My brother is 40 this year so we are planning to take a trip to Scotland calling in locally in Wales first then making our way up in a van taking around 10 days to get up there and back, travelling via trails and riding spots. The plan when we get to Scotland is to do a multi day ride with kit being taken to where we are sleeping by a third party.

We are both experienced riders so would be nice to have some challenging trails, just wanted to find out what was available up there and if anyone else has done similar before. Was considering bothies but would involve buying quite a bit of kit I don’t have.

Despite what the weather map would lead you to believe, Scotland is actually quite a big place. I’ve been living in it for over 50 years and haven’t seen it all yet so it might help if you could narrow down your criteria a little.

Is the luggage forwarding by someone you know or are you expecting to pay for it? If the latter, then you’re going to be limited to some of the LDPs (e.g. West Highland Way, Speyside Way).

Was considering bothies but would involve buying quite a bit of kit I don’t have.

You don’t need a lot of kit for bothies, particularly in summer (cheapo sleeping bag and mat will be fine).

But as scotroutes pointed out, if you’re paying for 3rd party transportation of your gear, you’ll be limited to the trade routes.

Is there any reason why you don’t want to carry your kit? You wouldn’t need much if you’re using bothies.

Can you explain a bit more what you’re doing? A 10 day tour of Scotland in a van and you want some multi day trip options?

A starter for 10 would be the Scotland Wild Trails books 1 & 2. They have a good few overnight routes. Tour of cairngorms, coast to coats, tour de ben nevis, Ben Alder, Lock Ossian and some others. If you got those and the corresponsding OS maps you would have plenty to keep you going. If you need someone to transport your kit you might be a bit more limited.

I’d look at multi day trips using the train to get back to your van. For example a coast to coast. Van in Inverness. Train to Kyle, do McMoonters route with an Aberdeen finish then train back to Inverness.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=CT&doc_id=12519&v=63

http://www.trailbrakes.co.uk/output/mtb_holidays.asp
http://www.ridelines.co.uk/guidedRides.aspx

The other question is, what do you really want from your riding- trail centres, big rides, short technical bastards, all of the above…

To clarify what we are looking to do is spend around 5 days once in Scotland a day at one of the trail centers then a 3 day ride ideally supported by a company moving our kit to the different accommodations and finishing off with a huuuuge nice in Edinburgh! We are both experienced riders so ideally looking for some challenging routes, I guess epic XC with some technical downhills would cover it. Not fussed on what part we go to have ridden in Scotland before a few times but that was all trail centers.

I like the idea of catching a train back to the van if that fits in with the right type of trails. I did assume there would be companies offering the service I outlined above. When I’m back in front of a computer I will check out the links. Thanks for the pointers and ideas any further info appreciated.

http://www.innerhaven.co.uk/out-and-about/mountain-biking/

Worth giving Jules a shout @ http://www.cyclewildscotland.co.uk/aboutus.htm

Day at Glentress and Innerleithen, then dump the van in glasgow, train to Fort Willaim, do the Nevis range and come back down the West Highland Way over two or three days.

If you do the bunkhouses on the West Highland Way then you’d easily get everything you need in a rucksack each.

Drive to The cairngorms and do the 3 day 200k circuit. Stay in hostels, so not a huge amount of kit required. Forget the trail centres, they’re full of muppets anyway 😀

The WHW is alright, a fairly good ride, but there’s way better rides to do.