Group of us planning a trip for late spring 2017.
All experienced riders (natural & trail centre).
Want to maximise the fun & interested to hear if others have already done similar.
Have done & enjoyed Kirroughtree, Mabie, Dalbeattie, Glentress, Innerleithen, Laggan, not done Fort Bill uplift but will most likely be on the list.
Have walked lots of Munros but not ridden any.
Keen to hear suggestions, esp. logical order & hopefully a mix of trail centre & at least 1 big natural.
Will use to help us plan our trip.
Thx in advance.

That’s usually a good time of year to visit, so thumbs up for that straight away.
A little later in the year and the midges will be out in force!

Don’t try to do too much or you just end up driving all the time. Pick an area for natural riding and spend a few days there. torridon, Avimore or whichever you want. Visit the trail centres on the way up and back

Head to Torridon stay at the yha easy to ride to the start of the trails, then when you have had enough go to Aveimore

Don’t try to do too much or you just end up driving all the time.

Agree with this, I’d do three centres at the most.

Maybe West Highlands on way up, NW Highlands, then Cairngorms or Perthshire on way back.

I’d go north. Stop at aviemore on the way up. Great days riding at high Burneside. Then head further north. You have the mast at Inverness plus the new amazing pump track, torridon and Golspie and Balblair all in a relatively small area. Ft William on the way home. Pretty epic trip

Depending on how long as trip you plan there’s a heap more you can add to this. I’d be happy to give a more detailed breakdown of any of the above

Big naturals,

Aviemore / Torridon / Skye / Harris

Stop at aviemore on the way up. Great days riding at high Burneside. Then head further north. You have the mast at Inverness plus the new amazing pump track,

High Burnside is nice but it really isn’t the main event in that area. Likewise, if you’re looking for the best Scotland has to offer I’d keep driving north of Inverness.

I’d echo not trying to chase trails all over the country.

Maybe think of stopping West – so Fort William and Torridon area, and anywhere in between.

Or stop East and head to Cairngorms then up towards Golspie which we thought was a great trail centre. There’s also smaller trail networks near Lairg – Balblair I think, which look good.

Thx for all of above.
First planning session is Weds evening (over beer & curry).
No doubt this will result in more questions than answers & require further planning.
All suggestions/recommendations appreciated.

Near aviemore, Laggan Wolftrax. Great fun.

Going up to Torridon, Fort William, Laggan, Kinlochleven etc is a pain in the arse for me and I live in Scotland 😆 TBH it mostly depends on what you want, what you’ve done, and how you feel about travel but the borders and southwest always have an advantage in logistics. If you want big and natural and out there then obviously the north has that, if you want first class riding and don’t mind riding in circles then you could do a week in the tweed valley and never ride the same descent twice (but ride the same climbs over and over and over…)

Definitely include some of the tweed valley in there!
Could easily spend a week here.
Tweed Love

Stop at aviemore on the way up. Great days riding at high Burneside. Then head further north. You have the mast at Inverness plus the new amazing pump track,
High Burnside is nice but it really isn’t the main event in that area. Likewise, if you’re looking for the best Scotland has to offer I’d keep driving north of Inverness.

Only really torridon,skye,contin and Golspie north of Inverness

If you’re making a week of it go to Torridon, take in the West Coast (Ben Lomond, Fort Bill) on the way up then Aviemore (Lairig Ghru, Burnside) and Dunkeld (the DH track, or a gentle loop up to Loch Ordie or through Glen Garry) on the way home.

Hi check your dates

if you want to ride fort bill lift assisted I think the Gondola closes after the ski season until May.

Torridon is epic very very good.
As said above the YHA is great and close to the Torridon inn for food nd beer.

You could stop on the way up at Glencoe ride devils staircase and ciaran path we did that recently and stayed at the Glencoe YHA close to Claghaig inn. Good craik and beer.

The YHA seems th best option for biking as you can wash and dry kit and get a warm bed. Book ahead and get rooms of 3 or 4 so no dorms.

YHA breakie!

Great riding all over

Cape Wrath ?? Ferry over and cycle to Cape Wrath then down the coastal path to Kinlochbervie. Bothy on Capewrath and then at Sandwood bay you could use for accomoodation. Their details on the MBA website.

Black road across Rannoch Moor is a good day and a bit again plenty of bothies around. Visit Corrour station as featured on Trainspotting

Bike to Barrisdale bothy in Knoydart from Kinlochourn then out to Inverie and book the ferry to get out. Also get to visit the remotest pub on the mainland UK.

Spend the time in Skye & Rassay. Loads to do between the 2 Islands. Get there before the Midges come out to play !!!!!

Aviemore ?? Tons there in day rides. Check out Aviemoreselfcater.co.uk, they have secure bike storage in the garden lol no self promotion there

Loads of natural stuff to do without a trail centre.

Islay ?? Cycling tour of the distilleries ??

Have fun Niall

Thinking is two sites (Aviemore/Laggan & Torridon) with something like Glentress & Innerleithen to break up the journey out & back.
Recommendations for Torridon & Aviemore would be appreciated as not ridden at either.
Thx in advance again.

2 good routes setting off from Aviemore as below

1. – Cycle out ski road then out to Loch an Eilen from Rothiemurchus cafe.

At the end of the Loch turn off to the Cairngorm club footbridge below the Laraig Ghru.

Continue up to Loch Morlich.

At Loch Morlich cross the road and up to Ryvoan bothy then descend down to Loch Garten (visit the Osprey centre if you have time). Follow the road back to Boat of Garten (pint in the pub beer garden if the weather is good)

Back to Aviemore along the Speyside way.

2-

Same route to start but once you reach the bottom/Start of Loch Morlich turn right and climb up the forest track to Glenmore lodge. At the lodge follow the path on up towards the Lairig Ghru for a mile or so then heather romp across to your right and you will find a really fun single track path back down.

There is then a foot path runs back to Aviemore in the forest parallel to the road

Niall

GoWhere Scotland do some pretty epic trips and worth looking at.

Depending on how late spring you’re talking, keep an eye on the weather, you might have to avoid the tops of munros due to snow at that time of year (or at least push up and down the tops of them and hope that there are footprints to follow).

To be honest, there’s good stuff all over the place, if you get the weather you’ll have a great time, if not you’ll have a great adventure.

A day with Upliftscotland at inners is absolutely awesome tbh, 32 quid for 10 runs, more descending than you’ll probably do all week. It’s not full on DHing, most folks on there are on 160mm bikes, and I’m sure someone on here would show you the best bits.

IMO, I wouldn’t go too far north, I’d have 3 days based in FW or KLL – there’s an insane amount of great riding within close proximity , and 3 days based in Peebles, as the valley not just has incredible riding, but is a fab place socially.

We’re getting the sleeper to Fort Bill in May then riding to Torridon over two days where we’ll spend a few nights at the YHA before getting the train home via Inverness. Should be fun.

Slight thread hijack / deviation, but in a similar vein..

I’m heading up to Skye towards the end of February and would like to get a ride or two in on the way up – is Torridon likely to be (safely) rideable at all at that time of year (thinking this) or am I best of just sticking to trail centres? Kirroughtree and Laggan are on my list in any case..

February in Torridon is likely to feature snow/ice at high points. However, it could also be warm n wet…!

The best plan is to be flexible and keep an eye on weather for a couple of weeks beforehand.

Similarly Laggan – but at least you’re never far from the road.

Thanks for the replies.. kinda confirmed what I was thinking!

In the same vain I’m supposed to be heading up to Aviemore for a Winter Mountaineering course next weekend (14/15th Jan) and was planning to come up a few days earlier for some exploring on foot or bike.

Looking at the forecast however I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort of driving from Devon vs. flying to Inverness for the course.

Are the highlands anything like North Wales where it can be crap in mountains but decent on the coast or vice versa?

Very much so. It can be splendid round the Moray Coast and white-out in Aviemore.

It can also be fine round the foothills (Rothiemurchus, Glenmore, Inshriach etc).

Good luck with the course too. We are expecting some snow next Tue/Wed onwards.

Awesome *cross fingers*

If anyone is free mid-week and fancies showing a lager drinking southerner about feel free to message 🙂

There’s usually a Bothy Bikes night ride and a wee group of my mates try to fit something in too. Daytime, PM me and I’ll see what I’m up to. I’m more into cruising than gnarling but I’m sure we can find something appropriate.