As soon as lockdown was lifted in Scotland, 4 of us headed straight to Oban where we took a ferry to the Outer Hebrides. From Barra we made our way all the way up to Port Ness in the north of Lewis, before taking another Ferry over to Skye and the mainland. From there we meandered our way around the NC500, a tourist route that takes in the most incredible roads and scenery around the coastline of Scotland.
We expected the presence of a global pandemic to have an impact on our trip, but it ended up being more positive than we expected. Many of the locals we came across were far less unhappy about our presence than the media had led us to believe. In fact, many were incredibly happy for us to come through their local area, and contribute to their suffering economies. We were definitely some of the first to reach that part of the world since lockdown began, which meant that we had some of the best roads in the UK to ourselves, when normally they might be full of caravans and other road trippers.
Sadly the weather was less than desirable, but despite a lot of rain, it wasn’t enough to dampen our spirits and ruin any of our plans. Luckily, Scotland is just as beautiful in rain as sunshine - so you’ll see plenty of moody Scottish landscapes below.
A motorbiking trip through the hebrides and western parts of scotland has been on my bucket list for a long time, however has always been put off in favour of more typically ‘exotic’ destinations. The coronavirus situation obviously forced us into staying closer to home, and I’m so glad it did. I’ll definitely be returning soon.
10th - 19th July 2020
We bought some crabs straight off a boat in Leverburgh after searching all around Harris for some fresh local seafood. Talk about fresh. 5 for £20.
Rough route of our trip. forgive all the annoying lettered pins, they had to be placed to make the route go in the right direction.