The map of Britain is spattered with islands: over a thousand big enough to play football on.
How many of them are actually cyclable, is debatable, but the larger ones form a remarkable set of bike destinations.
Many have their own distinct personality and microculture, and some are extraordinarily ‘other’.
For instance, when the pandemic restricted foreign travel, many cycle tourists found, to their delight, that the Hebrides or Shetlands scratched the remote-adventures itch (and it wasn’t just the midges).
For those who don’t want to fly, Scotland’s west-coast islands are a similarly exotic delight, easily reached by the CalMac ferries that criss-cross the entire area.
Some islands are impractical for a bike trip – the queasily distant Scillies, uncyclable Lundy – but there are fun small-scale options closer to hand. Causeway jaunts across to Cramond Island near Edinburgh, St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, Osea Island in Essex, or the epic to Lindisfarne in Northumberland, for example.
Little ferries can be a delight too, such as the seasonal ones to Mersea Island near Colchester, or to quirky Piel Island by Barrow.
From cosy to epic, Britain’s best island trips offer not only the away-from-it-all feeling of a foray abroad, but great cycling too: views, challenge and reward on quiet roads and lanes. Here are 10 of my favourite island day-rides.
1. Skye, Scotland
Sometimes, you can’t enjoy the landscape here in summer because of all the drivers blocking the roads, enjoying the scenery.
But if you’ve got over the bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh railway station on the mainland and up to Portree, Skye’s ‘capital’, and you’re not here in peak season, you’re in for a cycling extravaganza.
This romantic isle has some of Britain’s most cinematic landscapes – mountains, peaks, crags, vast rocks, intense coastlines and narrow roads somehow negotiating their way through it all. From Portree, you have two day-filling circuits.
One route is west to Dunvegan, about 70 miles once you’ve done a couple of spurs.
The other is the 40-mile experience north around the frame-filling rockscapes of Trotternish: the little road that vaults over the Quiraing is a memorable must-ride.
For the maximum islands experience, there’s a ferry to south Skye from Mallaig, and a small summer-only one between Kylerhea and, well, nowhere.
As always in the Highlands, every stop to enjoy said scenery in summer or autumn invites the midges (unless it’s windy), but many get bitten by the Skye bug too.
2. Isle of Wight, England
Fitting neatly on one OS map (Landranger 196), the island county across from Southampton is a 1960s-England-in-miniature, with some busy roads but no motorways or sprawling developments (nor branches of Greggs), and plenty of pretty quiet back lanes and bridleways through gentle countryside.
The main day ride is the clearly signed coastal-circuit showcase; anti-clockwise is best for prevailing westerly winds.
Simply exploring on two wheels is fun: it’s villagey and undulating, with plenty of cafes, pubs, ice-cream vans and snack bars, plus beach resorts in the south-east.
Gravel riders have lots of bridleways and tracks to roam, notably the Tennyson Trail out west.
The island is hilly, but not very: the highest point is 241m, at St Boniface Down above the elegant Victorian seaside resort of Ventnor.
For panoramic views, take the road by the transmitter tower at Chillerton and the track up to it.
The favourite family-friendly route is the Red Squirrel Trail from Cowes – much of it along mostly paved rail paths – to the splendidly rideable promenades of Shanklin.
3. Mull, Scotland
This Hebridean isle is a cycling marvel. Empty singletrack roads hug loch shores, follow glens and occasionally vault over highlands between tiny villages, with awesome scenery at every turn.
The colourful, picturesque ‘capital’ Tobermory has all the facilities you need in a base, but Mull is remote – reached via ferry from Oban – so take tools, food and drink on your rides.
Far-flung Iona, the holy island, is worth the long round trip, as is car-free Ulva, halfway up Mull, just off to the west (reached by small boat).
Take binoculars for wildlife spotting: if you see people gazing at something, it’ll probably be an eagle or something equally special.
4. Shetland, Scotland
A trip here feels like proper exploring. There’s something eerie and otherworldly about Shetland, geographically and culturally.
Come in mid-summer to experience the strange ‘night’, when sunrise follows on the heels of sunset without it having got dark in between.
It’s not even 2am, and the pubs are possibly still open, with folk musicians in full swing.
Treeless, bleak, windy and austere – yet with facilities in every village, and furnished bus stops that look like someone’s lounge – the archipelago is like a handful of stormy outer planets orbiting Britain’s distant sun (it’s closer to Bergen than Inverness).
Take ferries up to Unst and ride north for a view of Muckle Flugga, whose lighthouse and sea-pummelled rock stacks mark the northernmost extremity of the UK.
And, yes, as well as zillions of seabirds, you will see Shetland ponies. Lively Lerwick is your base.
5. Arran, Scotland
‘Scotland in Miniature’ is Arran's tag: it has northern mountains, southern uplands, castles, forests and fabulous coastline, with thrilling views at every bend.
However, there’s nothing miniature about the climbs.
You can easily complete an island circuit in a day, or cover every road over a weekend.
The village of Brodick, reachable by boat from Ardrossan, is a good hub. You should definitely do the 60-mile, ‘all Scotland in a day’ coastal circuit.
Crossing the middle of the island is ‘the String Road’, a fine climb to the moorland top with a long downhill to Blackwaterfoot.
Arran’s often patchy tarmac suits gravel bikes, and the tracks in the foresty southern half of the island are great fun.
6. Isle of Man
The home of the fastest man in road cycling, Mark Cavendish, the Isle of Man is known for something else fast: its TT race, a motorbike speedfest that turns the island’s roads into a giant racetrack.
Outside of that time, cycling the 40-mile course can be scenic and thrilling in a Scottish Lowlands sort of way, taking you up to the flanks of Snaefell, more than 1,300ft up. But watch out: there’s no speed limit here, although there are many quieter roads.
Spend two or three days exploring the curious state on two wheels, perhaps doing a circumnavigation via coastal resorts.
7. Anglesey, Wales
If you’ve done the ‘Welsh End to End’ of the Lôn Las Cymru up to here, from Cardiff or Chepstow, you probably hurtled across the island from the Menai Bridge to drab Holyhead and got the train home straight away, perhaps taking away a humdrum impression of Wales’s largest island.
There’s a lot more to the place, though.
For one thing, just beyond Holyhead is a dramatic stretch of coast road and tracks leading to South Stack lighthouse, where the LLC really ought to end.
There’s also a range of marked routes, which offer not only more lighthouses (such as stripey Penmon, guarding the Menai Strait) but also glimpses of wildlife; for birders, the range of habitats offers chances to see a wide range of spottables, from puffins to eagles.
You may not be that far from the main rail line, but it can feel satisfyingly natural (and quiet) out here.
And while the climbs are never huge, there’s plenty of vertical landscape interest in the island’s villages, shapely hills and rugged coastlines, where the Welsh language and culture thrive.
8. Guernsey
Not part of the UK, or even the islands of Britain, the self-governing island of Guernsey, which lies off the coast of northern France, nevertheless feels very English, as if a chunk of Devon has escaped to the Med to start a new life as a tax haven.
There’s a morphed familiarity to everything; the postboxes are the same but blue, for instance. And like its comrade Jersey, Guernsey is a little gem for cycling, with a network of ruettes tranquilles: quiet lanes where bikes, walkers and horses have priority over motors.
The obvious route is the circumnavigation of its coast on mostly little roads and tracks.
Although only 40 miles round, it’ll fill a whole day by the time you’ve taken the various side-plummets down from clifftop to golden beach and back up.
But the coastal views, sparkling blue waters and beachside refreshments make up for the effort. You can bring your bike on the ferry from Britain to the ‘capital’, St Peter Port, for free, or hire one there.
9. Spurn Island, England
Welcome to England’s newest island, a 20-mile flat ride east of Hull. Spurn is a four-mile sand bar – at times barely the width of a tennis court, but mostly rideable on tarmac – that sticks way out into the North Sea.
Since being breached by a tidal surge in 2013, a few times a year at super-high tide, it’s separated from the mainland.
Come at the right time (safe crossing windows are online) and you can watch the waters roll in and out, Red Sea-style.
Usually, you have to push your bike across half a mile of sand to get to the (still-roaded) island bit. It’s a strange place, surrounded by whirling wind turbines and wading birds.
10. Lewis & Harris, Scotland
The Outer Hebrides are perhaps the nearest you can get in the UK to cycling on the moon.
The ‘two’ islands of Lewis and Harris, like a comedy double act, are really one item, and sit at the top of a chain of isles that extends to Vatersay down south.
The 180-mile Hebridean Way runs the length of them, and following it presents few navigational problems: there’s only really one (little-trafficked) road, with the odd diversion such as the epic ‘Golden Road’ on south-east Harris wiggling its lonely way past lochs down to Roghadal.
Much of the time, the terrain is rocky, lunar stuff, with a strong edge-of-existence feel, but then round the corner appears a startling white-sand beach that could be in the Caribbean. Except for the temperature, that is.
It’s gusty up here in the North Atlantic, so expect some headwinds.
Despite the remoteness, there are enough cafes, pubs and shops. Just getting there – likely on the ferry from unique Ullapool on the mainland – is an adventure in itself: the leafy likes of the Home Counties will seem a very long way away.
