Cycling the Scottish Highlands // World Bicycle Touring Episode 26
The Scottish Highlands are renowned for their rugged beauty and remoteness. As the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom, it is a popular escape during the summer. After biking the Outer Hebrides, we cycled part of the North Coast 500 scenic route and turned south at Tongue, where we were met with ferocious headwinds. We continued through Cairngorms National Park, Edinburgh, and the Scottish Borders region to make our way to England.
Scotland challenged us in many ways, from the worst weather we've had on our whole trip to steep climbs and clouds of midges. It's not an easy place to tour, but the scenery was constantly stunning and well worth the effort!
Blog post with more details and GPX track:
www.rollingexistence.com/rout...
Instagram: / rollingexistence
Support us on Patreon and get early access to our videos: / rollingexistence
Bicycle gear list below. We're running a mix of traditional panniers and bikepacking bags.
- 2020 Surly Ogres
- 36h Rohloff Speedhubs
- 36h Son 28 Dynamo hubs
- Ryde Andra 40 rims
- Marathon GT365 29x2.0 tires
- Avid BB7 brakes, 200mm front, 160mm rear
- Sinewave Cycles Beacon headlight/USB charger
- Ergon SMC Core (Andrew) Terry Butterfly Century (Jenny) saddles
- Rogue Panda custom frame bags
- Ortlieb Back Rollers Plus rear panniers
- Bedrock Bags Hermosa front panniers
- Tubus Cargo rear rack (Andrew), Tubus Logo Classic (Jenny)
- Planet Bike AL fenders
Camera Gear:
- Fuji X-T4
- Fujinon 16-80 mm f/4
- Fujinon 23 mm f/2 prime
- GoPro Hero 8 Black
- Rode VideoMic Pro
- Mavic Mini 1 drone
Music Credits:
Oatmello x Epektase x Dayn - Innocent
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Oatmello x Epektase x ...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Dove
Oatmello x fantompower - Tranquility
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Oatmello x fantompower...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Dove
Oatmello - Hushed Tones
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Oatmello - Hushed Tones
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Dove
Oatmello - Essenced
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Oatmello - Essenced
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Dove
Oatmello - Minimal
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Oatmello - Minimal
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Dove
Oatmello x Late Era - Good Night
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Oatmello x Late Era - ...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/Dove
You two are absolutely amazing!! Cycling and camping for 12 days in the rain and then the headwind - you have my RESPECT. Amazing scenery, thanks for sharing. Wishing you lots of sunshine! 😊👍
Thank you for your kind words! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
‘The blood is strong, the heart is highland’. Thank you for visiting my homeland. You certainly saw it in the raw. We do have other weather apart from rain and wind. Promise.
First off, really enjoy your videos! And, I do admire your resolve; I know I can’t do it. So thank you for sharing the experience!
Even the sheep are looking at you and wondering, 'WTF?' No, just kidding, you'll be glad you did this trip some day. Hopefully, you guys will take a break in a warm and dry-weather climate for the winter. Your videos are the best, and they never get old, as Jeff already said.
Haha, we definitely got some incredulous looks from the sheep 😂
Great landscapes, but awful weather! 😖 Thank you for the video, very inspiring!
Wow! The midges, the rain, the wind. You both impress me! You certainly deserve some sunny weather :-)
❤ your videos! I watch them over and over and they never get old. Thanks for taking me to places that I will never make it to. 👍👍
Thank you! We're so glad you enjoy them 😊
I moved to Scotland from the South of England, Dumfries or Dum Fries I think you called it. Very few midges and the weather is better than the highlands. Even so if you come to Scotland you have to expect "weather".
You discovered the world famous Scottish Midges then. And of course the 'Changeable' weather. Which is weatherman speak for it could do just about anything. Me and my wife are enjoying following your trip. So much so that she wants to go back to the highlands real soon. But in the comfort and safety of our van, we're not quite as brave as you guys.
After awhile we pretty much gave up on checking the weather forecast, it really has a mind of its own. And if we ever go back for the highlands round two, a van honestly sounds like a smart way to go 😅
Beautiful rip and great job with the filming.Bringing back happy memories from trips up there.
Very nice natural scenery. Rain or Shine part and parcel of life. Enjoy the moment & ride.
Scotland is a pot luck place. I’ve had amazing weather with glorious views and 45mph+ headwinds with heavy rain. No midges and blankets of them. Well done for keeping going.
Well done Keep those peddles turning and a big good luck on the future miles, tomorrows another day.
beautiful images, beautiful landscapes... beautiful place, congratulations.
I cycle toured the West Highlands and Skye in 2014 in early June, The weather was better than you experienced, but the midges were insane, thick thick clouds of them. I got bitten in places I didn't even know I had even with 5 layers of clothing and my cycling jacket on top. Never again.
🤥
The midges were absolutely unreal, we've never experienced anything like it. If we ever go back to Scotland we will avoid midge season like the plague.
@@RollingExistence Which pretty much rules out summer. Bummer.
Lovely video which I enjoyed watching as I have spent quite a lot of time in the Hebrides. I find it hard to believe that they didn't meet anyone who put them right about the pronunciation!! Hebreeds! Ha,ha!
Enough to test anyones resolve! Well done guys - keep safe 👍🏻
Oh wow, you likely cycled down my road and past my house... That was a tough dose of weather you had - it's no compensation to say it's not always like that! I love living here, and love the proximity of nature and variety of riding, hillwalking and canoeing. And fabulous people..
It is a beautiful place, we got pretty unlucky with the weather but we won't hold a grudge! And we agree that the people are wonderful!
Continuous rain, fierce winds and midges. Definitely sounds like Scotland! My dad and his mates used to tour the Highlands on steel 10-speeds back in the late 1950s. I don't know how he managed, but he loved it. Dad always said "Hills build character." After your trip, I'm sure you'd agree with him. Lovely video by the way. The shot of the Blue Lagoon chip shop stopped me in my tracks! Cheers
Wow, that's awesome! We've got a ton of respect for people who toured before all the fancy waterproof gear we've got these days. Bet he's got a lot of stories! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
@@RollingExistence He definitely did. One of them was about one of his pals who came down with "The Knock." That's what cyclists in Scotland used to call "Bonking." Anyway, Dad and a few others were riding along, when the middle bloke slowly ground to a halt, then tipped over sideways still sitting in the saddle. Don't worry, there's a happy ending. He fell away from the road and into a snowdrift alongside, so he got a soft landing. Dad said they picked him up, fed him a Mars Bar, and after a wee while he was back in the saddle. Tea may also have been made. Dad always called brewing up tea on a tour, "Drumming Up." Cycling parlance has certainly changed over the years. Cheers and keep on pedalling and posting. BP
Just found your channel. Sorry you had such tough conditions in Scotland. It's a magic country and amazing biking in the right conditions !!!! Enjoy
Such a fantastic place Scotland, but can definitely be brutal and not forgiving... Keeps you young and strong, guys.......nice to see you two from American, I guess 😀👍🇬🇧❤️❤️
Wow you guys had to go through so much! Amazing job getting through it! I can't even imagine what it would be like to be on a cycle tour like this. Really inspiring and keep it up! 😁🚴♂🚴♀
Great honest filming. When it's hard, it's very hard but when it's good it's wonderful!
We've discovered your channel a few months ago (searching for cycling in Croatia) and have been watching all the other videos as they are so fantastic. We were really looking forward to you coming here to Scotland and creating some more videos. I'm so sorry the weather, midges and terrain were so tough for you guys. If only you were here a bit later... it hardly rained the whole rest of the summer. Really hope you come back sometime and give it another chance. Stay in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway next time. Lovely cycling around there. I love your stunning videos and relaxing style and wish you all the best with your travels and your KZhead channel.
It does seem like we got particularly unlucky with the weather, though it definitely made Scotland very memorable! It is a beautiful country despite the challenges and we would still like to return someday. We're glad you've been enjoying the videos, thank you for watching!
You're so strong and resilient! Thanks for sharing ❤
My god. That weather! I’ve walked the west highland way twice and been lucky enough to have great weather both times with little wind and barely any rain. You battled through the worst! Scenery looked breathtaking though. So spectacular.
Amazing resilience. Welcome to our world.
Saying hello from the house on the beach at Sangobeag (7:56). The house is called Torran a’chuain - Thunder of the ocean in Gaelic.
Hello! That's so cool that we passed by your house and you happened to see this video!
Scotland hasn't been kind to you 🙁. Hebrides is pronounced heb-rid-ees 😉. Good luck for the next bit!
Not to make you jealous or anything but if you'd done this route in August-September you would have had more sunshine than rain :) On multiple occasions I encountered people that were only a day behind or ahead and the weather was drastically different for them. In my case it oftentimes rained heavily at night (combined with gusts of wind, quite scary from time to time) but it cleared up in the morning. I've only cycled in the rain for 3 days out of 31, with at least 15 days of blue skies, t-shirt-cycling weather. I did about 1700km's, roughly following the same route as you from Glasgow (other than me going to Islay instead of Arran, to then take the ferry (lazy) to Oban) up until halfway through the NC500, where I left for Thurso to visit Orkney & Shetland, to then take the ferry back down to Aberdeen. It's so cool to recognize every little detail, especially in the landscape & geology. Just out of curiosity, how close to really giving up were you? Looking forward to the next video!
It's wild how quickly the conditions can flip like that! As soon as we left Scotland the weather improved drastically. Cool to hear that you did a similar route and glad you got less rain! The hope for more sunshine in southern England and France kept us going. There was a moment where we considered ending our European tour early and heading straight to Asia from England, but we're glad we stuck with it and continued to Northern Europe!
i love you guys!
My stunning homeland,when you come to Scotland you miust come with an open mind especially in terms of the weather .It is definately not guranteed
The BBC Doc aired in October. Scourie is 15 mins into the 1st episode. Sadly you didn't make the cut. Really enjoying your touring videos.
WoW! It´s absolutelly fantastic. :)
Och aye.
Cying north from ullapool one day, the weather was so bad even the birds wont out. 🏴
The wind and the rain is bearable... But the fckin MIDGIES!! Respect to you both for tolerating wee bstards for so long! There's a theory that the midgies are what's stopping people moving back into the Highlands 😂 Great video, huge respect for dealing with the horrible weather for so long 🙏🏻
Wow….really enjoyed the video.
"Edin-burrow" -- Lol. ;)
Awesome video!
It’s a shame you guys didn’t tour in May or June when the weather was glorious and you don’t have to worry about the midges. Still, it looks like you had a proper adventure in bonny Scotland!
I wish I can do a trip like this.
I thought I was the only one disliking bridges and especially see-throughs. I don't know why they are even allowed 😩
Looking at the weather, I take it you came in the summer? Looks like a good Scottish summer! 🏴😂
Haha exactly! 😂
Brilliant video! How did your Surlys hold up?
Cycled in Scotland from late April to early June (2022). The wind was awful. Even when we headed down to Wales via the isle of Man (apparently there was a heat wave in England) I feel your pain. Hopefully you tried a lasagne pie somewhere. A real highlight for Scotland, along with the scenery and people.
Sounds like you were in the same weather bubble as we were, pretty rough going! Somehow we missed the lasagna pie but had lots of other delicious pie varieties.
@@RollingExistence yeah it was pretty hideous, it's so demoralising I. That wind when you can't even ha e a conversation off the bicycles without having to shout.... Which can make you quite iritable. I invested in a 3x3 metre tarp and some tarp poles so I could make a wind break (with a lean to roof) or a larger dry spot to sit in if it wasn't too windy, to give us some space from the tent. But we didn't wild camp everyday (as we also did day rides without bags). You will look back on it as 2nd hand fun.
Love your videos! im curious what program do you use to make your maps with routes?
We've used a couple different programs, we're still figuring out what style we like best. This map was made in Da Vinci Resolve (the video editing program we use) with Fusion to animate the line. The map itself came from the National Geographic map tile in QGIS, using Photoshop I stitched together about 40 images from the map to create a very high resolution image (12,000x8,000 pixels) of Britain that I could zoom in on with no quality loss in Resolve. It was a very time consuming process, probably about 5 hours just for the map, so I don't think I'll be doing that again. I hand drew the track of our travel. Our Wild Atlantic Way video used a combination of Google Earth Studio and Blender (following this tutorial: kzhead.info/sun/fZZqntWQq3iNfq8/bejne.html), using a script to animate the exact route we took over the satellite imagery of Ireland. It was also a super time consuming project, just animating the map alone took longer than the whole rest of the video combined!
Ah, Scotland! Those 12C summer days must have been a joy 😅 OMG! The midges. Do their bites itch bad? How do you deal with them? We hated the sandflies in NZ but at least they are only in the green grass and bush, mostly bite in late afternoon/evening, and rarely come above knee height. Their bites itch like crazy for days and get reactivated late at night in your sleeping bag when your legs warm up. Wearing long pants at camp is the easiest way to prevent bites. Those hyperactive midges would be HORRIBLE!
The bites themselves weren't too itchy afterwards, though I think they affect people differently. They're so small that they can find ways into your bug net and are constantly crawling around your face and eyes. We wore long pants, shirts, and a face net but then they would swarm our hands. They actually made us wish for some wind, if you can imagine.
No issues with assembly for me kzhead.infoUgkxHL1v1R3NE5x4KiYfyt8dnQmyNYz7qi5L but I could see where some might benefit from using an experienced bike assembler/mechanic. I'm an older rider starting back after a 10 year break. This bike exceeds my capabilities and has been easy to get comfortable riding. I'm mostly on easy trails with almost no street riding and have not been disappointed with the performance of the bike. My fitness level is far below what I previously rode with and because of that the mileage is going on the bike slowly. While I'm losing weight slowly, the bike seems to tolerate my 220 pounds just fine. The bike has been used by several family members ranging from 5'5" - 5'9".
The trails at 13:40 to 14:12 - are these vehicular roads or dedicated trails for bikes? They sure look like really nice riding.
Those are dedicated biking/hiking trails, they were really nice! Along the EV1, near Aviemore I believe.
guys it;s edinburgh not edinburo there is no o.
Have you ever been robbed or fined for wild camping ? Is it legal in most European countries ? Thanks
Have you tried youth hostels in the U.K. yet? 🙂🙂
No, we didn't really stay in hostels. For two people they usually wound up being about as expensive as a hotel room.
No muzak required in my view
I see you both wear glasses. That's my biggest complaint about touring in the rain. I've tried a bunch of things; you have any tips to make vision better?
The wide helmet brims help a little bit, but the glasses still get wet in heavy rain. It's really annoying for us too, unfortunately we haven't figured out a great solution yet!
😍😍😍👌👌👌👌👌👌👍👍👍👍👍👍😍😍😍
Do you have insurance for all your gadgets ?:)
I see you were in my local area up at dumglow near loch glow , loving your adventures stay safe out there guys 🚴♂️🚴♂️⛺️🔥🏕....colin 🏴
What month was this?
This was in June 2022.
May I ask guys what do you do for a living ?:) Thanks I would like to do the same !!!:)
Why do never wear shorts and short T-shirts even in hot countries ?:o
Takes two years to know a person. Maybe before producing a child the civilized world could try it
Really, you come to Scotland and complain about our weather? Did you not look at the map and see you were cycling a North Atlantic coastline. Should have gone to England if you wanted flat roads with sunny weather...you would have had to put up with them though! Whats worse?
Amazing videos, as always! You two are amazing, tough as old boots. An amazing journey throughout. Really inspiring! Thanks for making and sharing. Best, from a fellow bike tourer. 🤝🚵♀️🚵
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 😊