This post is a trip report for a bike tour I went on earlier in July 2024 with a friend from Lairg to John O’ Groats. It is a great weekend trip from Edinburgh, leaving on Friday evening and getting back on Sunday late afternoon. It is pretty intense, especially the first day, but it was mine and my mate’s first overnight and over 100km trip and we managed without too much trouble.

Dalila Moreira via Unsplash

Overview

The trip starts in Lairg, in the middle of the Highlands, goes up to John o’ Groats, Scotland’s northeastern tip and then goes to Wick to catch the train back to Inverness. John o’ Groats is famous for being one extremity of the Land’s End to John o’ Groat cycling trail, that connects Great Britain’s two futhest points, the other one being Land’s End in Cornwall. I used to believe that John o’ Groats was the northernmost point, but it is actually Easter Head on the nearby Dunnet Head peninsula.

The map below shows our initial plan, which included going back to Thurso after John O’Groats; in the end we decided to go to Wick because it was more or less the same distance but the road seemed flatter and the wind direction more favorable and we were pretty knackered by this point.

Day 1 - Friday

• 17:33 -> 21:33 - Edinburgh to Inverness Night at the Inverness Hostelling Scotland hostel.

  Day 2 - Saturday

• 7:00 -> 8:49 - Inverness -> Lairg Cycling from Lairg to Thurso (132 km) Night at the Thurso Premier Inn

  Day 3 - Sunday

  Cycling from Thurso to John O’Groats, then John O’Groats to Wick (~60km)

• Sunday 11:58 -> 20:07: Wick -> Edinburgh via Inverness and Stirling

Train Ride to Inverness

We left from Waverley on Friday after work. We couldn’t book bike spaces on the train for some legs on the trip but we figured from past experience of taking bikes on trains that we could negotiate with the controller and fit our bikes in some spaces where they didn’t bother anyone. Unfortunately in Stirling the controller was very strict and made us get off the train and wait for a later one that came an hour later.

Then when we got to Perth, the line was blocked by a train that broke down, so we had to find a replacement bus. In the end we got to Inverness later than we had planned, but the important part is that we made it.

The Ride

The path we took was easy to follow; it is part of a Sustrans route so it is well indicated, and moreover it follows the A836 all the way from Lairg to Thurso so there is very little chance of taking a wrong turn. It goes straight North through the Highlands up to Tongue, then turns East along the coast through the towns of Melvich, Reay and Thurso all the way to John o’ Groats.

First Leg: Lairg to Thurso

The first leg starts pretty easily, once we left Lairg we followed a single track road winding through the Flow Country, a vast expanse of peatland. The weather was clement (light drizzle) and the cars sparse enough to not be a nuisance.

The landscapes are truly breathtaking with views over lochs, bridges crossing glenns, and heather starting to bloom.

We reached Tongue on the Northern coast and had a picnic there. There is a hostel where you can theoretically get warm food or use the microwaves to heat up your own food, but it is at the bottom of a pretty steep road and we weren’t keen to climb that after our meal so we ate a cold lunch and saved ourselves some energy - good thing because we ended up needing it later.

The road following the coast is double-track, and also a bit busier than inland. The views are incredible, it goes along cliffs and beaches and every turn opens up on a scenery more dramatic than the previous one.

However, this part also has proper climbs. Looking at the elevation profile, I expected the first part to be more tiring: you can see these two long hills; what I didn’t take into account is the gradient – the coastal route doesn’t have long hills but it has steep ones, and several of them in a row. The first one between Tongue and Bettyhill was particularly brutal, but after that we got into a rhythm and pushed through.

The last 10 miles or so are flatter, going through sheep pastures on a very straight road. At this point I was pretty exhausted and it started to rain pretty heavily so I was very happy to arrive in Thurso.

Second Leg: Thurso to Wick via John O’ Groats

On Sunday we got an early start and headed for John O’ Groats. We were in pleasantly surprised by how little pain we were in given the amount of climbing we had done the previous day. It was a sunny day and the wind was blowing from the West in our backs, we felt pretty confident.

The road to John O’ Groats goes through more pastures, we could still see the cliffs, the ocean and the Southernmost Orkney islands in the distance. We reached John O’ Groats quite early, it was quiet and sunny. After a short break for coffee and an obligatory pic below the sign, we headed to Wick.

After another pleasant 20km ride along the coast, we got to Wick with plenty of time before our train left, and took the train back to Edinburgh.

On the trip back, we had to change our train plans because of a strike. We changed trains at Glasgow instead of Stirling, but it only added about 1 hour to our trip.

Paper Maps

In order to not be too dependent on my pone’s battery and because I’m a helpless map nerd, I was planning on getting some OS maps for the route. The whole ride is (almost entirely) covered by 3 OS maps:

• OS Landranger 16: Map of Lairg & Loch Shin
• OS Landranger 10: Map of Strath Naver
• OS Landranger 12: Map of Thurso and Wick In the end, because we mostly followed the same route, I decided against buying OS maps this time but I will definitely get some at some point.

Conclusion

It was a great trip; the views are incredible and I love that I’m able to go to places where I feel so far away from everything just a train ride from Edinburgh. However it took me a good three days of going to bed at 21:00 to fully recover, so if I was to do it again I would take a day off afterwards. Another thing I would do is book the train earlier in advance so that I have bike spaces booked for all the trip; even though most controllers are chill with it, some are not and can be a real pain.