Getting To Lewis

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Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
12,781
1,518
51
Wiltshire
Which would be the best route?

I was advised a `see all scotland` route to Ullapool, Via Perth, Avimore and Inverness, as the lesser roads are apparently rather tiresome.

Im tempted to get on the ferry at Oban, then up the outer Hebridies, This may not be the cheapest option.

the Uig (on Skye) to Lewis ferry might be cheapest, but involves a lot of fiddly roads.

What do you think?
 

greeneggcat

Forager
Sep 9, 2005
132
0
wet wet gloucestershire
Depends what it is you are after? I have just got back from the north west of scotland and if you want to visit our last real wilderness and find some excellent bushcrafting spots to test your skills take to the "tiresome roads".

If you want to go the tourist route and spend a bomb on ferries go with the main roads.

Calmac ferries do " hopper " tickets: www.calmac.co.uk/islandhoppingtickets

I didnt really find any "tricky roads" going up to sky and uig. My personal recomendation if you are going to island hop is start from Oban then "hop" up the isles, hit the mainland at ullapool and if you have time left before you have to travel back south go up them single track roads all the way up the coast to capewrath/durness way. On your journey look out for those deluxe passing places (where you can safely park without blocking the road) pick a nice spot and b***er off into the widerness for a few days.

Lochinver way is particullarly nice. :) I found the differnt geology up in the north west to be some of the most beutiful places i have ever seen. Anywhere.

Well worth tackling the single track roads for. I never once found them tiresome.

Go for it, its out of this world:lmao:

ATB
 

Soloman

Settler
Aug 12, 2007
514
19
55
Scotland
That see all route(A 9)best avoided unless your in a hurry to get up north.
Do that and you miss all the good bits take a route up the west coast via loch lomond,glencoe,glen moriston,loch carron,torridon,loch maree,gruinard bay.
Whoever said tiresome should be beaten with a big stick.
Soloman.
 

alpha_centaur

Settler
Jan 2, 2006
728
0
45
Millport, Scotland
Take the ferry accross from gourock to dunoon then go up towards inveraery and then head for glencoe via ballachulish, lovely roads, brilliant views and definately not tiresome.

I was up that way on the bike and it was more exhaustion that I felt when I got back. It was peeing with rain and the smile on my face passed my ears. So tiresome roads definaltely not.
 

Craigeam

Full Member
Sep 3, 2005
22
0
63
Na H-Eileanan an Iar
The Ullapool route is probably the quickest as the A9 and A835 are both good roads, the ferry crossing is about two and three-quarter hours. The "lesser roads" can be tiresome in the summer due caravans, camper vans or tour buses holding up all other traffic, the roads themselves and the scenery are superb, the Uig - Tarbert crossing takes about an hour and a half. The ferry from Oban is a long crossing, between about five and seven hours depending if it stops in Castlebay and you still have to travel the length of the Uists and Harris to get to Lewis, however on a good day you can get great views sailing up the Sound of Mull and crossing over to South Uist and you do get to see the Uists and Harris.

It really depends what time you have and what you want to do, a good idea is one of the Island Hoscotch tickets that way you can travel up by one route and return by another, the CalMac website has details of the various combinations and whilst still not cheap with RET the prices for the Uists, Lewis and Harris are far better than they used to be.

Which part of our lovely island are you heading for anyway?

Donald
 
Don't do it all in one go...that's just awaste of time and doesn't give you enough in each arema to appreciate. Get this book out the library and read it, then choose what islands interests you.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scottish-Is...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243502520&sr=1-1

You can't "do" the islands in a week or even two. I would highly recommend a hopper ticket, drive up to the Corran Ferry and then over to Ardnamurchan, check out Ardnamurchan, Mhoidart then from LochAline go over to Fishnish on Mull. Mull you can easily spend a couple of weeks or the very minimum of a week, you can go to Iona, then take a converted trawler over to Fingals caves and the Treshnish Isles (awesome), see the sea eagles etc on
Mull, then go over to South Uist and travel North up the outer Hebrides, return via Skye-forget Ullapool-it's worth a separate journey up and north. Travel through Skye then get the ferry over to Mallaig and you have Arisaig, Morar to see etc, it's a new road so you'll be fine. Travel down through Ardnamurchan again, avoid Fort Bill as it's a dump and pretty boring. Cross the corran ferry again (great bunkroom there too~) and then you can see Glencoe, Rannoch and it's a fair road all the way down esp if you go via Inverarie.
 

Craigeam

Full Member
Sep 3, 2005
22
0
63
Na H-Eileanan an Iar
lol Never heard anyone call the A9 a good road before..

I never thought I would call it a good road but it is quite scenic and does a decent job of getting you from A to B so yes a good road.

It may be far from perfect but the works at the some of the accident blackspots (like Ballinluig) are helping and it is a vast improvement on the old A9 - if you remember that far back.

Donald
 
Evening all

We went up last summer, in early June. the traffic wasn't a problem. We made a decision to travel at a leisurely pace, but it still felt a bit rushed.

1. From London, we camped in the Lake district first night,
2. then Glencoe second night. The midges were beastly when the breeze settled.
3. and 4. Then over the Skye road bridge, and the Uig to Lochmaddy ferry. We wild-camped on North Uist two nights, which was the highlight, sipping crepuscular Ardbeg and watching a distant otter up the beach.
5. Then Berneray to Leverburgh ferry, and staying with the in-laws in West Lewis for a week,
6,7,8,9,10,11
11. then Stornoway to Ullapool and camped in Cairngorms,
12, 13 then down to Northumbria for a couple of nights (failing to get to the Farne Islands because of the poor weather

We would have liked longer to see Skye, but it was fantastic! Hope you have a great time.
I can heartily recommend Beaton's Midge Jackets (no connection with them at all, I'm a happy customer, just wish I'd bought one a year ago)

P.S. If you're interested in the history and archaeology, the Bosta iron age house at Bernera is very interesting and if you are near Callanish go to the Uig Museum, which is very small and run by volunteers (i.e. the in-laws).
 

Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
12,781
1,518
51
Wiltshire
Ive decided on the Uig ferry.

Ill just wing it, theres only one way to get to Skye, over the bridge.

But Ill be stuck on Lewis 6 days, Ill visit Calinash. and I have a friend Id like to pop by. what else do I do?

Anyone like me to visit?
 

Womble

Native
Sep 22, 2003
1,095
2
57
Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
Reasonably close to Calanais(sp) is the broch at Dun Carloway (sp) and the old blackhouse village of Garinen - an open air museum where they have preserved the old houses. It was the last villiage of its kind on Lewis, the people only moving out into new housing in the 70s (please - anyone with more accurate information feel free to correct me; I'm working from memory from staying there for 2 nights a year and-a-half ago).
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
And there are brochs at Glenelg :D

Lewis is a big island Tengu, 20,000 folks live there iirc. Lots to see and do.

HWMBLT drove up to Skye this morning, he says it's hotching with tourists and camper vans. He intended to camp at Glen Brittle, but he's having second thoughts now.

Aren't mobile phones wonderful ? :D Used to be he'd go off climbing and only if I didn't hear from him in a week would I think to worry enough to phone the police.
He's up a hill in Skye and I'm in Lanarkshire and he's telling me to turn his computer off :rolleyes: The world's getting awfully small.

Any of the routes up are good Tengu, but either the Fort William or the Inverness(A9) one will be busy at this time of year. Usually I'm on a schedule and I have to be up there in good time, so the A9 is the route I use most. Coming back home from Skye though the road that avoids Fort William and goes through Glengarry is the better route, stunning views and some weird camber hairpins bends :D .......but then the route past Carradale can be a bit 2nd gearish in places.

Enjoy :cool:

cheers,
Toddy
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
I came home from Skye last time across to Kyle of Lochalsh, then through Balmacara, along Loch Duich on the A87, through Glen Shiel and along Loch Garry to Invergarry, took the A82 along Loch Lochy to Spean Bridge, and took the A86 to Laggan and onto the A889 to Dalwhinnie to the A9 and home.
Avoided Fort WIlliam like the plague. :rolleyes: :D

An eagle took off from the road edge in Glen Garry not twenty feet from my car as I came around a tight corner :eek: :D

cheers,
Toddy
 

Craigeam

Full Member
Sep 3, 2005
22
0
63
Na H-Eileanan an Iar
But Ill be stuck on Lewis 6 days, Ill visit Calinash. and I have a friend Id like to pop by. what else do I do?

Plenty to see and do on Lewis, the beaches at Valtos and Uig, the stones at Callanish (look for the smaller satellite circles as well as the main site), the Broch at Dun Carloway, Gearrannan Black house village (not just a museum, a number of blackhouses have been done up as very good but expensive self-catering houses, another is a hostel run by the Gatliff Trust), coastal walk from Gearrannan to the beaches at Dalmore and Dalbeg, reconstruction of Norse mill near Shawbost, another blackhouse at Arnol, the cliffs at the Butt of Lewis to name but a few.

If I hadn't finished cutting my peat last week you could have been roped into that as well.

Cheers

Donald
 

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