Off to visit the parents on Skye next week. Been up a fair few times but usually have the wife, the dog and loads of luggage so there's never been any room for a bike.

This time though, it's just me, the dog and two bikes. Really fancy trying the above named route and seem to recall someone recently posting that you're better off coming back on the same route, rather than making a loop of it…

Anyone done it? Or any other circular routes on Skye? DEon't mind a bit of carrying / scrambling.

TIA

second part of the loop is usually wet – so with all the rain your likely to need a drysuit and an inshore lifeboat…

Bit of a bog is it? I'm assuming the track to follow is the one that heads up from the hotel, out towards the Horseshoe and then branches off to the right?

from the hotel down to Camasunary then up and over the hill

it's the return via strath mor that is very boggy

We did a very short, 6mile loop around the Quiraing, in the north of the island, on a visit back in Febuary. The trails there was pretty dry, it was a nice blizt route if you've got a morning/couple of hours free. Start at Staffin and head up the road to the Quiraing, then along the ridge into the 'prision' and descend down Leac Nan Fionn, onto the road back to Staffin.

We wanted to do the Sligichan loop, but it was raining most of the week.

Cheers for the advice / info. didmatt – what would that route be like in reverse – with the road bit to start with?

Glen Sligichan works well as an out and back IMO.

Start it from the car park at Kilmarie and it shouldn't matter too much what the weather has been like.

Cheers again – guess I'll suck-it-and-see.

user-removed : Well with the road out of Staffin going up Leac Nan Fionn, would be fine ridable in both ways. However with doing that, you end up loosing most of the descent back to Staffin with the road. Depends if you want a techy or a road descent really, we cut on the footpath just past the cemetery (here http://www.multimap.com/s/grSjF9p6 ) before the harpin which takes up onto the ridge via the road. This still leaves you with a steep push up onto the ridge lol.

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=3128 this is the route plotted for you. If you want anymore info, feel free to ask.

I walked the path from Sligachan as far as the turn off for Bruach na Frithe, back in July. I believe it goes all the way over to Glen Brittle. Looked to be a pretty good MTB route, with a few short sections requiring a carry.

I walked the path from Glen Brittle as far as the turn off for Bruach na Frithe, back in July. Looked to be a very good MTB route! 😉

Would certainly consider that as an out and back, plus if you're feeling playful then follow the road down to the campsite. From there the track up to Coire Lagain is a testing but short climb and a fun descent, before going back up the road then back over to Sligachan.

Don't know the route, but with the rain we've been having assume that anything remotely boggy will be a deep swamp, and paths will have rivers running down them

I did the Sligachan loop two years ago in September. If I was to do it again, I would ride the entire offroad section from the hotel to the next road you encounter (after climbing up from Camasunary), then turn around and do it in reverse. Probably about 35km entirely off road. The other offroad section is horrendous and there's a long slog on the road home.

Be prepared a) to be constantly off your bike for the first mile or so as you carry over large drainage ditches b) generally for the ride to be pretty wet.

Great scenery and I took some really nice photos (which I can't be arsed to post up right now!)

i did the sligachan route last week. had heard a few things from this forum- checek out this thread:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-few-pics-from-the-sligachan-loop-last-week-its-no-half-bad-like

from what i could tell, the route works better in reverse if you want to do a circular route. But tbh it is probably better as an out and back from Sligachan.
We decided that the Strath Mor section sounded miserable so we went for the slightly longer Strath Beag path. However, after a short initial rideable section, the path soon became unrideable, with a 30-45 minute hike-a-bike. However, after this section, the riding was superb with only a few short hike-a-bike sections. I do not know how the Strath Beag path compares to the Strath Mor section, but it was pretty wet when we were there and so a boggy section didn't sound very enjoyable. The Strath Beag path was pretty solid for the most part. There is also a nice cafe once you return to the road with a friendly guy who seemed very keen to find out where we had been riding as he didn't know of any paths suitable for bikes!

The return leg on the circular route which i did was back through Glen Sligachan was awesome, and we felt that although you could have a good run coming the other way, it was probably more fun doing it the way we did it.

If you decide to do it the same way as talked about above (i.e. Strath Mor section at the end), you will be greated by a beasty road climb back to Sligachan Hotel which would possibly spoil what is otherwise a great route, and certainly among the most enjoyable i have done.

Let me know if i can be of any more help, could probably get a memory map route map for you, or failing that just a picture of the route we followed.

Be prepared a) to be constantly off your bike for the first mile or so as you carry over large drainage ditches b) generally for the ride to be pretty wet.

all those ditches are rideable 🙂

agree on the second point though.

there is a cafe at the end of strath mor in the museum, we were plastered head to toe in bog by the time we got there.

'twas a while ago mind:

Wow! Great response, cheers! I've just been having a gander at the links and that Quiraing route looks good – walked it many times as a kid, but never biked it. Great pics too!!

Might leave it for the next trip though as I definitely fancy a longer day out, and am only up there for a few days, sadly.

I reckon I may just do an out and back from Sligichan to Camasunary – both the Strath Beag and Strath Mor return routes look as if you end up having to do a fair bit of on road cycling at the end, and as has been mentioned, it has been very rainy…

Thanks for all the tips – I'll get the photos up in about a week and a half!

you will be greated by a beasty road climb back to Sligachan Hotel which would possibly spoil what is otherwise a great route

Not if you take the Moll road round the peninsular. I rode the Srath Beag loop also but did it in the opposite direction which meant cycling up the rideable sections then hike a bike for about 1 hour back to the road at Luib 🙁

you will be greated by a beasty road climb back to Sligachan Hotel which would possibly spoil what is otherwise a great route

Not if you take the Moll road round the peninsular. I rode the Srath Beag loop also but did it in the opposite direction which meant cycling up the rideable sections then hike a bike for about 1 hour back to the road at Luib 🙁

If i were to ride the route again though i would do it as an out and back from Kilmarie then you could have a lunch stop at Sligahan hotel. Here are a few photos (hopefully to whet the appetite) from when i did the route on an early March day with "changeable" weather.

enjoy 🙂

Appetite well and truly whetted 🙂

It's best out from Slig to Camasunary and back. The circular route sounds good but it's mostly on tarmac.

Wet you will be!
Did this a few years ago on a wet and windy day and still have very good memories.
We went from Slig, up main road, down ST from above first hairpin to Moll road, which was a good giggle. Over Strath Mor which was fine but some did get into water over the hubs at times.
Drop to Camasunary was very rough and ST back to Slig was one of my favourite rides ever, despite being pretty knackered and have a dead leg from an OTB on descent to Camasunary. A great loop, a bit more tarmac than I would usually choose but didn't feel bad on the day. Go for it.

Wet?

From druidh's link:

Data gathered at the Lusa weather station, on the south of the island, showed the volume of rainfall ranged from just 1mm a day to torrential downpours.

lol! Is that a scientific volume then? I wonder what 1 x torrential downpour equals.

Pics from my trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerfox/tags/skye/

Absolutely fabulous……..another one on the ever growing list!

As others have said, expect loads of this

if you do the circular.

I'd go Sligachan – Camusanary – Kilmarie then back. Probably a bit of pushing up to top of Am Mam as far as I remember but then you have this descent to Kilmarie 😀

Turn round, go back up it and then the descent to Camusnary was the best bit of the whole ride IMO.

Forgot I'd started this thread – was reminded about it by a link from another Skye thread. Didn't actually do the Sligichan route that trip ^^^ Did THIS ROUTE instead.

Did the Slig out and back next time though – sorry the pics are nine months late for this thread…