7 Places to Ride Before You Die


Michael Finch |

The Cyclist’s Bucket List

6 / 8

Bucket 6

Isle of Skye, Scotland

The dark volcanic rock rises from the surrounding green slopes in towering spires and sheer cliffs, forming a 30.5-kilometre ridge down the center of the Trotternish peninsula on Scotland’s Isle of Skye. The rock formations on this rustic isle have long inspired Gaelic legend and even Hollywood directors (Ridley Scott shot his 2012 film Prometheus here), and they have also drawn cyclists from across the United Kingdom and around the world.

An 80-kilometre loop starting in the town of Portree runs along the edge of the peninsula, through rolling farm fields, and between the shore of the Atlantic and the looming ridgeline. You’ll first encounter the Old Man of Storr, a knifelike outcrop that rises more than 600 metres above the nearby sea. Local folklore tells of a giant who sank into the earth here, leaving only his thumb pointing toward the sky. More likely, lava, battered by thousands of years of wind, rain, and erosion, formed the Storr.

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