Am thinking of a wee adventure riding from home (between Dundee/Perth) to Inverness. I’ve got a route planned to Kingussie, where I’ll stop for the night. Does anyone have any cool suggestions of routes I should take up Northwards? I’m happy for a bit of a detour as long as my day doesn’t go too far over 120km (just doing the NCN route is about 70kn I think). Am happy to do SHORT sections of hike-a-bike but not really up for anything too gnarly.

Cheers.

Correyairack pass and then up the great glen way?

One part might be Loch an Eilean to Glenmore, Ryvoan, Loch Garten, Boat of G, (ford), Sluggan Bridge and the Sustrans route to Slochtd. I’m not sure about the ford: I’ve only crossed it in the summer. There’s an alternative via Carrbridge.

From Kingussie you should head past Ruthven Barracks where you have a choice of the Badenoch Way to Dalraddy and then the, currently unsignposted, Speyside Way to Aviemore or an option to go into Feshie and Inshriach Forests, also to Aviemore.

From there you can follow the old Wade road to Sluggan Bridge and then on to Slochd.

Either take the NCN7 (road) route from there to Moy or go cross the again and either take the Wade road or a newer track parallel to the A9 down to Tomatin where you can pick up NCN7 to Moy again.

Take the signposted route to Lynmore then the Wade route again, past the quarry, over the B851 to Faillie Bridge and up the hill through Daviot Woods and into Inverness.

You’ll hardly be on the road at all.

I’ve been working on this route recently so I should be able to put a GPX file up for you later.

Wow, great suggestions guys. A gpx would be awesome, Scotroutes.

UPDATE: Did pretty much what Scotroutes suggested yesterday. Mostly great but I’d alter the route slightly if I did it next time.

Can be more detailed on those changes if anyone’s interested?

I’d definitely be interested. Trying to put together a loop from my home (Dunblane) with the WHW and GGW on the way up north to Inverness and then south again. Less sure on how to get south though.

Realistically it’s not going to happen until next year now, but if you have a gpx file or anu suggestions that would be very useful.

Just to clarify, I’m not planning to do this on a cross bike but a mountain bike. Maybe I should be taking a different route to you Stevie in that case?

Cheers

Can be more detailed on those changes if anyone’s interested?

Please – always good to know for future reference.

Hmm. Tried sorting some kind of GPX, but the route I took was the wrong one and can’t be arsed figuring out how to edit it, so will just list changes to what scotroutes said.

– Did the Badenoch Way to Aviemore. Mostly fine, but I’d miss out the first section and join at the end of Glen Tromie (NG 949 200) then follow the way from there. If you know your way through Inshriach forest that would probably be more fun, but experience tells me it can be a pain to navigate through there.

– Aviemore to Slochd on the off-road NCN is great riding on a CX bike. Thoroughly recommend.

– Missed the start of the Wade’s road from Slochd (it’s not hard to spot, I just wasn’t paying attention) so can’t comment on how good that is. Not sure what the ‘new track’ that Scotroutes refers to is – maybe he can illuminate.

– The Wade Road from Moy – Auchbain. Don’t be tempted by the big LRT that goes off up the hill. It goes nowhere. The bit of singletrack on the map (approx 2km) is utterly unrideable bog. I’d avoid that whole section and instead follow the NCN to Daviot then through the wee tunnel at Scatraig (NH 718 377) and join from there. There’s a short carry up to the road above Faille, but after that the Wade road is great all the way into town.

Absolutely brilliant day out on the bike.

Bollocks. I hadn’t seen you reply asking for a gpx file. Should have PMed me 🙂

You’re right about the first bit of the Badenoch Way. The bit down by the river with gates and fences is just too much faff.

Wades Road from Slochd is OK to start with but breaks into a bit of a bog on the last bit of the descent. I’ve not tried the newer track yet but it’s on the same side of the A9 as the Wade Road and carried on down to beneath the Findhorn Bridge.

I found the first bit of the track from Moy a wee bit soft but rideable (on a 29er). Once it meets the forest track it’s all good right down to Auchbain.

I’m in the midst of writing up a blog entry on the Moy-Inverness bit so I’ll stick a link up here later this evening.

Glad you otherwise enjoyed the day though. Did you manage to pick up the Slochd section from High Burnside or from Carrbridge?

Blog done.

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2014/10/looking-for-wade-again.html

I’ll put together a couple of GPX files for those that are interested.

Nice route description on your blog Scotroutes

I live beside Moy Hall and they have an amazing little private museum.

Great story on the wee cairn on wades road

” Around midnight on 16th/17th February 1746, Lord Loudon, the Commander of the Hanoverian forces in the north, mustered 1500 troops from the Inverness Garrison and set off on the twelve mile march south along General Wade’s Road to Moy in a bid to capture Prince Charles Edward Stuart. The prince, a guest of Lady Anne Mackintosh (Colonel Anne) at Moy Hall, had arrived with a small guard of 50 men, some distance ahead of his retreating Highland Army.

Pitch darkness interspersed with flashing lightning slowed and unsettled the marching men.

Watching the road here, 3 miles from Moy Hall, was an ‘outer guard’ of just five Jacobites led by Donald Fraser, the Moy Blacksmith. He had chosen a spot where he could observe movement on the skyline to the north in darkness, and where he had cover to the south in daylight. Nearby to the east, peat stacks remained out on the moor. Here he planned to harass, and perhaps deceive, the enemy.

As the Hanoverian Column, spearheaded by the Laird of MacLeod and his men approached in the darkness, they were surprised by sudden musket fire and loud war cries urging clansmen to battle. Even the peat stacks threatened in the flashing lightning. Convinced that the whole Highland Army was at hand, Loudon’s men turned in panic and fled back to Inverness, somehow carrying off the body of Donald Ban MacCrimmon, Piper to MacLead and the only fatality of the night. A premonition of his imminent death had been realised.”

Great write-up, scotroutes. By the looks of it you had much drier conditions than me – I’m not sure any bikes would have faired well in those bogs I encountered! Not to worry about not sending a GPX file – your route description above was enough in the end.

I picked up the Slochd section from Carrbridge as I knew that the offroad NCN is a nice route and the signposts would save me the faff of navigating. There are some superb trails in the burnside woods but getting lost in there is definitely for another day!