[Closed] Car-less bike trips in Scotland

Train to Aviemore / Blaire Atholl

Default would be Aviemore - Feshie & Tilt - Blair Atholl.

Other options include Newtonmore / Kingussie / Dalwhinnie and head either West over Corrieyairack down to Fort Augustus, then Fort William, or East towards Braemar, Ballater and on to either Aberdeen or Montrose..

but scotroutes will be along with your itinerary shortly!

Just about any station between Perth and Inverness could be used for what you want.

As an example from Blair Atholl you can do the circuit of Beinn a Ghlo as a day trip or do an overnighter heading over to Gaick, then over to Glen Feshie and back via Bynack and Glen Tilt.

Edit: Blair Atholl looks a popular suggestion!

worth noting that the bus at braemar will take your bike. its a full on coach they use right into aberdeen station and the drivers are generally understanding - although dont turn up caked in mud they might suddenly become fussy 😀

Used it as an emergency back up for bad weather and bike failure a couple of times

While going north is always good, what about taking the new Borders Railway south?

Train to Galashiels and then Southern Upland way offroad south to Yair Bridge (about 5 miles), then loads of trails available. If fit enough you can SUW onwards to Inners with a loop back over into Yarrow and either SUW or cyclepath back to Gala.

As much or as little of the West Highland Way as you have the appetite for, Crianlarich to Ft William takes in the bulk of the good rideable stuff although you could shorten it by starting at Bridge of Orchy and then you are slap bang into the good stuff.

You could also adapt your route by stopping at the bothy near the Blackwater Reservoir, adds some miles but means you can exchange the fast landrover track portion of the Devil's Staircase descent for some technical rocky singletrack.

Easy access for a days riding would include Dunkeld (Loch Ordie/Glen Garr), Pitlochry (Rob Roy Way to Strathtay then up by Loch Derculich and back via the Garry to Pitlochry), Blair Atholl for the Glen Tilt loop). That's even before getting into the tracks round Aviemore etc. I've an almost 100% off-road route from Inverness to Kingussie if that takes your fancy.

Longer loops from Blair Atholl include the Cairngorms Loops (both or choose).

Point to point from Blair Atholl to Aviemore or head west to Fort William via the Corrieyairack and the GGW at Fort Augustus.

Glen Kinglass makes a good circuit from Tyndrum and Taynuilt with the train connecting up the road bit.

I could go on....and on.... and on.... but hopefully this will give you some ideas.

Plenty of good suggestions but I'll just add there's a fair bit of the country left to go north of Inverness.

there's a fair bit of the country left to go north of Inverness

It's a fair point, but how much of it is served by train and would make for good 1-2 day routes?

I was going to suggest Achnashellach for the Coulags loop but that's just so passé these days 8)

There's some interesting stuff heading east from Attadale (Glen Ling - Falls of Glomach - Bealach an Sgairne) but struggling to make a good loop or 2 day route out of it..

There are good rides up from Ardgay, Golspie and a few other places around there.

Might be a bit far for a day trip but plenty to keep you going for the weekend.

Many thanks for the suggestions so far! Planning to get the OS maps/google out for a few hours and try do some planning but great to get some hints first.

If anyone has any of these gpx files that I can put into my garmin that I've recently bought (and need to start using!) that would be pretty sweet!

If you do go up to Ardgay, I'd recommend riding across to Ullapool (and vice versa). Not very technical at all (10 miles of tarmac, 30 miles of mostly landrover track) but a nice day out with some things you can visit on the way. You can do a double in summer's day without it getting too silly.

There's a bike bus running in the summer up to Durness via Ullapool from Inverness too.

Some nice remote riding round garve and isn't there a train line through torridon? There's rumoured to be a spot or two to operate a bicycle at round those parts.

I'll agree with b r for a closer to home option, borders railway to gala and ride back to Edinburgh. I did it last week, brilliant day out on the bike and finishing a long day on the bike at home is a bonus.

https://www.strava.com/activities/410292827

Uh oh, competition for those limited scotrail bike spaces. Actually, that isn't often a problem. Except at Inverness. It's the Bermuda Triangle of travel itineraries.

I also don't have a car and trains up into the Highlands is pretty much what I do. I do this quite a lot and I've done most of what has been suggested so far. I tried the Borders line on Sunday and rode across the tops to Inners. Feels a bit strange going south though.

Getting further than the Great Glen is tricky because it does take so much time travelling there.
However I had a customary trip to Torridon last month - train to Achnasheen and ride over from there. I had the afternoon/evening for Beinn Damh and a full day on the classic the next. And oh what a day it was. Well worth the travel. I stayed at the youth hostel but usually camp in the wood in the glen. I've wanted to make use of the two bothies to the south (or well, mainly the tea hut)but haven't found a way to work that yet.

Similarly, I did a ride around the Cairngorms with the bike packing gear over several days but broke it up and had a day of leaving the gear and riding some high peaks that wouldn't be possible in a day trip.

The Durness bike bus is good - they ask for 24 hours notice for booking but several times they've taken me when I've just turned up.

Longer day rides between stations - some don't have a bail out option so you know you have to make the last train. I turned in a surprisingly good time trial ride to Pitlochry at the end of the Rob Roy Way out of sheer panic.

But mostly it's day rides. Quite long days that start with getting up early enough to catch the first train out of Waverley. Sometimes I book ahead for cheaper tickets and gamble with the weather or make last minute changes to plans - this is infinitely possible when you travel to Aviemore. You can make many, many journeys to Aviemore before you exhaust the possibilities there.

Some places require a bit of road miles from the station. Trossachs are near to Edinburgh but involve a fair amount of tarmac but I've done Glen Finglas, Ben Ledi and even up to Comrie Croft from Dunblane.
Short rides with a big bang for the buck from the station - North Third at Stirling, Ben Vrackie from Pitlochry.

I'm heading north on Saturday not quite yet sure where it will be this time.

Train to bridge of Allan and you are then in the Ochils.

And for short routes calendar trails is accessible from Falkirk High, Beecraigs from Linlithgow, Muiravonside from alinlithgow or Polmont (or add all three Together). Blairadam nr Cowdenbeath and the rat run at s/Queensferry could probably both provide local train and bike options too.

re: bus services, worth noting that stagecoach policy on bikes is you can put them in the luggage hold (if it has one) but citylink dont take bikes at all.
also, if you are using the A9 in a bus/car/whatever, allow plenty of time for the journey, the road is being dualled all the way up to inverness, and its going to take a decade to finish the work.