4 day scotland trip

hullo,

me and a friend are planning a 4/5 day trip to Scotland at some point this summer, hoping to get towards glen coe and the cairngorms, also hoping to get on the railway at fort william for an afternoon.
anyone got any great road recommendations for around these areas, places that are a must and any nice but cheapish accomadation?

not particularly knowledgeable of the areas at all so any info or advice is welcome

Many thanks

Dave

For accomodation try the Youth Hostels - some of them are in the most stunning locations. There are also wig wams at various places which are comfy, cheap and different to the norm.

As for roads you are spoiled for choice - Rosco, Furball and the others will no doubt be along with loads of suggestions but my favourite run is Glasgow, up A82 to Arrochar, over to Inverary, over to Green wellie stop and up to Oban - 100 miles or so of cracking biking and lovely scenery - though watch out for varying qualities of road. From Oban head up to Fort William and Isle of Skye - someone else can maybe suggest routes from there north and east .....

ta muchly fraz!

This is hard...so many roads

I'd maybe keep following the coast from Inverary, through Lochgilphead, and Oban up to Ft William, get digs in Ft William.

From there it's a bit of a lottery and wondered if maybe staying at a bunkhouse and using it as a base for day runs without having to humph your luggage around might be an idea.
This place looks pretty good (and it's in a nice location) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Given they're set up for walkers and climbers, you can be certain that the drying room will have your gear dry by morning no matter how wet it gets.

From there you could maybe do the Mallaig-Ferry to Skye-Once round the island and back via the bridge one day, and the run up the Great Glen to Inverness, down the A9, detour through Aviemore up to Cairngorm, back down to Newtonore and then along the A86 back to Ft Bill -Link on another.

That's three days, so the run back could be down the A82 and go straight on at Crianlarich to Stirling (I don't know if you are planning on getting up there and back home in the four day plan)

Dunno tbh..so damn difficult to choose.

cheers wooster, ideally I'd have gone up for a few weeks and just worked my way round as i pleased, but got to work on my mates times scale. thanks for the links!

Dave

That bunkhouse looks pretty damn popular.

You gotta do Applecross. Turn off the A82 at Invergarry. Head for Eilean donnan castle at Dornie then onto Lochcarron and on to the applecross pass. Up over the pass down to Applecross then go the long way round the coast heading up to rejoin the A896 then either head towards Ullapool or head for Inverness. On a good day you won't get much better roads and the scenery is breathtaking.

Aye, that's well doable.

how many miles are we talking and hrs ride?

Round trip to Ft William via Inverness is over 8 hours.

If that's a it too much, then out to Applecross and back is around 5.
(It might give you some ideas for your next trip though )

coolies, thanks wooster.

dependent on if i can persuade my friend to leave after work the afternoon before means we can make good progress up to say moffat, then head up to fort william from there on the second day. as I dont fancy doing oxfordshire to glencoe area in one day....

If i'm home when your up i might tag along for a day or 2..If thats ok with you and yer mate..

yeah why not, will let you know when were coming up, my mate rozy is a newbie she passed her test yesterday! but will see if shes up for it, the trip was her idea and some local knowledge might be quite useful!

I have already penciled in a trip to dufftown and the glenfiddich distillery hopefully should tie in well with the cairngorms!

I'm impressed Dave. Biking holidays with new women every time.
Is Anna going bananas about this?
Lots of great roads so far.

Lots of miles though so don't forget the Vaseline ......... For you numb bums.

A939 from grantown on spey down onto the a93 past Balmoral to Braemar is nice. Fair bit of (relatively wide) single track but very quiet roads and lovely scenery too.

If you are doing Moffat towards Selkirk then a72 to Peebles / a721 to Carnwath is my favourite 'local' road.

The above roads are great in either direction.

Have a look at SYHA website for their locations. Very good accommodation IMHO.

It would be great to meet up on the way up, down or somewhere on your travels. Pitstop in Shotts if you fancy, you are more than welcome.

I'm sure you'll enjoy especially if the weather is kind.

Cheers
Rosco

Thanks for the info and pitstop invite ross! will hopefully be able to take you up on that.


Ah hopefully anna wont mind, infact her bf might like to get to see her instead of her being out on her bike all the time!

One of my best mates passed her bike test this week and wants to go on a trip, scotlands been top of my list forever so hopefully get to explore some of it!

Will have a look see at the SYHA site, theres a biker hotel (of sorts) in moffat i'd like to stay in on the way up.

once routes bit more planned will stick up see what peeps think

Dave

Hi mate, just wanted to add in my 2p's worth...

If you do go to Fort Bill then make sure you visit Neptunes Staircase, this is a must-see but sadly I've not... yet. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If you stray further west than that and end up on Skye then I would recommend staying here --> [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If you end up as far east as Braemar as has been mentioned the roads around it are fantastic. Heading south towards Glenshee on a dry day is simply biking nirvana. Continue on to Blairgowrie, take a stroll in the square, have a cuppa.

Mapman.

thanks for theinfo mapman!

its much appreciated!

Dave

Youth Hostels are cheap, but some have funny rules (Curfews, No Alcohol on premises, Male/Female segregation..)

The one at Aviemore is probably the most anally retentive I've stayed at, Loch Lomond had the saggiest beds (hopefully long since replaced) and the bloke in the bunk above insisted on scraping his false teeth clean after lights out.
Rowardennan was good though, and the bloke at reception sold me a six pack of beer from a stash he kept under the desk.


...that was back in the 90's though.

okies had a conflab with my mate rozy,

deciced on going up to moffat the weds afternoon, then do a rideout loop near moffat on thursday then, head up towards fort william, probably inland, maybe have another ride out up there.
Friday were going on the steam train at fort william (I am but a child at heart) then going to do the kinlochleven loop (been told its like the scotts nurbergring), then on saturday head down towards the coast near galloway forrest.

Anyone got any recommendations for places to stay on that bit of coast?

then on the sunday we will do a big loop around around along the coast maybe through the forrest then maybe head back over to moffat to ride home on the monday.

not been to any of these areas and should be good fun, don't really know much about the galloway forrest and coast area, I assume its going to be a beautiful area to visit

dave

What dates you going EDave?

not entirely sure yet early/mid july its looking like, I think big mick is first week of july so going to try and persuade rozy for the second week/weekend of july.

that big loop on the last day for us might be a good day to tag along

Btw, if you find yourself with an hour or two on your hands at FW, take a ride up Glen Nevis to the car park and walk up the footpath along the side of the gorge.

(Last time I was up there they were still filming Braveheart, that's how long ago it was )

Cheers for the tip Wooster

It's a cracking wee road, and if you take the 20 minute walk up to the glen at the top of the gorge you won't regret it.