[Closed] Recommendations for Scottish Epic

Bookmarked and awaiting the wisdom of Scotroutes.

I think you need to give a idea of skill and fitness level. Quite a variety there of different levels of rides (of the ones I have done and know of).

Blair Atholl-Gaick-Feshie-Tilt-Blair Atholl

Maddy utah has best suggestion yet.

Unless you want them to hate you stay away from whw on a bike

Capital Trail for starters, 240km  loop from Portobello and finish riding through Auld Reekie - check out markusstitz.com has lots of routes on his site

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.4px; background-color: #eeeeee;">I think you need to give a idea of skill and fitness level. Quite a variety there of different levels of rides (of the ones I have done and know of</span>

Regular mountain bikers with varying levels of fitness. Most are reasonably fit iie. riding 2-3 times a week.  I'm probably the least fit of the group, but we're looking at the summer so once I have a goal I will work towards it.

>Unless you want them to hate you stay away from whw on a bike</p>

I was tihnking of avoiding Drymen to Rowandenan and including Blackwater Dam instead

The loop @maddyutah mentions uses the southern part of the Cairngorms Loop ITT route. At the Falls of Tarf rather than head down Glen Tilt you can head east to Fealar Lodge and round the east side of Beinn a Ghlo back to Blair Atholl.

There's also the Tour of the Cairngorms (different from the ITT route but they share quite a bit of ground) which can be found in the Vertebrate guidebook, The Wild Trails. That book gives four days for it but that's very easy going.

Worth noting that many of the Scottish classic loops can be hard work, flowing trail centre tracks they are not.

How about the 'Tour de Ben Nevis' route from Glen Nevis YH?
Really depends on what your group wants as far as the weekend goes.

I loved and hated the Tour de Ben Nevis route, but mostly hated!  🙂

Great glen way= pretty but not technical and short. Done 3 times, fastest being 7 hours so tough to make a weekend of it.

Whw= excellent. The bad bit aint that bad. Just know its coming and take pipe cladding to shoulder your bike. Oh and lots of midge repellant... some amazing scenery and proper challenges.

John Muir way= again not technical at all but a hefty challenge and lots to see and do along the way.

There are lots of non way marked routes you can plan but getting lost is a real option....

Great Glen way would be a good weekend ride. Plenty of accommodation options and pubs on the way. Easily done in a weekend. Some challenging bits, but some nice flat towpath for chatting.

You could always do the Deeside Trail, little known but a tough day out, more likely to be a two day and even then its a lumpy 70+ miles per day.

"I loved and hated the Tour de Ben Nevis route, but mostly hated"

Fairy nuff. How about staying at Laggan Hostel, up the canal to Ft Augustus, along the road to the Corrieyairack, then over it, (Luib Chonnal bothy overnight?) down Glen Roy, Roybridge, Spean Bridge, Gairlochy then along yon side of Loch Lochy back to the hostel?
That's over 60 miles.

coast to coast and return?  Ullapool to bonar bridge and back?  All easish offroad

No mention of Torridon get?

The bits I've done of Cairnform loops are ace. Proper feeling of the highlands.

Ben Macdui firmly on the to do list.

WHW is my suggestion too. It can be done supported, carrying just your riding kit, with a car meeting you at various stops.

Or you could do it in a day for extra credit. Few would argue that this isn’t a tough ride.

Finally, as a stretch goal, add the GGW including high sections on, starting and finishing at the Clyde and Kessock, and you’ve got the GT24. 185 miles with loads and loads of ascent.

Here's one I'm planning for May:

Start at Tyndrum and take the WHW to Kinlochleven. Then head for Loch Treig, Corrour station and Loch Ossian, before heading over the "Road to the Isles" to Bridge of Gaur (Loch Rannoch).  Then go over to Glen Lyon before heading West back to Tyndrum.  About 160km and 3000m of climbing.  I'm planning on two days, with camping or possible stop at Loch Ossian Youth Hostel.

That's a great wee loop actually ^

Quite a lot of landrover track on the second day, but properly scenic and wild feeling landrover track.

Top tip would be to cross over to Loch Chiarain from Loch Eilde Mor/Beag, that way it's technically all rideable, whereas the section following the Abhain Rath to Loch Treig would almost certainly not be rideable all the way (although not too bad, from what I remember)*.

I'm a big fan of the West Highland Way for easily packaged weekend epic, signs to follow, pubs every so often, bail out options if things go wrong, easy accommodation options in Tyndrum (wig wams, hostels, hotels) and a variety of riding, including yes some quite awkward hike-a-bike.

You'll come away with stories at least!

*playing very fast and loose with spellings there, can't be bothered checking maps!

A drink in every pub on the Royal Mile.  Epic.

Sweeping generalisation alert!

IME the routes and tracks to the east of the Great Glen are more amenable to touring than those on the west side.

End of alert 🙂

@st66's route is a combination of heading out on the old start to the HT550 and returning via the new start. The section from Luibelt down to Loch Treig is frustrating - lots of on and off the bike to get past drainage ditches/burns. I've done that bit the other way. Not done "the road to the isles" bit of that. There's also Meanach bothy as possibility for accommodation on that loop. The Loch Rannoch to Tyndrum bit is quite fast, there's a few wide fords on the track between Loch Lyon and the WHW.

Edit: I can see that loop working either way - there's good descents in both directions but also frustrating climbs in both directions. The road in Glen Lyon to get to the dam would be a drag when going clockwise for example.

Another loop that is more amenable is: Dalwhinnie- Loch Garry - Loch Rannoch - Benalder Cottage (good for accommodation) - Ben Alder singletrack via Bealach Dubh to Culra - Loch Ericht - Dalwhinnie. Was suggested to me by Scotroutes a while back though we did it in winter(!) there's a couple of bits that are hike-a-bike: an easy section just after Loch Garry to join up two estate tracks and a longer boggy bit alongside Loch Ericht to get to Benalder Cottage.

Like triguy100's suggestion.I looked at quite a few options and have bookmarked the Deeside Trail as a 2 dayer at Easter, aiming for Bob Scott's bothy in the middle.   140miles so should be epic enough 2 days.

Balloch - Helensburgh - Faslane - Arrochar - Inversnaid (by ferry) - potential night at the hostel - Aberfoyle - Drymen - Balloch

this combines bits of well-established routes...John Muir, 3 Lochs, Great Trossachs path, Rob Roy Way etc - 99% easily rideable, would actually suit gravel / CX bike or similar

Just bookmarking for reference, don't mind me

Thanks to @13thFloorMonk and @Whitestone for tips on improving the route I suggested.  I was slightly worried about the section from Luibelt down to Loch Treig, so maybe the alternative suggested by 13thFloormonk would be better.  Anyone know if you can get across the Blackwater dam from the WHW, to avoid going down into Kinlochleven?

I've not been on it but when you descend off the Devil's Staircase towards Kinlochleven you meet a rough vehicle track at this point from the map it looks like that track follows the conduit as far as the Blackwater dam.

st66 yes you can cross the dam, although officially you aren't supposed to.

There is a really good stalkers path that climbs up from the damn at the outflow of Loch Eilde Mor to skirt around the south ridge of Glas Bheinn and descend to the Chiarain Bothy. It's more effort to get to (descend to KLL, reclimb past Mamore Lodge) but it looked like a great track when I walked it.

I also seem to remember a frustrating stretch after crossing the dam where I couldn't find a track so had to hack along the lochside until I picked up the bank of the Allt an Inbhir.

For bonus singletrack descending, you could even cross the dam then swing left and descend the track that follows the River Leven. It's referred to as 'The Ciarain Path' and divides opinion a bit, but looked awesome to ride (I've only walked it). That would deposit you in KLL in preparation for the climb back out ; )

The new 'high' trails of the Great Glen Way between Fort Augustus, Invermoriston and Drumnadrochit may all be good surfaces but the extended steep climbing that they involve makes this high route option into a surprisingly challenging day for a group of any size.  So, GGW from Ft Bill to Ft Augustus is an easy and pleasant half day, while day two is very different creature.  On day one, stop for a while at the Boat pub at Laggan locks, east end of Loch Lochy.

Lots of good ideas above but I'd like to add a couple of planning thoughts.  It rains a lot more in the west than it does in the east, so riding Cairngorm and eastern glen trails can sometimes be a more pleasant experience.  The prevailing wind across the Highlands is a SW, so when planning far ahead it helps to take that into account.  Midgies: I'd set a rough cut off of 15 May if you need to avoid them and they're usually a lot less fierce from about mid September onwards.

I've not seen any mention of the Angus Glens; there are loads of great multi dayers on this side of the country, taking in glens and summits and using the old 'mounth roads' cattle droving routes from previous centuries.  Monnega, Capel, Fungle, Firmounth; t'Saggairt Mor, Lochnagar & Mt Keen can all be readily combined with overnight stops

Laggan-Corryyairick pass-Fort Augustus-gowns to Fort william_WHW past Mamore lodge-locheide more to Abhain rath bit of a slog as already mentioned_-loch treig-ossian youth hostel-corrupt shooting lodge up Strathclyde ossian until luiblea _lohan has hearba-kinloch laggan then road to laggan

Loop?

Evanton, a few miles of road to Eilanach Lodge, follow track past Loch Glass through to Ullapool road near Inchbae. (Take you along the north side of Ben Wyvis)

Along about 2 miles of road to Inchbae, turn right onto track, follow through to Alladale, then down to Ardross.

From there short bit of road back to Evanton.

Can be done on a singlespeed by a geriatric, so should be ok.

Some great scenery.

A loop can be done from the Glen Callater carpark near Braemar: Up to the loch, long climb up to Cairn of Claise (via Tuirc), baggers footpaths to Tolmount and Tom Buidhe, very faint path heads toward Finalty Hill (not a munro), tick of Mayar and Dreish and descent the Kilbo to Clova. Up Glen Clova, Bachnagairn to Broad Cairn, Carn Bannoch and t-Sagairt Mor. Top descent to Loch Callater. Nine munro tick on a big day out, perfect visibility necessary. Missing out Tolmount and Dreish would make it easier.

Blair Atholl, up the Gaick to Ruthven Barracks, towards Kingussie, stay E side of A9 as long as poss, join A9 for a few hundred metres to pick up the old Wade road to Phones. Turn left to take the high road to Loch Cuaich, go E till the track fizzles into a heathery slog up the zigzag onto Boigha-cloiche. Miss the bog by keeping to he high ground near that summit. Pick up the a path on the Sgorr Dearg spur and take the stalker's path down the ridiculously steep slope to Gaick Lodge.

Linn of Dee, Glen Quoich, Beinn a Bhuird,right over Ben Avon decending NE spur to Linn of Avon, back via Glen Gairn (hard work in this direction) to pick up up path (not on map) following Quoich water back to main track you came up.

Thread resurrection as there is some good stuff on here.

Not much to add but looking forward to trying some of these suggestions come May.

Regarding the west highland way, just need to correct some misinfo (or at least I read it as such) missing drymen to rowardennan doesn't miss the nasty bit. It misses some lovely riding.  The nasty bit is north of inversnaid.

And it does look shit with a bike. First time I ran/walked that bit and the second time I camped it instead😃

Stupid ****ing phone. I canoed it.

Ooh looks like i didnt delete my WHW photos after all. Take a look here if you want a tediously detailed description of every last cm. 😁

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wet-highland-way-duathlon-

Damn that was a good weekend