Far North - Self Guided

The far north of Scotland is one of the last great scenic cycling secrets in Europe; a vast wilderness of extraordinary mountains set in ancient rock and moorland. On your self-guided tour you will enjoy biking on quiet narrow roads that wind through beautiful heather clad hills, high sea cliffs and waterfalls.

Your tour sets off from Inverness with a ride across the Black Isle to Cromarty, a beautiful 18th Century fishing town. Poised on the edge of the Black Isle, at the mouth of Cromarty Firth it is the best-preserved historic town in the Highlands. Here we catch the Kings Ferry, one of the world’s smallest car ferries to the small village of Nigg. Here we’ll find the Old Parish Church which is home to one of the finest surviving Pictish Cross-Slabs, carved with Pictish symbols and early Christian imagery.

You continue past Glenmorangie distillery riding to the Edwardian seaside resort Dornoch and follow the shores of Loch Fleet cycling through the national nature reserve to Rosehall.

You'll enjoy rugged scenery on our ride towards the west coast fishing village of Lochinver, through a landscape which becomes more spectacular with every turn of your wheel. We pass picturesque lochs and rivers teeming with fish, surrounded by the rugged grandeur of mountains rising from glens gouged during the last ice-age.

Your tour will cross hilly terrain and loch side to reach Ullapool, cycling the Achiltibuie loop. After a rest day in Ullapool, a picturesque white fishing town, your refreshed and ready to cycle to Corrieshalloch Gorge Nature Reserve. This is a beautiful, forested area where the River Droma rushes along a series of tumbling waterfalls and where Inverewe Garden is located, a unique Atlantic Coast botanical garden.

There are red squirrels, red deer, otters, golden eagles and sea eagles in the area. Reaching the shores of Loch Maree, we cycle a final undulating stretch and finish at Achnasheen where there is a short transfer back to Inverness.

Beaches, mountain passes, green valleys, lochs and fast flowing rivers. Scotland has them all and what better way to see them than from the saddle of a bicycle on a self-guided cycling tour?