Next year I have 7-10 days to myself in June. So I was planning on getting myself a little tent, basic gear and driving up to Scotland to do a road / bike trip.

Not really arsed about the staines as they are within reach for me on a one dayer anyway.

So far I was thinking couple of day in Cairngorms, Up to Golspie, Torridon (this is a must after seeing the pics in an earlier thread).. then I'm kind of floundering really.

What I am looking for is big natural rides, as, with the exception of Golspie which I have always liked to look of, I'm not really bothered about trail centers. The more remote the better. Obviously I would be based next to the tent and the car, so all the routes would have to be circular.

Thanks for your help guys.

Loch Muick

Mount Keen

More neep routes

Get the Kenny Wilson book for inspiration first.

Lochnagar/Loch Muick – lots of options including the Loch Muick circuit
Ben a Bhuird
Carn Ban Mor
Bealach Dubh/Ben Alder
Torridon/Achnashellach

The last two are in Kenny Wilson's book

If you are up here also worth a half day at Laggan

Next year I have 7-10 days to myself in June

jammy barsteward

Not done it on a bike but I've walked around there and it's amazing – Devil's Staircase in Glencoe.

Done the staircase years ago… was a great ride.

Bump.. can one of you locals point me in the right direction for the "definitive" Torridon route?

Capt… I'll have a look around for that Kenny Wilson Book. Cheers.

Golspie and Laggan and Balblair are Must Do Trail Centres that'll take up 2 days of your trip.

A natural ride around Aviemore is always worth it.

10 days on your jacksie, you lucky sod.

I know you don't fancy trail centres but laggan and the red at fort bill are well worth the visit.

we are looking to hire a camper van and do that very same thing, but for a max of 5 days. (Mrs V won't let me go for any more 🙁 )

Bump.. can one of you locals point me in the right direction for the "definitive" Torridon route?

Not sure about "definitive" as that might suggest there is nothing better in the area, but the best one I've done is the Coulin Forest circuit. Start at the car park in Glen Torridon (the main one). Up the road to Loch Clair, turn right into the Coulin Estate and ride along the road until it turns right to Coulin Lodge. Go straight on through a gate on landy track until singletrack ducks off to the right. This leads back onto landy track and to Coulin. Turn L and ride south until you come to a bridge then R to Easan Dorcha bothy. Cross a wee footbridge beyond the bothy and you're onto some very challenging ST up to Drochaid Coire Lair. From here ride the stunning descent to Achnashellach. Road to Coulags then turn R to pick up LRT then ST to Coulags bothy and on to the hike-a-bike up to the Bealach na Lice. Finish with another brilliant downhill to Annat and a wind-down on the road back to the CP.

It's a combination of this:

and this:

Hope that makes sense!

The circuit of Ben Damph is also really good riding, though short.

Other ideas and maps in this Flickr set

I can also email you .mmo files if you want (see profile).

Have fun planning and give me a shout when you're here.

Cheers,

SC

Cheers stuartie_c

If you have the MMO of that you could send me that would be excellent.

Email in profile… much appreciated.

Vortex, considered a Motorhome hire, but as its a solo mission, the expense was too much.

Small tent will give me the option of a night out on the bike too instead of returning to the car every night. Was thinking about a tour of the Cairngorms before heading up to Golspie.

Blackwater descent is my favourite ride this year, perhaps of the last couple of years. A true wild epic, miles from the nearest road, with some cracking singletrack followed by the hardest natural descent I've ever done.

Lowey – ygm.

Cheers Stuartie…. just the job. Brilliant.

Always fancied the Arkle Loop.

Doing a 'Tour of Ben Nevis' in 3 weeks time, will let you know what that's like.
Did from Loch Lochy to Ft Augustus/Corrieyairack/Glen Roy/Spean Bridge/Loch Lochy a few years ago. 65 miles, I'd probly do that again. Spoiled for choice up there though.

Torridon is a must. As someone else said, get the Kenny Wilson book, or maybe the MBR article from a few months ago.

Have a look at the OffRoadAdventures website. Some good stuff on there. Good biking in the Cairngorms too, with options to do loops ranging from between 2 to 5 days. Let me know if you want details.

There's some good stuff in the Pentlands too (don't listen to what some folk on here say). Plenty of us would be happy to show you round.

One thing though. The vast bulk of natural routes will involve hike-a-bike at some point. Be prepared to shoulder your steed and tramp across rough and boggy mountain side. The one exception is the Cairngorms loop which is about 99% rideable. There's probably more exceptions too, but that's the obvious one.

There's some good stuff in the Pentlands too (don't listen to what some folk on here say).

If you want to do some riding around the central belt, you'd be much better spending a day riding around Stirling. Dumyat, North Third and Ben Cleuch to name a few … and all 10 times more fun than the Pentlands!

Kennyp, for some reason from your posts, I've always thought you were Kenny Wilson.

Errm – while the pentlands are ok I wouldn't travel to ride there. Plenty better riding around. Well worth riding if you are there tho

Jojo……….Kenny Wilson did used to post on here, but I haven't seen his name around for a while. He also talked about a follow up to his book, but not heard of anything happening there either.

I did always think about doing a book like that, but never got my butt in gear and actually did anything about it. Kenny Wilson did though, and it's a great book. It does have a few printing errors, but there's a website with corrections on it.

Errm – while the pentlands are ok I wouldn't travel to ride there. Plenty better riding around.

I guess I'm biased in that I live right next to them. They are good, despite what folk say. But equally TJ and others are right too, there is plenty other good "natural" riding around as well.

There are another couple of decent route books out too. A wee small brown one by Andy McCandlish, and another out quite recently. It doesn't have much in the way of "new" stuff, but for someone who hasn't been here before it would be a great introduction.

I think he might have been busy making trophies for all the SXCs and No Fuss Events. I've got the book and it's great, but as I've said before on here, he likes a bit of the old hike a bike 🙂 Unavoidable to get to the best riding up here I think though.

The site has been trimmed down to this page and the update info for the previous book. The images below show just a small sample of some of the rides that will be in the next book which is in preparation right now. I'm also going through a busy spell with my cycling trophy and clock business, so it might be a wee while before work on this site and the new book are complete. In the meantime, thanks for checking out Mountainbike Scotland.

KennyP, no problem with hike a bike… doesn't bother me in the least.

Cheers for the feedback guys.

Is Skye worth a jump over too ?

I've never ridden Skye, but the photos from the current Singletrack look ace. Definitely one I'm going to try and get to in the future.

erm, i'm not a kenny wilson fan. ok, so i've only done 2 of his routes, but they seem to be well recommended ones, and frankly they were pretty shite imo.

i forget the name, but there is one which starts on the road from laggan to Ft william, which has to be the most miserable day on a bike ever. roughly 3 hours of riding along undulating forestry/dirt double track (dull) then an hour (at least) long push up a boggy streamy singletrack (which the other way would have provided a pretty techy bit of trail), before a 20 min whiz down a much wider track which failed totally on the techy front and only provided a smile from the speed one could get. then it was more forestry track.
all in the pissing rain.

it was crap, and i got in a grump.

2nd was last weekend. was the ben alder route.
started off quite well with a singletrack climb (which would have been much more manageable with gears, as opposed to SS). then there was some traversy singletrack which was ok. then a shortish singletrack descent which again was ok, not bad really. nowt special though.
stop at a bothy for lunch which was pleasant. (apart from midges)
then at least 2 hours of pushing up and over a bog (also infested with midges). no path to follow at all. it was just bog up to the top (with about 5 false summits, which were **** annoying), bog at the top (still no path) no path down the other side, just sliding around hoping your front wheel doesn't dissapear in a bog down to a loch. bog all round the loch with virtually no path, just loads of bog (again, frustrating on a SS). then, finally, a trail which continued for more than 20 yards without dissapearing into a bog, which descended back to the bothy. this trail was pretty good, in fairness – lasted about 15-20 mins.

overall, some reasonable singletrack, a LOT of bog and pushing, then a bit of good singletrack. took us nearly 6 hours. pretty shite.

while limited, my opinion of kenny W is that he is either a hill walker who hasn't got rid of his bike yet, or a cyclist who seems to prefer pushing the thing while avoiding techy singletrack.

for me, ime/imo, i'm just not prepared to risk wasting another day in the highlands pushing my bike round a kenny w route, cos the 2 i have done have both been rubbish, despite them being 'bigged up'.
there are a hell of a lot of great bits of track that can be done WITHOUT having to push bikes through bogs for hours upon hours.

(mini rant over)

ps, i'd recommend skye, and there is also some cracking stuff near kinlochleven and towards ft william. laggan is also definitely worth a spin, and there is some cracking stuff on the opposite side of the valley to laggan – there is a fort on the hill, i assume its marked on maps – get up there, and there is some super steep stuff coming down (and no bogs 😉 )

lowey/stuartie_c – one comment on the Torridon route (which must be the best day out on a mountain bike in the country) is that I reckon starting from the car park at the Torridon Inn is better. Gets the road ride out of the way first, is right at the bottom of the descent, and the pub is right there for after ride beer and food.

The guys at Bothy Bikes in Aviemore will help you with the Cairngorms routes. Plan on 2-3 days there

hungry-monkey – you are being well unfair to Kenny Wilson. Firstly the summer has been so sh*te that everywhere is much boggier than usual. Secondly, attempting something like the Ben Alder route on a SS is just ridiculous unless you are a major sadist. Not all his routes are brilliant, but at least he grades them at the top of the page so you can work out what they will be like

park up at kinlochhourn and cycle over the pass to inverie in knoydart…its about 16 miles there.stay in the excellent b&b next to the forge then bike back over….best place in scotland ive been to.love knoydart!

http://www.kilchoan-knoydart.com/index.html

All good stuff… keep it coming guys.

even in good weather, neither would make them 'classics'
the first one i described would have been shite in any weather (from an mtb perspective). had it gone in the opposite direction it would have at least included a decent bit of singletrack…

the ben alder one would still have included an awful lot of pointless pushing over rough ground with no trail to follow. even if its not boggy it would be dull and a waste. i don't reckon the area around the loch on the way back down would often get close to being non-boggy – it was just a boggy area. kenny must have ridden it during a drought or something…

neither were graded easily btw

SS is fine for the most part… through bogs not so great…

singlespeed riding on skye

The Ben Alder route is a classic. You just have to accept that a lot of riding in Scotland is going to involve hike a bike or plenty of landy track. We just don't have footpaths between places in the same way that they do further south because of the historical differences in the trade that went on and how transport communications have developed. Those that ever existed in the more remote areas have often been swallowed by bogs over time. New routes are often put in on estates, but these are usually large double tracks made to be passable by 4x4s for the huntin' and fishin' customers etc.

The boggy connecting bits are there to make feasible loops rather than the out and back rides that most would be without the tenuous connecting bits or long bits of road/doubletrack.

The Torridon Jewel is definitely the loop we did at the weekend with Stuartie C et al. The Coulin/Coulags one. Did the Kenny Wilson route around Liathach before and that involved 3hrs hike a bike for one descent, so think yerself lucky Monkeyboy!! 😉

aye, but i've done plenty of rides in scotlnd with quality singletrack without having to push for hours on end… bikes are for riding!

mebbe i'm missing the point of a classic though. the singletrack in the ben alder route was, imo, far from classic. good, but not classic. and the time and conditions it took to get to it, really weren't worth it… imo 🙂

even a scot in our group admittied that both of the rides were pretty pish…

oh, but don't get me wrong. i've done hike-a-bike before where its been fine. decent track (not bog) a mix of push and ride up, and stunning descents – thats where hike-a-bike are worth it – eg some of the stuff on skye…

Right, getting a picture now in my mind.

Drive to Ballater – 2 days riding
Drive to Golspie – 1 day riding
Across to Torridon – 2 days riding
Skye – 1 day riding
Fort William – 2 Days riding.
Drive home.

Anyone recommend any camp sites in those areas ?

There's a camp site right next to the youth hostel at Torridon. It's a flippin midgefest though.
Golspie; stay at the sleeperzzz in Rogart. As cheap as a camp site and much more fun!
Skye; Campsite at Sligachan with a pub/hotel/bunkhouse/brewery across the road for emergencies and right at the 'trailhead' (why do I hate that yankee word?)for the Sligachan ride, funnily enough.

On Skye i think the Glen Brittle campsite is pretty good. It is a little bit further around than getting to Sligachan, but has a good view out to sea and of the Cuillins which, if you havn't seen before, are very imposing and definitely worth getting a good look at. At £5 pppn with free hot, clean showers, it was bargaintastic aswell. If you are a whiskey fan, then i think the Talisker distellery works out at less than 5miles away too. Can't really comment on the midge situation as we had a lot of wind while we were there- perfect to keep them away!

The Sligachan campsite looked very exposed when we went past last week, so not adviseable if you are expecting bad weather.

…is that I reckon starting from the car park at the Torridon Inn is better.

Yup – good point! First time I did this ride we stopped for food and a couple of pints at the Torridon Hotel (not the really posh one next door.). Good food, good beer, friendly service. By the time we got out it was dark so we had to ride back up the road in a chaingang with one front and one rear light between 5, all gently swaying from the effects of a "couple of pints"…

lowey, don't know Golspie, but you do need to do a day or two in Aviemore, which could include Laggan, and miss out Fort William unless you specifically wanted to to the new red and the downhill