Extreme Points, Lighthouses & Avoiding Midges - Route Planning 2010

The West coast of Scotland has fascinated me since I first lived in Scotland as a young teenager: remote highlands, wind-swept bays, open landscapes, brooding history, isolation, rain and sunshine and snow... As a student I cycled the area around Mallaig and Ullapool as well on Lewis, and secretly yearned to return. Thus, as soon as my interest in cycling was rekindled it was clear to me that I would return to Scotland and explore the West coast more thoroughly.

Another fascination I have is with extreme points, and with an allotted two-week holiday window I realised that I would be able to cover two proper extreme points of mainland Britain – the most Westerly point of mainland Britain as well as the most Northerly – while at the same time taking in other significant points, John O'Groats and Cape Wrath. Thus the idea was born of cycling as closely to the coast as is practical, essentially from the most Westerly point at Ardnamurchan to the most Northerly at Dunnet Head.

The final itinerary, after many pleasurable hours studying Ordnance Survey maps and musing on the (thoroughly impractical) possibilities of taking the trike through wild Knoydart, developed to include a couple of further ambitions: to visit the Isle of Iona and to visit the major mainland lighthouses and the RNLI lifeboat stations along the way.

The dates – the last two weeks of May – were chosen carefully. May and September are generally the best months to cycle in Scotland, as they avoid the busier high season as well as avoiding the dreaded midge season (midges are tiny flies which thrive in heather and which proliferate between June and August; my theory is that they won't make an appearance before 1 June). I am anticipating mixed but generally sunny weather...

The route is anything but direct – obvious when looking at the  map. Originally I had thought to travel to the start and from the end by train, taking the sleeper up from London to Oban then back from Thurso... based on memories of living in Scotland over twenty years ago. Sadly the modern train operators hardly even pay lip-service to cyclists these days, and their elimination of parcel vans mean that it is not possible to transport a trike at all; even for "normal" upright bikes the space is severley limited and there is no guarantee that space will be available in summer months. As a result I shall have to drive up to the start and arrange assistance to get back to my Land Rover from Thurso.