By MGB Roadster to
the Outer Hebrides.
An Autumn trip to Scotland in
our MGB Roadster seemed to be a good idea as we drove home in
late June of this year, having spent a warm and sunny ten days
in the North West of Scotland.
We stay for a week most years
in a caravan that we rent at the end of a single-track road. The
caravan is virtually on the beach, and overlooking the islands
of Rhum, Eigg, Muck and Skye, the Outer Hebrides visible on a
clear day if you walked a little way up the hill behind the caravan.
We were travelling home in our
VW Golf and, as is often the situation in Scotland, it was pouring
with rain, we had just passed through Glencoe when we spotted
a lady and gentleman travelling on bicycles. Both were dressed
for the weather and made an amusing sight as they coasted down
the steep hill in the rain. He on a Penny-Farthing and she on
an early loop frame bicycle. We had never seen a Penny-Farthing
being ridden on the road and wondered how well the brakes worked
in the wet conditions.
We decided almost at once that
if they could do it on elderly bicycles we could surely enjoy
the trip in our 33 year old MGB. The plan we formulated on our
journey home was to take the B to the Outer Hebrides, the islands
on the horizon of so many of our summer holidays.
The planning started as soon
as we arrived home. First a trip to the local library to borrow
the relevant Ordnance Survey maps (8 maps to cover the islands,
as they are long and thin with lots of wet bits). Then we looked
at the ferry options and the time tables, mid September would
be the end of the "summer sailings" and not quite so
much choice of times.
Having considered the Calmac
time tables for the available boats we decided that it would suit
us best to start at the top and work our way from Lewis and Harris
down through North Uist and Benbecula to South Uist where we would
catch the ferry back to Oban. So Ullapool was to be our start
point, with a convenient Tuesday morning ferry to Stornoway sailing
at 9.30 am. The bookings were made by telephone to the Glasgow
office of Calmac, no turning back now.
Preparation of the B meant a
little more than just a routine service, we were still running
on leaded petrol and knowing that it was not readily available
in the Highlands of Scotland I decided that an unleaded head would
be a good idea. I had intended to run on the old head as long
as possible. Normally the B, though used regularly all year round,
only does runs of 20 miles or so, and is not used on motorways.
A replacement head was fitted and the car given a full service.
Having driven the B about 150 miles and given everything a chance
to settle down all that was needed was tappet adjustment before
we set off.
Living not far from Baldock we
had a 600-mile trip get us to Ullapool. This we decide to do in
two stages, the first of 400 miles to Callander just north of
Stirling where we knew of a good overnight stop near to the, now
closed, Doune Motor Museum. The second leg the more interesting
200 mile run through Fort William, part way along Loch Ness and
the across to Ullapool.
The journey up the A1 to the
A66 we had done many times before. In reasonable weather, with
hood down, we made good time to a coffee stop just before Penrith
(Mrs Millers Tea Rooms at Culgaith Station). From here we continued
up the M6 and M74 towards Glasgow. Not far south of Glasgow we
stopped again for more coffee and a sandwich, we had just got
back into the MG when we notice slight drizzle. We set off ignoring
the threatening rain to rejoin the main road, almost immediately
we ran into the roadworks, stationary traffic on the motorway
and by now steady rain with several periods of quite heavy rain.
During the half-hour crawl it was quite fun to watch the reaction
of the other motorists as we mopped up the MG interior while standing
in the traffic queue. Several much younger cars fell by the wayside
with overheating. The rain persisted for the rest of the day.
We made it with the hood still down the 100 miles to Callander
where we had a good supper and booked into our B & B. We left
the MG under its tonneau cover overnight in the hope that the
morning would bring better weather.
Next day after mopping up the
tonneau before stowing it away, we set off in bright sunshine
to enjoy the 200-mile trip to Ullapool. The weather stayed sunny
and warm there was hardly any traffic on the road, ideal open
MG conditions. Ullapool town was just as we remembered, very quiet
as it was Sunday, but lovely in the sunshine. We soon found a
comfortable place to stay with off road parking for the MG. It
was then that we realised that most of the houses had their front
doors standing open and that almost every other car was left with
windows open and often keys in the ignition. We soon got into
the relaxed habit that was to last till we returned to Oban of
the leaving doors unlocked, the MG was still under the tonneau
anyway.
Relaxing in sunny Ullapool.
Our schedule allowed us a day
to explore Ullapool and to visit its excellent museum, which is
a real credit to the people responsible for researching and preparing
the exhibits. It is a most interesting history of the town and
its inhabitants, with many interactive exhibits. Another warm
sunny day, we managed to be in the museum during the one short
shower in the afternoon. In the evening we went to an interesting
lecture on the "Early Munroists". The talk was illustrated
with slides that showed the dress and equipment used by climbers
in the early part of this century, quite different to the High-Tec
requirements of today.
The ferry trip to Lewis took
about 3 hours, in fine clear weather with beautiful views all
the way. Once off the ferry we soon found our way through Stornoway
and across the island to our B & B on the west of Lewis. This
was to be our base for the next four days. We chose this spot
as it appeared to be a central location which would enable us
to see many sites of interest without retracing our step too much.
Our chosen B & B proved to be all we had hoped quiet with
spacious bedroom and excellent breakfast and evening meals. Kate,
our hostess was a superb cook, and looked after us very well.
Her modern house was furnished with carefully chosen items and
a wide selection of pictures, some her own work and others of
her friends.
Standing Stones at Callanish.
Here unlike Stonhenge it is possible
to walk amongst the stones.
Machine cut peat stacked outside
the retired School Master's house above Port of Ness harbour.
This was the only machine cut
peat we saw. All the rest, and most houses had a stack, had been
cut by hand.
We were able to visit the Standing
Stones at Callanish, Carloway Broch and Arnol Black House, all
were on our doorstep. We went up to the Butt of Lewis and to the
harbour at Port of Ness the harbour is now largely silted up but
it once was a very busy fishing port.
Carloway Broch.
An early fortified building in
very good state of preservation. The residential part of the Broch
was between the inner and outer walls.
Jane feeding the chickens outside
the Arnol "Black House"
To the south of Lewis we visited
the Uig area where we found some lovely beaches, one of the most
beautiful was listed as "unsafe for bathing". We spent
one rather wet day on a trip down to the more mountainous Harris,
which we found very different from the barren landscape of Lewis.
Beautiful beach but listed as
"Unsafe for bathing"
There was a "safe"
beach just over the hill.
We were sorry to leave our B
& B at Tolsta Chaolais, but looked forward to the next stage
of our journey.
As we were to leave for the ferry
to North Uist, and the forecast was not so good we decided that
we would put up the hood for the first time. Not the first time
that week but the first time in the three years we have had the
car! Our pessimism was rewarded, it did rain while we were waiting
the 30 minutes in the ferry queue. This ferry was of the landing
craft type with ramps fore and aft. This journey took 75 minutes,
fortunately the sea was reasonably calm and the B was parked under
the sheltered side of the vessel so we did not get the salt spray
that occasionally covered the one coach on board. We left the
hood up as we drove to our next stop, a modern house on the edge
of a lovely beach on the Balranald nature reserve. Again lovely
food, shame about the room, which was very small with minimal
en-suite (just 27 inches wide, and a very dodgy shower), the bedroom
window looked out over next doors rubbish heap!
We spent another warm sunny day
walking the length of the beach, over the headland and on to the
next beach. The sandy beaches just went on and on and were almost
entirely deserted. Back in the evening for another well prepared
meal.
When we left next morning the
weather had definitely gone off a bit, with hood up we drove down
North Uist, across the causeway to Benbecula, another causeway,
and on to South Uist. We continued south and found our final B
& B just short of the ferry terminal at Lochboisdale, next
morning we were due to sail at 7.30 am via Castlebay (Barra) to
Oban. Unfortunately shortly before our visit our hostess had been
taken ill and was in the Infirmary in Glasgow. Her husband had
kindly organised alternative accommodation for us and when we
found him he lead us to the bungalow in which we were to stay
overnight. Another comfortable modern bungalow conveniently located
a few miles from the terminal. the next morning we had to be on
the quay at 6.45 am for the Oban boat.
Early morning on Lochboisdale
ferry quay.
Early Tuesday morning we drove
down to join the crowds waiting for the boat. When we arrived
we were told that there were only 8 cars and one lorry booked
on the first leg of the crossing to Barra (the ferry held 100
cars), so there was no shortage of space for the handful of passengers.
Busy car deck, all cars loaded
and ready to go.
We sat on deck in the early morning
sun to enjoy the 2-hour run to Barra, here there were a small
number of vehicles waiting to join the ferry. We left Barra still
sitting out on deck and stayed outside to make the most of the
scenery and try to identify the islands as we passed them. The
journey over to Oban took us south of Skye and along the Sound
of Mull, as the ferry approached the mainland and we saw the Ardnamurchan
lighthouse we started to be able to identify some of our favourite
beaches from previous holidays. For all the time we were at sea
on this 7-hour crossing the sun shone and we were out on deck.
Arriving at Oban at 2.15 p.m.
where we found a convenient car park (Tesco’s), filled up
with petrol and folded the hood into is normal position under
the tonneau. We then made the journey in bright sun south to our
previous B & B at Callander.
Next day we had to do the motorway
run passed Glasgow, Carlisle and on to Penrith. At Penrith we
decided to leave the main road and take the A6 over Shap, we found
this an excellent road running roughly parallel to the motorway.
At Kendal we turned east and travelled through Sedburgh and on
to Hawes. From Hawes we drove the road over the moors and on through
Pateley Bridge and our overnight stop at Ripon. It started to
rain as we visited Ripon Cathedral and was raining hard as we
searched for our B & B, which we found easily with the aid
of directions and map from the Tourist Office. This time our hosts
were TR enthusiasts, with a small collection of TR7s. A wet
evening with thunder and torrential rain later left us wondering
the wisdom of leaving the MGB under its tonneau once again. In
the morning a quick look before breakfast revealed that all was
well and the car interior had kept dry.
The run home down the A1 was
busy as it usually is, but dry weather made the journey almost
pleasant. The sky became very threatening several times but we
were lucky and seemed to drive between the showers. Safely home
in early afternoon we unpacked and put the MG in the garage. Soon
after the heavens opened and it rained hard for most of the afternoon
and evening.
Summing up:
Normally transport to Scotland
for annual holidays has been the family car, for the past few
years a VW Golf, this has been due to carrying far more luggage
than we really needed.
Our first trip to Scotland in
an open car was in 1960, in a Frog Eye Sprite, in 1990 we travelled
up in an Austin Healey 100/4 replica, and a Mazda MX5 on two subsequent
years. We both agree that the trip this year in the MGB has been
the best balance of comfort and capability to hold us and our
luggage. Yes we would do it again in the MGB. The luggage capacity
of the boot proved more that adequate for our clothes and picnic
food. There was plenty of additional space behind the seats, which
was used for the jerseys etc. that we cast off when it was too
hot. The landscape on Lewis was at first sight barren, but with
further acquaintance became ever changing in the different light
conditions. Harris to the south had much more varied scenery with
more trees and mountains, unfortunately most of the time we spent
there was either wet or very wet. We both thought that on a return
trip we would probable prefer to visit Lewis and Harris for longer
rather than spend time on the southern islands.
Could we have such warm and mainly
fine September weather again for a repeat performance? It would
be nice to think that we will.
FJD535D
The car which we have owned for
three years is a MGB Roadster. I rebuilt it into a Heritage shell
immediately after making the purchase. Originally built in 1966
one of the previous owners had fitted a 5 bearing engine and 4
synchro gearbox and overdrive. These I retained though they are
obviously not "original".
The preparation of the car several
weeks before the trip to allow a few local miles for it to settle
down helped to give us reliability.
Distance covered was 1600 miles
with an overall fuel consumption of 31mpg. Oil consumption was
minimal. The B was driven at about the legal limit on the Motorways
and A roads, on the Islands and on the run home across the moors
we went rather more slowly, in line with the other local traffic.
A useful idea?
Tonneau covers.
To achieve a waterproof interior
using the tonneau cover is probably impossible as water always
leaks through the zip. The best method I have found is to make
up a "ridge pole" using a couple of lengths of plastic
water pipe joined with a piece of doweling.
This "ridge pole" is
supported at the front on the dashboard top and at the rear on
the tonneau support rail. Placed under the length of the zip it
will hold the zip up so that the weight of the rain will not make
the tonneau sink and form a puddle in its centre. The further
addition of a towel on the tunnel under the zip will absorb any
drops that come through the zip.
I have successfully used this
method on the several open cars that I have owned over the years.