planning or trying to plan a big circle type route for the summer.
either from fort bill, mallaig of inverness.

any ideas anyone.
the more remote the better.

Tour of the Western Isles?

…and if you were worried about not enough rough stuff, chuck Skye into the mix.

Aviemore–>Braemar—>Mt Keen—>Glen Clova/Prossen and back to Aviemore then Inverness wil give you plenty of remote route possibilities.

Knoydart – been on my list for years.

thought of a loop into knoydart starting with a ferryride from mallaig.
accomodation is a nightmare to arrange for 4 blokes.
there is not a lot of places to stay there.

Ton,

I’ll mail you an idea I’m working on – based around Mallaig/Knoydart but taking in lots of other stuff over 4/5 days.

Not sure how feasible it is…

Are you thinking you need to start/end at Railway Stations? That sort of sets some bounds. Happy to Hostel/ Bunkhouse/ camp/ B&B?? e.g. there’s a bunkhouse at Inverie in Knoydart that’s just a short walk from the pub.

Or look further North towards Achnashellach on the Kyle line. You could easily spend four days off road in that area. There’s a private hostel (Gerrys) at Craig, plus bunkhouse and hostels at Torridon, Kinlochewe and Achnasheen.

Devs Cairngorm option has lot of possibilities too.

Geoffs idea of the Western Isles tour shouldn’t be dismissed. Set up a rigid MTB with some slicks and take to the roads of the Outer Hebrides. Problem for you would be fitting it in to the time available as it’ll take you a day just to get to Barra.

we have flown up the last 2 year to inverness.
i fancied the overnight train from preston to mallaig.
furthest west we have reached is roy bridge or rannoch station, so the west coast would make a nice change.

I use the sleeper quite a bit for work. Its pretty good, but I wouldn’t plan a big day on the bike after a journey on one because I don’t sleep that well on it. If you do go for it, try and get reservations in the middle of the carriage rather than over a bogie. And have a word with the driver about shunting gently at Carstairs before you get on 😉

If you could afford the time, I’d book some advance 1st class return tickets on the Highland Chieftain up to Inverness and then travel across to Mallaig from their – would prolly add a couple of days to the trip though.

Go spend a week exploring torridon and fisherfield area.

Ton – ygm.