Am planning a 3 dayer with a long trek from Loch Tulla to Spean Bridge via Rannoch Station and could do with some route advice.
Is the track up to Gorton rideable past the obvious dwelling (looking at OS maps) or is it a hike a bike till reaching the track through Rannoch forest? Some folk I seem to remember have mentioned a track alongside the railway line too, but not sure of its whereabouts..Any help greatly appreciated, cheers.

bump

Spean Bridge to Rannoch Station is rideable – but you probably know that (happy to give some more info if you want).

No idea about the Gorton track – looks to be a big gap and the big flat area around NN400490 screams bogfest at me.

The rest is heresay but from people who I think are reasonably trustworthy.

The track across Rannoch Moor via White Corries lodge is apparently very hard work from a bit after White Corries Lodge until almost the road end at Rannoch, some friends did it late summer when it was supposed to be mega-dry and it took most of the day.

The third option is to go south and use Auch Gleann comes within about a km of the landrover track around Loch Lyon then the hill track over to Rannoch School from Glen Lyon – that is apparently all rideable (the Loch Lyon/ Rannoch section is used on one of the big "corporate challenge" type events up here). You can see this on Microsoft Bing maps.

Of course the Fourth Way, which we used several years ago, is to just get the train from Bridge of Orchy to Rannoch Station. 🙂

The track is rideable until just past Gorton bothy, where the main track then continues over to the railway line then peters out as argo tracks in a bog, In fact, all tracks heading from Gorton bothy out onto Rannoch seem to disappear into wild ground pretty quickly.

Where you get back to tracks on the Rannoch Station side I've no idea – I guess a map would help, I don't have one in front of me. I've only ever biked in and out of Gorton presuming the bit between there and Rannoch Station to be poor quality for biking. So I'll be interested to hear if you find a track.

My guess, boggy tussocky wilderness, take a compass in case the mist comes down!

Just for the record, there is good parking at Loch Tulla at the farm with the ruined castle.

Don't know if this year old thread might be of any help;

HERE

If it was me and I was taking 3 days over it I would head up past black corries lodge.

Black Corries to Rannoch Station still involves a couple of hours hike-a-bike, but I enjoyed it none-the-less…

However, if I was to ditch Rannoch Station, I would take in some of the best riding Scotland has to offer and head over the Devil's Staircase and take a right.

Hi EMC, Slight hijack but if you are going this way it might help.

I have biked over Devil's staircase and upto dam and down the other side a few time (top run) but I am thinking of turning right towards Corrour once across dam. Does anyone know if the tracks on the map are ridable as far as Loch Treig?

cheers

Yes they are. It's the reverse of the Blackwater loop, lovely singletrack.

Really? I don't remember the tracks alongside the Abhain Rath being rideable in places… (western shore)

He's not talking about the path along the Abhain Rath though. Although most of that is rideable.

Lost me guys where is Abhain Rath? I was looking to go from Dam up towards Gleann Lolairean. Could always work my way over to tulloch station and come back EMC's route. Does look like a couple of miles of open ground but it is beside trainline/river so should be easy to follow IMO.

Just looking at another option coming from Dalwhinnie up Loch Ericht and over to Tulloch the reverse EMC's route, along WHW up over devil's to corrour and out to Laggan. Any opinions?

Regarding Blackwater to Treig, my memory is of poor track to Chiaran, then no track.

(The Abhain Rath enters Loch Treig at Creagunaich Lodge, and rises in the Mamores).

Yep, my bad! Abhainn Rath is the other approach to Loch Treig, not the Blackwater Damn/Loch Chiaran path, plus I had a trailer when I tried it so my memory of how rideable it is might be a bit skewed…

The track from Chairan is pretty good, although its a bit cut up by the motorbikes on the descent.

I've walked that section of the railway a few times doing structure inspections, you might get as far as the old station at Gorton (marked Gorton crossing) but from there there is nothing bar the railway until you hit Rannoch Forest. That section of line takes about 40mins to walk along with some blind curves so wouldn't recommend it whilst the line was open. The trails in rannoch forest are fine but you have to go down to Bridge of Gaur before heading west again to Rannoch Station. Would either recommend the Devils staircase or the Black Corries route though have only done the latter when it was -10 and frozen and even then it was boggy!!

The train would be an easy option…

I take it this is the route which is described on Heritage Paths? It sounds passable without a bike anyway!

http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=108

I remember watching a tele programme with Nicholas Crane trying to follow old drove roads in the footsteps of Thomas Pennant and ending up well into bogs in the Rannoch area – but can't remember the details of the routes. I see from google it was repeated in April – but not available on iplayer – so not very useful info

Curious about the differing opinions on the time for some of the routes in this area – tho I suppose it will vary dependent on rainfall.

I made the mistake of following the path from L Eilde Mor up and over to Blackwater a couple of years ago – which in v wet weather wasn't the most joyous of routes (on the plus side it was my 1st trip onto the Chairain path for the return to KLL)

Geograph.org.uk is most helpful in finding how good some paths are; it has this photo of the track up to Loch Treig which suggests it's not too bad…

B0ll0cks is it! 😀

I've just spent two weeks riding trails which I had used geograph to research. What happens is that people only stop to take photos on the good bits, so when I thought I'd checked a random selection of photos of a trail, all of them rideable looking, what i had in fact checked was lots of photos of THE ONLY rideable bits of the trail, which were interspersed with long stretches of boggy shite.

Beware the geograph my son… 😉

(edit: although that picture above is fairly representative of the path, at least until it starts descending to loch Treig, at which point there are lots of pedal deep ruts where the motorbikes have been, then a boggy bit…)

If you are considering the Kingshouse to Rannoch station route – I did it today (in reverse). There is about 2 1/2 miles of a gap in the middle where I was pushing. Other than that the tracks either end are good. At the Rannoch station end the track goes much further west than the OS map indicates. Well out the forest. You can see the actual track on google maps satelite view.

I did the Gorton to Rannoch Forest gap today as well. Very dry conditions today. On a previous trip I got fairly wet but got through with dry feet today.

Out the two I'd say the Kingshouse – Rannoch bikehike would be drier in average conditions. More a boggy walk unlike the Gorton push which is a walk though a bog.