Embrace the Freeze | Cycle Touring the Scottish Highlands in NOVEMBER?!

Embracing winter & late autumn while cycling through the enchanting Scottish highlands, en route to Shetland!

Our cycling journey through the Scottish Highlands to the most remote cinema in Britain continues! Despite the freezing weather, the beauty of the Highlands during the quieter winter months took our mind of the cold, as we followed the North Coast 500 (NC500). The Highlands had transformed into a quiet, empty landscape as we pedalled between mountains dusted with snow.

From nights of cold weather camping, to cosy evenings with local families thanks to the kindness of strangers, we battled to stay warm and make the most of the Highlands’ rugged beauty. Fortunately for us, highland hospitality didn’t disappoint! We’d cycle north from Oban to Mallaig, then on to Ullapool, Gairloch, and Durness. The remote NC500 was absolutely stunning, but the relentless wind and rain forced us to stop several times to wait for the stormy Scottish weather to pass.

We visited Highland villages, cycled through dramatic mountains, and experienced local culture in some of the most remote parts of Scotland. This was one of the most challenging parts of our cycle tour of England & the Celtic Nations, and the last leg of our bike trip on the UK mainland.

2023 Update: These cycle touring videos were filmed back in 2021. As of 2023 Jill and I are no longer together and Jill is not affiliated with this channel in any way. Wishing her all the best for the future!

#cycletour #visitscotland #biketour #biketouring #scotland

Oh no 4,011 km down and the end of our journey was finally on the horizon the next leg would take us to the remote shores of Northern Scotland and eventually the town of tho everything we’d been through in the last 4 and 1/2 months had brought us here to the Scottish Highlands

Almost 700 km of mountains locks Wind and Rain stood between us and our ferry to Shetland where a movie date at Britain’s most remote Cinema was waiting for us so after a couple of nights resting in Oben we pedal North bracing ourselves for the Relentless climbs and frigid November weather to Come Oh my God the colors of the leaves so in the trees there is tyan who is just falling off his bike you can see him picking it up there I have a delivery can I have that One wow this is incredible this is the world’s most conveniently timed Ferry literally just as we arrived As night fell we pedal just across the water from Ben Nevis the UK’s highest mountain passing the occasional craft which are small farms up in Scotland so we knocked on a crafter’s door to ask to camp in their field good Morning it’s very cold how is your night sleep so good That’s Ben Nevis up there the highest mountain in the UK if we’d arrived earlier in the year we would have stopped to hike It Up here the saltwater fiords that carve up the coast are called sea loocks and we trace the shores of Lo Linny as we headed further through the mountains oh there’s another Hill ahead we’re both really really feeling these Hills we’ve got one more to do after this one I

Think this is like the fifth one like this you feeling it Jill I’m tired and I’m hungry and it’s really cold I’d really like to be under a de instead we’re out here cycling in November exhausted from the cold and climes just as it was getting dark we

Stopped off with a warm showers host in Malik and crashed pretty much immediately since we’d have an early rise to catch a ferry in the morning Uh this is is lovely got serious Speed that’s one of the big Hills that we’re going over today zigzags up that hill I don’t think it’s showing up on here they road but a 14% gradient climb and it’s knackering but it’s the last one of the day how you doing steep isn’t it yeah oh my good

Very steep I think we oh then woooo oh oh man this is Crazy very cold so this is where we’re staying we’re under the roof it’s kind of a barn thing storage for a tractor a found called Donald’s has let us Camp here and it’s really good actually having the shelter because it’s supposed to rain all day so and all morning this is where we

Camped one of our more intriguing places that we’ve prepared Breakfast goodbye bar that we camped In [Applause] he watching us incredible on the way to our B&B look how dry they are oh man look at it out there Grim without realizing the date our timing had been lucky we’d arrived in akant Trad on the 5th of November bonfire Night After a couple of nights Sheltering from the rain we set off further north another storm fast approaching feeling ready ready than ever we’re going to get very wet oh those clouds look for Boing we’re now totally surrounded by rain all good can’t even use the camera today it’s too rainy these downhills up in Scotland have been amazing so far we’ve had a few big ones and you get some serious speed on them God I love this feeling so the weather’s caught up with us uh

Whoa this is what we were worried we would be caught in going quite slowly though downhill wow I think we’re just going to power through get to our Airbnb shelter from this get wared by a fire so we made it to just outside Garlock before dark well done Teran fredman man of the

Island so the weather looks a lot better today and I’m just making some breakfast for us to get us a good start cuz we have a huge hill to cycle today and down there you can see where we’ve been staying for the last few nights this is

Steep today we’ll be doing our our biggest climb since the Yorkshire Dales we’ll be going up to 1,200 ft it is crazy looking back and thinking about what we were able to cycle at the start of this trip versus what we’re able to cycle now we’ve just noticed ourselves getting much much much

Fitter and now these are a breeze aren’t they Jill don’t even notice it emergency breake Replacements in action might a bit too tight that’s cool the pain of being absolutely freezing it’s kind of worth it we were getting further and further into November and things started to get

Really really cold I don’t remember ever being this cold before and with nowhere to Shelter From the element the only way we could try and stay warm was to keep pedling but in the freezing weather everything was more Draining this is such a long uphill it goes all the way up along the edge of that mountain around the corner it’s very tiring woo and it’s getting a little bit dark and gloomy now so hopefully we’ll get over this hill down the other side and

Find a spot to camp before it gets too dark this is it the top of the big hill well done despite being absolutely Freezing just little bit nerve-wracking in the dark well after dark and with another approaching storm we spotted the lights of a house and knocked on the door to see if we could camp in their garden and that’s how we ended up meeting the Sten family thank you very

Much for having us guys this has been so soce and so warm so warm how are you so good we are in the most wonderful little Caravan having just had the most wonderful spontaneous unplanned evening with the most wonderful family who invited us in immediately said like

Don’t Camp stay in here we’ve got a he heater we’ve got blankets we’ve got pillows we’re showered we’re fed it’s one of those evenings where I’m like I feel really lucky to be able to be doing this stick your head out more Jill is making me eat my cheese out in the rain

Yeah because it’s blue cheese like the smell and the smell is going to get trapped in this enclosed space it’s November and tyan fredman cannot enjoy a meal indoors that’s that’s what this trip that’s what this trip has become ladies and gentlemen if you have a question if you ever wonder how we’re

Doing this this is how we’re doing no stop talking and finish Che two all pool we Go it’s depression really the camera was There that’s going to be long go this hill is so long now that we’re getting pretty close to Shetland and the closer you get the more I can feel my body saying stop take some time off have a rest I’m definitely approaching the maximum of what I can do

In terms of how long I can be on the road for without a break I can really feel the wear and that’s both physically and mentally Jill’s handling this last stretch much better than me I think I just need to get it out of my head that

We’re going to be mostly done with the cycling in a few days time because the more I picture stopping and resting the more daunting the next few days of cycling seem to be giant slug visitor good morning Scotland chill’s in charge of breakfast this morning mm and I’m doing the

Sandwiches for lunch in here because it’s raining outside and we don’t want to have to make them in the rain nice look thanks looks like you’ve got a really deformed head maybe I do have a ready youbody to show We made decent progress in the first half of the day but we’d had some personal stuff going on back at home which I won’t go into and decided that rather than spending the night out in the cold again we’d try and hitch a ride 20 minutes up the road so we could stay

In a hostel for the night difficult with the bikes but luckily Ian was driving past we don’t often travel vehicle so it’s a very exciting occasion all right we’ve been on the bike since June since June yeah kidding me yeah now got yeah do fast up up up don’t mind about

The van it’s your bik now W you bloody strugle yeah it’s it’s pretty knackering load all right thank you very much Ian thank you you take care best to fana we’ll do cheers Ian thank you As the sun dipped below the Horizon we pedal the remainder of the way to the next town each kilometer a step closer to Shetland this is DS which is where we’ve been aiming for for the last couple of days this is close to the northwesternmost point of the UK

Mainland and with that the last proper northwards leg of our journey was over just two more days to get to our ferry to Shetland we’re going north going north and now we’re going east northw leg of our journey on the Scottish Mainland is Over Oh no wow this is brutal we have climbed very high up now managed to do it almost without stopping apart from once just to have a drink of water that was 15% uh incline at the beginning of this climb and we cycled it which would have been unheard of at the

Start of this trip oh there’s rain over there what the hell cool side that we just found a spot to camp a little picnic area right I we’re sorted it is getting mighty cold out here we’ve got on the menu lovingly prepared by jila herself rice tomato sauce with kidney

Beans peanut butter mixed in with the rice and this is our last like wild camping meal that’s kind of sad that’s kind of sad I hadn’t really thought about that for a we might not use the camping stove again who a oh it served us well it has

It’s not actually the up yet So this is it our last day cycling on the Scottish Mainland before we get the ferry to Shetland we have come a long long way and it’s taken a lot longer than expected but we’ve met some fantastic people and seen some incredible places all on our doorstep

Really and I think it’s left us both with a bit of a newfound appreciation for our home country and the Nations that surround it and on top of that the diversity of cultures here there’s just so many different identities and languages and different backgrounds and histories in this small part of the

World really exploring that has been such an amazing experience and a privilege to be able to do from the back of a bike 5 months on the road and after weeks of being battered by brutal weather and we were on on the cusp of reaching the goal that we’d set for

Ourselves before we’ pedal our first kilometer we’d been going for so long and fallen into such a routine that it had obscured the scale of our journey but actually being here on Scotland’s Northern Shores put it all into perspective we stayed with another warm showers host John for a couple of nights

Who entertained us with a home concert big spender was it And if you think we had a lot of stuff on our bikes for charity he travels around on a tricycle carrying an entire tuber in a trailer and you can find more about his project at in.org this chap who lives in that you’re going pass his house tomorrow thank you very

Much John for having us this has been really really nice we’re being video you’re being video Frozen yeah you’re welcome good luck good luck with it all good luck with the documentary mate and we’ll see you when you’re a bit older possibly down south after a well-earned rest instead of

Getting the ferry from tho as planned we took a detour to abedine to catch a family event and so it was from here that we’d leave the UK Mainland for the final time on this trip over 4,600 km down just a few more to go