Cycling in the Orkney Islands

Anyone have any recent experience cycling on the Orkney Isles ?

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Hugh Spicer
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"Hugh Spicer" wrote in message
...

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.

In ,
Adrian Boliston typed:
"Hugh Spicer" wrote in message
...

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

"Ambrose Nankivell" typed


In ,
Adrian Boliston typed:
"Hugh Spicer" wrote in message
...

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:
Edgware.

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.

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:26:48 +0100, "Ambrose Nankivell"
wrote in message
:

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

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 ?

in message , Hugh Spicer
') 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.

--
(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.

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in
:

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

"tom bender" 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 :-)

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Tumbleweed

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