Our 2015 tour was organised after a winter and spring in which our cycling had been seriously curtailed by pressure of work. Accordingly (a) we desperately needed a break, and (b) I needed to be quite conservative about projected daily mileage.

I thought carefully about the trip, and included two double night stays (on Barra and North Uist), so we could choose routes to suit how we were going. Where possible, I wanted to have some nice seafood in the evenings. All our accommodation was pre-booked. I had trouble finding B&Bs on Barra, where we ended up in the very excellent Isle of Barra Beach Hotel and in Tobermory – we ended up staying in Salen while on Mull.

We rode our now not so new Thorn Raven Discovery tandem (see my multipart review – Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5). We didn’t have a single mechanical problem, though we did see minor oil leakage from the Rohloff hub while transporting it in the car.

Day 1 – Oban to Barra

Day 2 – Barra

Day 3 – Barra to Lochboisdale

Day 4 – Lochboisdale to Lochmaddy

Day 5 – North Uist and Berneray

Day 6 – Lochmaddy to Lochbay

Day 7 – Lochbay to Broadford

Day 8 – Broadford to Salen

Day 9 – Salen to Salen

Day 10 – Salen to Oban