I’ve been thinking of linking up a ride around Bennachie with a ride around Pitfichie and sticking to off-road as much as possible.

I know there’s a fisherman’s bridge over the Don somewhere along ‘My Lord’s Throat’ road. I saw a ride on Strava using it once but couldn’t download the GPX and now can’t find the ride. Anyone ever used it? If so, what are the link paths to the main circuits?

I’m planning an all-day ride tomorrow and would like to attempt the big circuit whilst avoiding too much exploring up dead ends!

I know I can go over Millstone and around by tarmac to the Pitfichie downhill carpark area but I want to stay on dirt as much as possible… I may use that way as my return.

BTW, I’ve never been over Millstone, which is the best direction, North or South?

Here you go:

https://www.strava.com/activities/60567101

There is a bit of road, but not much.

Crossing via Keig/Forbes? Interesting… I can link that up nicely, thanks.

I would go south to north and come back the way I came, after doing something on Benachie.

Strava names.
Up the South side is called Don view to the rocks
Down the North side is called Sleeper.

……and ace, I didn’t know about the crossing.

I’ve been over that fishermans bridge. I wouldn’t go that way again, it needed a good bit of heather bashing to reach it on the north side. The bridge itself wasn’t in great nick either. The rest of our route was pretty similar to roverpig’s.

Crossing via Keig/Forbes? Interesting… I can link that up nicely, thanks

No problem. Yes, the river crossing is just on the road. I think the fisherman’s bridge you are referring to might be the one that is currently just a couple of girders with no platform. Wouldn’t fancy trying to cross that with my bike on my back, to be honest 🙂

The left turn off the Lord’s Throat road on the route I posted is easy to miss, but a nice little track. The climb up to Pitfichie is a good climb (assuming that you like climbing 🙂 ) with maybe a bit of carrying at the end (depending on the conditions and your fitness of course).

I’m considering doing the ride this afternoon. I’m going to go from the top of Rorandle and down to Keig and back up the way I descended just to imprint it on my memory. Is there any way to download the GPX? Some rides are available to download, some aren’t. It doesn’t seem to depend on Premium or following status either. Any ideas? The only option would seem to be to print it out on A3 and take it with me!

I looked at a few others routes around that area, and did this last year.

https://www.strava.com/activities/203194611

I looked for the little bridge, but couldn’t find it, so ended up crossing by the road. The section where I cut north to Millstone was a slog, so would not repeat that section.

This should be the GPX file for the relevant bit of the route that I posted earlier. Probably the same as the one Gavin posted, just a bit slower 🙂

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29868025/Bennachie%20%2B%20Pitfichie.gpx

Have fun, you lucky sod. It looks like a cracking day to be out there. Think of us poor suckers stuck at our desks 🙁

Hi roverpig, that link just comes out as a massive text file…

Hmm, interesting. Looks as though clicking on the link tries to open the file and as a gpx file is just a text file that’s what you get. Can you right click on the link and save the file as something.gpx ?

Is exactly what you need to do

Thanks, I got it to work, printed out in Google Earth and off I went! I ended up getting delayed at work so didn’t get to Pitfichie until about 4.30pm.

I took a wrong turning, ended up in gorse-infested hell but back-tracked and found the proper route. I think starting from the Keig end would have meant better route finding except for the top bit.

Nice adventure though, the weather was great!

Nice one. Needs pictures though 🙂

You’re right, the route is easier to find coming up from the Keig side, but getting lost and having to carry the bike through bits is all part of the fun I reckon.

I’m still not sure of the best way through the first plantation bit to the jeep track but I’ll work out the least heathery way! I’m doing an ascent of Cairn William from Keig tomorrow, trying to link the biggest single climb possible in one ride.