British Isles

The trip around the British Isles is a 3-week trip, counter clockwise into England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Wales. As I haven’t been to the United Kingdom and Ireland, the research is based 100% on others’ experience.

Photos by Peter Riber

Estimated trip length:	9,200 km including ferries
Days:	23
When:	May 24th, 2021 (Departing Malmö, SE)
Estimated trip cost:	€3,500 (based on dice rolling)

The first part of the trip, from my home, is across the northern part of Germany, through Hamburg. Besides from probably visiting the Neuengamme Concentration camp, I am not planning to see much more around Hamburg.

We’ll continue west towards Rotterdam which is probably where we will take a night ferry to Hull. Arriving the next morning, we will continue west where we will visit a couple of castles, one of them Bolton Castle.

Then, further west, visiting a couple of castles before we reach the Lake District with Kirkstone Pass, and Hardknott Pass. After visiting Honister Slate Mine, we continue our journey north through Carrifran Wildwood.

Maybe we will ride in to Edinburgh, but I’m not sure how the traffic is. I usually avoid larger citifies, but it might be worth the while. No matter what, we continue north to ride through the Cairngorms National Park, hoping that is a nice route.

There’s no trip to Scotland without visiting the Loch Ness, and as many before us, we expect to be the first ones ever to capture a high quality image and video of the monster.

Starting at Inverness, we will follow the North Coast 500 route counter clockwise along the shores of Scotland. We will visit John O’Groats and take a mandatory selfie with the sign in the background.

After countless curves and stunning scenery, we will take a detour to ride around the Isle of Skye. It is supposed to be a spectacular ride.

We will continue south, maybe even make a stop at the Glenfinnan Viaduct, famous from the Harry Potter movies. We will continue south to a peninsula, that I believe is called Kintyre, to catch a ferry from Campbeltown to Bellycastle, Northern Ireland, from where we will ride a big part of the Wild Atlantic Way.

After visiting the Giant’s Causeway, with its oddly shaped basalt columns, we will continue west to Ireland to Malin Head in Donegal County. We’re expecting to visit a retired Jedi Knight here. I have gotten the impression that Donegal offers great scenic rides.

After a few mind tricks with Luke, we continue south to the Assaranca Waterfall.

We continue south along the shore, on backroads, towards Ballycroy National Park before we hit the city of Galway.

Before reaching the westernmost point of the trip, we ride over the Connor Pass. We continue south over Healy Pass to Mizen Head.

At this point, we will be heading east, back home, via Dublin and Wales, making a detour to Land’s End. A stop at Stonehenge, and Loomies Moto Café.

We will stop by the Palace Pier of Brighton before setting the feet on mainland Europe after a trip under water via the Euro Tunnel.

At this point, we are traditionally bloated with impressions, and with the mind set on home, we are likely to just set the course on the fastest route, i.e. highways.

All photos in this document is by Peter Riber. Check out his ride report in Danish, or Google translated English.