Am planning on doing a road trip from London – destination Torridon. Looking to do a mixture of trail centre and remote natural rides. I would prefer all natural but given the weather is always unpredictable I think it makes sense to mix in a bit of trail centre as well.

Current idea is to include

GlenTress
Fort Bill – Back of Ben Nevis Route
Torridon

I’ll use the mtbtrails site for further info. Intention would be to use 2 cars for max flexibility.

I need another two or three decent rides on the way up or down.

Suggestions welcome.

Thanks

stop at llandegla on the way up and make your mind up if it good or not. then glentress and innerliethen then fort bill maybe…?

Ciaran path and or Devils Staircase on the way to fort bill.

Around the top of the northern corries of cairngorm between fort bill and torridon. This is a proper mountain ride but can be done in about 3 hours with minimal carrying.

Llangdela sounds like a cheeky option. Breaks the journey either up or down.

Cairngorms – like the idea of minimal carrying – does the route have a specific name ?

I’ve been thinking of something similar and was going to break for a ride in Gisburn on the way up and an overnight stop/ride @ Dales Bike Centre on the way back.

When I say minimal carrying I mean 20mins to half an hour.

No official name but I’d call it a round of the Northern Corries. I’m assuming you’ll be doing it in the summer?

Basically up cairngorm then round the top of coire an t-sneachda and coire an lochain to the ben macdui path and back along that.

Spin – 30 min is minimal in my book – appreciate the heads up.

If you are heading from London definately stop off at Long mynd, just off the A% breaks up the journey nicely

Or as Jedi suggested llandegla and also do the natural riding around there..

Then you have the lakes or the dales further up… loads of choices really… have fun

Lakes!

Best riding in England and right next to the M6.

Must be about halfway up too.

Why would you want to ride the Lakes, or even Torridon, after Llandegla? After the Lord Mayor’s show surely…..

😉

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t do Glentress – Ft William – Torridon, but its not necessarily the most logical/efficient driving option from London.

(1) If you are coming from London to Scotland I assume you will come up the M6/M74 rather than the A/M1. Glentress is then on the east coast of the country whilst you are on the west. You will pass many good options in the Lakes on the way, and then some of the less well known of the 7stanes trail centres near to the M74.

(2) If you are in Glentress heading for Torridon, then Ft Bill is not on the route most people would take (Edinburgh, Forth Br, Inverness, being the ‘obvious’ route). The road to Inverness will take you through Aviemore and access to the Cairngorms.

Of course if you’ve got enough time and don’t mind spending as much time in a car as you do on the hill then there is no reason not to do them all.

If you come back from torridon, then do you want to break up the trip back too? That will be difficult as following torridon almost anything else is going to be an anticlimax.

What route have you in mind at Fort William? We did a loop up Glen Nevis using chunks of the west highland way that was lovely, but I wouldn’t travel for it. Seems a little counterintuitive to me to make the diversion to the Fort then do a non-manmade ride- jump on the gondola, or go for better natural riding elsewhere.

Thanks for all the views so far.

Both Torridon and Fort Bill are important as I used to do loads of climbing there. Torridon is one almighty journey so it makes sense breaking it up. I take on board that some of the places mentioned so far are a bit off piste and that is a consideration.

Natural trails and remoteness are a must but I do need to consider the weather and have alternatives.

At present I am favouring glentress or Cairngorms/ Torridon/fort bill

Re Fort Bill. – I did a one way route there years ago starting about 5 miles east of the town – it headed south and then turned west ending up in kinlochleven. It was a long day with some good descents , river crossings and boggy hikes.

The mtbtrails website looks like it has some solid info on epic trails. It shows one trail which looks great in Torridon on the south side. Does anyone know of other routes there -particularly on the north side behind Liathach and Beinn Eighhe.

Told the wife about this planned trip last night and she took it well. Although spending an afternoon with the OS maps tomorrow may be less appreciated.

If I was heading to Torridon I wouldn’t bother with anywhere on the way up as Llandegla/Lakes etc are all places you can go to as a trip. Heading that far north I would want to ride stuff that I couldn’t get to on a long weekend.

For me…
Day 1 drive to Torridon
Days 2-4 ride Torridon and surrounding areas
Day 5 get some gondola action at Fort Bill
Day 6 Laggan (have a soft spot for the place)
Day 7 Inners and home (find the drive from inners to London ok after doing Minch Moor.

There is plenty of riding up in the Highlands which I don’t really know so it might be worth forgetting trail centres… that said they do offer good riding with no nav to worry about so come in useful when bang for buck within a timeframe is required.

Just found this

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/torridon-single-and-multi-day-routes

Some routes that might be of interest…

Got me thinking about a road trip myself…. fancy Torridon, Skye etc

If you were to go up the M1, you’d only be about 20 minutes from some fantastic Peak District riding, be a crime not to stop off.

Sambob… the riding in The Peaks is fantastic but it is in the peaks… how often do you stop in Bournemouth on your way to Spain?

The Peaks is a relatively short hop from London and as such is a cracking weekend destination. Getting to The Highlands is a massive drive and if you are going to drive there then it makes sense to me to ride there.

All of the above is of course IMHO

Fair enough, makes sense. I don’t stop on the lakes on the way up to Fort Bill, Takes 8 hours even from the western side of the Peaks.