Portree; hostel in Mallaig; YHA in Tobermory; pub at Craignure. Most days had at least two pub or café stops so no real stress other than making sure you get the ferry timings right.

Ah, 11yrs old. Maybe a bit big on the mileage then, especially if there's a wind blowing. Maybe Mallaig, ferry to Lochboisdale, up the Western Isles to Tarbert, ferry back to Uig then back across Skye to Mallaig. Add train to/from Ft William for extra points.

Oh, and I'd recommend this guide.

Cycling the Hebridean Way https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077RMKPFR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_J0DjDbW4EC8XT

Or start from Uig, ferry to Lochmaddy. Then ride up south to Barra and back. Then continue north to Tarbert, for ferry back to Uig.

Cycling across Skye is not much fun, the A87 can be pretty busy.

If you don't want to do the full ride then you could drive to Uig, Ferry to Lochmaddy. Ride South. Ride back North. Ferry to Harris. Tarbert ferry to Uig. Iainc and his mates did that earlier this year. I'd still recommend the full HW though.

Mallaig to Oban via Ardnamurchan and Mull is a fantastic ride in its own right. I'd save that for another time.

On slightly related note, booked tickets yesterday for a trip over to St Kilda. It's not until next May but I am beyond excited (apart from the obvious vomit potential on the boat)!

Frank - it took us 12 days IIRC and an average of about 30 miles a day - from memory. You could take a fair chunk off that by not going onto lewis but that would be a shame to miss out.

Scotroutes suggestion of Cycling to Garve from Ullapool woulod work nicely -0 there is also a decent bus service from Ullapool

I'm doing it in a fortnight. Getting the bike taxi back from ullapool to oban as mentioned by scotroutes.

AS Scotroutes says, the Uig to Lochmaddy option is easy, though quite compressed and se missed out Barra and Eriskay.

I drove down to Glasgow and stayed at a mates (leaving the car at his house) before taking train to Oban then ferry to Castle Bay. Pitched in sheep pen on Vatersay

Weather was absolute pish (tail end of a hurricane) so beasted up the islands and hit North Uist the first day, Tarbert the second and Ness the third (pitched on the beach).

Rode to Stornaway and took ferry to Ullapool where my good friend Scotroutes picked me up and dropped me at home (I was experiencing, er, saddle interface issues). We did go back and cycle Garve-Ullapool-Garve a week later though...

I then waited a day and cadged a lift of my mate who was travelling back to Glasgow (and was passing within ~10 miles of the house).

After a night out I drove home the next pm.

You just need to be creative 🤣

If I was doing it again I’d be taking ferries from/to Uig. And definitely choosing better weather...

We took bikes and a Range Rover, toured round doing day rides here and there. Lovely place and let us choose the spots we wanted. Don’t miss the post mans path.

OP, can't offer anything on the heb way, but spent 4 nights camping on st Kilda this May, it's mind-blowing, you'll love it, here's wishing you good weather...

Whoops, not posted from phone app before, take it from me though, it's beautiful....

There's also a company called hebshuttle who will get you back down to Barra, it's not cheap though

For anyone in the Outer Hebrides 20-27 August, if your're where Nevis Ensemble are playing, enjoy.

I'm biased as I know one of them, but we might make the journey for one of their concerts.

Might be worth investigating the triangular ferry route from Uig on Skye? Park near the ferry terminal, sail to Lochmaddy then get transport to the Esiskay ferry. Ride round Barra and then ride the Heb Way, then arrange to be transported back to the ferry at Tarbert. Hopefully 2 shorter shuttle rides will be cheaper than a long shuttle all the way down from, say, Stornoway.

Alistair at BeSpoke / The Hub in Stornoway will probably know the best people to sort transport and is a really nice guy...

I did it a couple of weeks ago. Setup was:

Train from Glasgow to Oban
Ferry from Oban to Barra
Rode North through the islands over 3 days
Picked up at the Butt of Lewis by Heb Shuttle and taken down to Stornoway
Ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool
Cycled from Ullapool to Garve
Jumped on train at Garve to Inverness
Hired car in Inverness and drove home

Some key observations

Take longer than 3 days to do it
Don't underestimate the headwinds
There's a big climb before Tarbert and an even bigger one after
The cycle back from Ullapool to Garve was horrible. It's part of the NC500 route and the driving standards were abysmal. Multiple punishment passes. Definitely consider a transfer like the one mentioned in an earlier post

I also worked out something about the trains. I originally had a train ticket from Inverness back to Glasgow but I couldn't book my bike on. There's only 2 bookable spots per train. What I've discovered is if someone is doing part of the train journey, and they've booked their bike on before you, then they effectively block you from booking on. So let's say there's 10 stops on your journey, and someone happens to have booked their bike on between stops 3 and 4, then that takes precedent and stops you booking on. Absolutely farcical setup

Some useful info in this thread. Was thinking of giving this a go myself and almost started a thread on it. Got 10 days off work in early August and was supposed to be going to Iceland but have had to abort that. Don't want to spend 10 days sitting on my arse and would really like to get in an adventure with some epic scenery.

Have wanted to do this route for a few years now. Thinking of doing it on a Brompton (for ease of getting on trains and buses should I need to) and camping as much as I can (getting showers at the Ferry terminals).

Would probably do train to Oban, ferry out, ride all the way to the lighthouse on Lewis then back to Stornoway, ferry to Ullapool then get to Inverness somehow and then train back to Yorkshire.