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Contemplating a trip south-north Scotland: anyone got recommendations for a good off-road route most of the way? West Highland Way then something else northwards - or west coast all the way? looking for remote, but rideable; great scenery and terrain, with the additional frisson of covering a country..... or is the N too flat and the S too industrial to make it worth it? Happy to bivvi/camp, or hotel or b&b - probably a mixture is ideal.....
duration flexible, but 10 days?
Seen some varied coast-to-coast (W-E/E-W) routes, but not the N-S ones. Is there a good reason why?
Someone asked about a route from teh border to edinburgh recetly. Druidh mentioned a old drove road thru the borders IIRC
The book "scottish hill tracks" might have some help.
I have ridden some north / south stuff callander to bridge of orchy to meet the WHW
Its a lot to do in 10 days IMO
Hello.
A casual look at a topographical map of Scotland will highlight the issue right away. The majority of rivers, valleys (and hence through routes) run East and West from the N-S watershed. So, you are going to be doing some heather-bashing in order to construct a good through route. Walkers find it slightly simpler as they are less burdened by incompatible terrain.
I had a look at drove roads running from the Central belt down to the borders and the line goes - Pentlands - Rommano Bridge - Peebles - Yarrow, then a couple of options to Hawick and across the border. North of the Pentlands, the drove roads are now submerged under industry and housing. However, you'd want to make for Callander and Lochearnhead through to Crianlarich for the WHW.
That takes you to Fort William and you'd go up the Great Glen towards Fort Augustus, cutting off to head North through to Tomich and then Glen Affric. Some bog-trotting would get you through to Torridon (via the Falls of Glomach). From there, I'd head via Kinlochewe to Carnmore, Shenavall and Dundonnel. A bit of road work gets you to the Ullapool road and you could cross that making for Glen Oykel. From there, I'd need to look at a map (this is all from memory so far).
I'd think a 10-day ride would be feasible. You might need to divert occasionally for supplies/accommodation.
its doable but as tj says, a lot in 10 days. The WHW would get you onto the GGW and from there i'd 'probably' get to Fort Augustus and take the two wade's roads over to Glen Affric. Then the wriggling about and pushing starts. pretty sure 13thfloormonk did something similar last year.
Geologists might correct me but there seems to be a predominance of east-west glens in the north west which perhaps goes some way to explaning the lack of south north paths.
druidh beat me...aahhh
I agree that the topography is e-w - but we all like downhills, don't we - hence the n-s concept. Will check out the drovers' roads, and the suggestinos so far. Anyone else whose done it or knows of websites that identify routes, do post.....
I did a North-South route starting in Glenfinnan, although my route was by no means direct and took the best part of 14 days with some pretty short days and a short hillwalk en route too.
If you click my username and go back to May of last year, you'll see lots of threads entitled 'Cape Wrath Saga' which detail the route(ish).
Oh - this is a handy site for finding old tracks that aren't marked on the current OS maps
http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/
thanks 13thfloormonk (good moniker, too), and thanks too druidh - both v useful links. off to look in more detail now.....
A possibly useful link is the Forth and Clyde/Union Canal Towpath between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Hit that anywhere then follow the towpath to Kirkintilloch. From Kirky use the old railway bed path from Kirkintilloch (starts behind the MacDonalds) to Strathblane to pick up the West Highland Way.
There are various walking paths and forest tracks up the Mull of Kintyre and through Argyll. Might be possible to then link them with the WHW and GGW which would get you to Inverness. After that I'd have to go dig out some maps.