Why this ride
From Stromness it runs 388 km to Stromness; allow about 8 h 31 of riding. It goes by way of Munsary & Shielton, Skinsdale and back through Munsary & Shielton. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Skara Brae and Skinsdale
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 388 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 31
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Skara Brae
Skara Brae is the oldest house you will ever walk past on a motorbike, or at least the oldest complete set of them. On the Bay of Skaill, on the west coast of Orkney's Mainland, a group of Neolithic stone houses lies half buried in the grassy dunes, built roughly five thousand years ago and lived in for several centuries. A great storm in the winter of 1850 stripped the turf from a mound and exposed the walls, and what was uncovered astonished everyone: stone beds, stone dressers, hearths, and cupboards still in their original places, because the settlers had built with slabs rather than timber, and there was no timber to rot. The site forms part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, along with the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness a few miles away.
Read the complete Skara Brae write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Skara Brae is where the day begins. Next is Munsary & Shielton.
2. Munsary & Shielton
Inland from Wick, in the far north-east of Scotland, the land flattens into a vast, rolling expanse of peat bog, brown and gold, dotted with pools and lochans that reflect the sky. Munsary and Shielton are areas of this blanket bog, part of the Flow Country, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2024 as the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe. Here, sphagnum mosses have built up peat over thousands of years, storing vast amounts of carbon, and the bog teems with life: insect-eating sundews, cotton grass waving white in summer, and birds such as golden plover, greenshank and dunlin nesting among the hummocks.
Read the complete Munsary & Shielton write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Munsary & Shielton comes up 84 km in. Next is Skinsdale.
3. Skinsdale
Nobody lives in Skinsdale to speak of, which is more or less the point. The glen lies in the east of Sutherland, an empty fold of moorland and burn between the coast at Brora and Helmsdale and the great open bog country to the north-west, and the nearest towns of any size, Golspie, Brora and Dornoch, are all over twenty kilometres away. A road passes through this part of the country, but the glen itself is a place you look into rather than ride through.
Read the complete Skinsdale write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
168 km in you reach Skinsdale. Next is back through Munsary & Shielton.
4. back through Munsary & Shielton
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Munsary & Shielton write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Munsary & Shielton, late in the day. Next is Skara Brae.
5. Skara Brae
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Skara Brae write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Skara Brae. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Skara Brae to Munsary & Shielton
Skara Brae → Munsary & Shielton is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Munsary & Shielton to Skinsdale
Munsary & Shielton → Skinsdale is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Skinsdale to back through Munsary & Shielton
Skinsdale → back through Munsary & Shielton is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Munsary & Shielton to Skara Brae
back through Munsary & Shielton → Skara Brae is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Ring of Brogar and Skinsdale · 370 km
- Stones of Stenness and Skinsdale · 367 km