Cycling in the Orkney Islands

[Hugh Spicer]

Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?

--
Hugh Spicer
_________________________
e - [email protected]
w3 - www.hughspicer.fsnet.co.uk
_________________________

 

[Adrian Boliston]

"Hugh Spicer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?

I visited last september, but only drove rather than cycled, but I was
pleasently surprised as the good condition of the roads, and was thinking
that they would have been good for cycling on.

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

In news:[email protected],
Adrian Boliston <[email protected]> typed:
> "Hugh Spicer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?
>
> I visited last september, but only drove rather than cycled, but I was
> pleasently surprised as the good condition of the roads, and was
> thinking that they would have been good for cycling on.

Would wind have been a problem?

A

 

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email protected]>typed


> In news:[email protected],
> Adrian Boliston <[email protected]> typed:
> > "Hugh Spicer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> >
> >> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?
> >
> > I visited last september, but only drove rather than cycled, but I was
> > pleasently surprised as the good condition of the roads, and was
> > thinking that they would have been good for cycling on.

> Would wind have been a problem?

I've not been to Orkney but have lived in Shetland. Wind is not a
problem if you are prepared to spend twice as long making a trip in one
direction as in the other...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email protected]
Edgware.

 

[John Hearns]

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:09:18 +0100, Hugh Spicer wrote:

> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?
Someone from Orkney was asking about advice on buying a new bike
recently.

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:26:48 +0100, "Ambrose Nankivell"
<[email protected]> wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>Would wind have been a problem?

Will this wind be so mighty as to lay low the mountains of the earth?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

 

[tom bender]

Well, I went cycle-camping in the Orkneys in the late 90's and had a
great time. It was v.windy though and it rained quite a bit, but the
people are friendly and I seem to remember it being fairly flat.
There are some great ancient ruins on Orkney like Skara Brae and Maes
Howe. Stone circles a plenty too. You can get ferries to the other
Islands fairly regularly and they were quite cheap to take the bikes on.
There's some intersting stuff about WW2 there as well. I think the
German naval fleet was scuppered there.

TB

Hugh Spicer wrote:
> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?
>

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Hugh Spicer
('[email protected]') wrote:

> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?

Yup. Only on Mainland, though. Mainland is mostly fairly flat but
amazingly windswept - a friend who lives two miles inland has to scrape
salt off his house windows every spring. There are virtually no trees.
It's very thoroughly farmed, but is nevertheless the only place I've
ever seen and heard corncrakes. The archaeology is amazing and well
worth exploring. Mainland isn't that large and you can get anywhere and
back on a bike in an afternoon - which makes bicycles a good way of
getting about.

Hoy is contrastingly extremely high, steep and rugged with extremely
dramatic cliffs. There's a wee road round the flow side of the island
but I don't know what it would be like to cycle. I haven't been to the
smaller islands.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and there was nothing we could do but wait
patiently for the RAC to arrive.

 

[Graeme]

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Will this wind be so mighty as to lay low the mountains of the earth?
>

Maybe not, but when I was on Shetland it was enough to blow the newly
fitted tiles off one guys roof and over to the other side of the road, and
one guy over the hedge and into his neighbours garden when he walked out of
the front door.

Shetland (and to a lesser extent Orkney) is great for high winds. I saw an
old transmitter site there which had more tether points on the ground than
I've ever seen. It still blew down :-O

Graeme

 

[Tumbleweed]

"tom bender" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:b_kEc.207$wK6.64@newsfe2-win...
> Well, I went cycle-camping in the Orkneys in the late 90's and had a
> great time. It was v.windy though and it rained quite a bit, but the
> people are friendly and I seem to remember it being fairly flat.
> There are some great ancient ruins on Orkney like Skara Brae and Maes
> Howe. Stone circles a plenty too. You can get ferries to the other
> Islands fairly regularly and they were quite cheap to take the bikes on.
> There's some intersting stuff about WW2 there as well. I think the
> German naval fleet was scuppered there.
>

WW 1 not 2

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

 

[Jo]

I went last year with my teenage son and his friend. We had a great
time. Lots of things of interest to see. We didn't have a problem with the
wind while we were there - maybe we just chose a good week. It is great for
a fun cycling break, maybe not the place to seriously challenge yourself,
although I suppose you could devise some challenging routes.
Only problems really were that there are few places to camp, and the
ferry company changed the day of our return ferry, refusing to acknowledge
that getting to Aberdeen 36 hours before our flight from there was an
inconvenience.
I definitely hope to go again sometime.
Jo
"Hugh Spicer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?
>
> --
> Hugh Spicer
> _________________________
> e - [email protected]
> w3 - www.hughspicer.fsnet.co.uk
> _________________________
>
>
>

 

[Dave Kahn]

Helen Deborah Vecht <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

> I've not been to Orkney but have lived in Shetland. Wind is not a
> problem if you are prepared to spend twice as long making a trip in one
> direction as in the other...

I've worked in the Shetlands. The wind was one of the commonest causes
of damage to our company cars. Occasionally someone would stop with
the back of the car facing into the wind, casually open the door, and
have it torn out of their hand and off its hinges.

While there I relied on the theory that you never have to lock a house
or car door, and had no trouble whatsoever. People posted to the
Shetlands either loved the place or hated it. Happily I was in the
former category.

--
Dave...

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

In news:[email protected],
Dave Kahn <[email protected]> typed:
> Helen Deborah Vecht <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> While there I relied on the theory that you never have to lock a house
> or car door, and had no trouble whatsoever. People posted to the
> Shetlands either loved the place or hated it. Happily I was in the
> former category.

I remember going on holiday in Orkney and seeing all the cars parked with
the key in the ignition. Well, it makes sense, cause if you put it anywhere
else you might lose it.

A

 

[JohnB]

Simon Brooke wrote:
>
> in message <[email protected]>, Hugh Spicer
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
> > Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?
>
> Yup. Only on Mainland, though. Mainland is mostly fairly flat but
> amazingly windswept

So true. It took us 2 hours to cover 7 miles when we made a short visist
after our E2E.

http://www.jpbdesign.net/orkneys.html

JohnB