Quick double check – we’re cycle touring (road) around the west of scotland and one of the proposed routes from CycleStreets.net takes us from Acharacle to Glenborrodale over the unmetalled road alongside Loch Laga

https://goo.gl/maps/ZgcF4

Can anyone comment on that road? We’re going to be on fully laden tandems (i.e. with panniers), so if there are gates every mile or two then we might need to go round on the road. Or, if it’s just a horrible boring slog then the road might be nicer. Am hoping that it will be a lovely traffic free jaunt over the tops with splendid views. 🙂

Here’s a shot from Geograph.org http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1887327 & another -http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/985851

The road over to Salem then along the coast is quiet but a bit of a roller-coaster, I’d go that way.

Edit: there’s a good cafe at the natural histor centre at Glenmore just west of Glenborrodale. Also the cafe at the smokery at Glenuig doesn’t open until almost lunchtime – we were riding down from Mallaig and got there way too early so had to push on. There’s a basic cafe at Acharacle.

Ta. We’re riding from Glenuig so looking at that the coast road is a better option

The coast road is quiet, scenic and relatively easy going, I’d take it in preference whatever.

I will be taking the coast road. we are staying in acharacle for the night, the riding for the ferry from kilchoan. a friend said the coast road is very nice.

My wife’s family have a holiday cottage up near Acharacle and I rode the first 4km of that track last April. It wasn’t a bad track, but it’s quite loose and steep in places and I wouldn’t fancy it on a fully loaded touring bike. From what my father in law tells me, the path further on can get quite wet as well and I think the last section down into Glenborrodale is quite steep.

The B8007 along the coast is not a bad ride, I’ve ridden out to the lighthouse at the end and back before.

+1 for the cafe in Glenborrodale and there’s a new whisky distillery there as well.

B9007 is a lovely (if roller-coaster) ride, not too busy, plenty views. I haven’t done it fully laden up Julian, but have done it on SS with all the kit for a coast to coast, make decent progress from Acharacle as it happens, to Kilchoan (I had a ferry to catch !!)

The coast road is nice and quiet, but you also have an offroad option out the back of Acharacle to the West. You can follow a track out to the Singing Sands (Which are worth the detour) and then over the hills, dropping down to Kilmory and then along the road to Kilchoan. Depends how offroadable the tandems are really!

he he jose – I’ve done that in reverse, was a fair bit of pushing on the ups but it’s a lovely section all in all. Not harsh but definitely off road.. If they’re heading for Glenborrodale it’s still a fair whack round from Kilmory and Swordle (where some distant relatives used to farm..)..

We’re heading for the ferry at Kilchoan, then another ten miles on Mull to Salen, so I think we’ll stick to the coast road via the other Salen on Ardnamurchan. Having (unintentionally) done some off-road touring in Keilder on last years coast-to-coast-to-coast, I think we’ll stick to roads where possible – tight singletrack on a tandem is tough, add on panniers and steering gets tricky

It may look easy from here but on the front of a fully loaded tandem, that hill was steep and mildly terrifying by Notoriously Bad Typist, on Flickr

Last September I did a walk (loop Laga Bay, up to the summit of Ben Laga and then back down to Glenborrowdale.

The track up from Laga (south of Loch Laga) is a good but loose stony track mostly but its steep and wouldn’t want to go up or down it on a fully loaded Tandem. Actually it would be a push on anything but a XC bike.

We returned back to Glenborrowdale via the Castle and the top part of this track (SW of Loch Laga) is very boggy in places. You might regret tacking a fully loaded bike on it.

There were also clegs the size of Marbles eating us alive whenever the wind dropped.

There were also clegs the size of Marbles eating us alive whenever the wind dropped.

You can add midge’s, measured by mass on the metric ton scale, or on the level of sunlight they block out when swarming.

edit: the reason to reply! I remember that track being boggy in places.

Still, a fab part of the world which I intend on revisiting this year.

Fab GIF matt 🙂