Off to Scotland on Friday, good roads please??

[Sharpy]

Hi im off to Scotland on Friday, heading to Fort William first but would like to know if anyone can suggest any good rides or roads while im up there??

Cheers

Sharpy
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[Bendy]

Hit Fort William and keep heading north and west-ish, they're pretty much all good up there!

Head up to Ullapool, head over to Kyle, do Skye, do the south side of Loch Ness, do Glen Coe... it's all

[phil2alp]

Just head up to the Highlands and West coast. Great roads and scenery.

You didn't mention this trip on Sunday.

Who are you going with- on you own or with other people?

[map]

As said above get as north as you can. East coast is a little boring for my liking. Speyside is ok if you're into whisky distilleries. Pick a road with more than 2 digits and you'll be ok in the tourist areas.

Has been covered before on this forum, try the search feature as there's some classics. If I remember correctly stinkwheel had a few good ideas (put his id in the search author).

HTH

<edit>meant IMO east coast is boring, the west is great </edit>
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[Sharpy]

Thanks for the rapid reponses, at least i am heading the right area...

Phil im going with Fee (the girl was with me on Sun), didnt really come up in conversation.... you heading to ireland....
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[phil2alp]

[stinkwheel]

Depends how much time you have.

Fort Bill > Invergarry > Dornie > Stromferry > Lohcarron T-junction.

Then either scenic route by turning left, towards Sheldaig, take in the Pass of Cattle and Applecross road then up through Gairloch and Poolewe then up to Ullapool. (a mix of insanely twisty single-trackers and flat-oot Euro squandering).

Direct route turn right at Lochcarron T-junction, Achnasheen, Garve then up to Ullapool. Becomes stupidly fast once you're off the single-trackers.

From Ullapool up to Durness. Don't get stuck there on a Sunday because the petrol station is shut.

The 'scenic route' is probably a good days riding, not through distance but through shear adrenaline burnout. You wouldn't fully appreciate the truly superb road between Ullapool and Durness which is only 70 miles but I'm usually in a muck-sweat by the time I get there.

The Tongue-Altnahara-Lairg road is a much underated single tracker in my oppinion.
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[Walloper]

I done Glasgow-Ullapool last week. Long way round.
Scotland must be the biggest country in the world if you measure the coastline mile for mile.
Amazing.


Two chip shops in Ullapool do good fish.

Canadian guys work in the 2nd one. Sounded weird listening to them talking among the Teuchturs up there.

Hundreds of places for petrol stops too. (Avg. about 1.00 a leeter.)

Single track roads are a bastahd for the wee bits of loose gravel left by cars. You find them on the line you want to/should take. When you are hammering it they give you that Ring Reflex Syndrome Sensation as your back wheel keeps skipping out.

But little traffic and awsum vistas on the alpine climbs and decents.

And the Scottish Folk are great.
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[map]

[Walloper]

[Nath]

Any more tips Scott? Me and Mouse are going up North next week in a mini sidecar invasion, wild camping and slow twisty scenic roads would be the order of the day.
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[stinkwheel]

[Nath]

Well we have no plans whatsoever. I have 10days off work, mouse might stay up there longer. His priority is to spend as little money as possible. He's running on LPG though, don't know how well he's researched availibility yet.

Think we're potentially going all the way up to north tip, your route via Ullapool sounds pretty good. I don't know whether Mouse will want to use motorways to get to the border, but I was thinking of sticking to small roads as much as possible, cutting a path through the peak district, the yorkshire dales, then up just to the east of carlisle.
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[Walloper]

Pics
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[map]

[spnorm]

I go to Scotland three or four times a year and never use the motorway.

There are fantastic roads in the Yorkshire Dales (Hawes is in the Dales BTW; the Peak District is south of the M62 ), North Pennines and Borders etc. and you can make really quick progress on them. Just avoid the M74 and A1

I tend to head towards Gourock and take the ferry to Hunters Quay. From there I'd recommend Inverary - Lochgilphead - Oban - Tyndrum - Glen Coe - Fort William - Spean Bridge - Dornie (just east of Kyle of Lochalsh) - Lochgilphead and keep heading north, although Skye is awesome if the weather is good.

John O'Groats is crap, so take the Tongue - Altnahara - Lairg road back towards Inverness and then the A939 and A93 back to Perth via Braemar

The Isle of Mull and Moidart/Knoydart peninsula west of Fort William are also worth a trip, especialy the "Road to the Isles" to Mallaig and the road fron Strontian back to the Corran ferry.