Evening all. I would appreciate help planning a weekend ride in the highlands next year. Plan so far is to get a sleeper train from London Friday evening, ride Saturday & Sunday then back on the train and in the office for 08:00 Monday morning.

I’m more interested in breath-taking scenery than awesome single-track; ideally riding out from the station to a B&B then back Sunday (could go back to a different station if need be).

If anyone could suggest a ride or just an area that would be great.

I thank you.

The obvious choices would either be the Inverness train, and probably getting off Aviemore / Kingussie and riding in the cairngorms, or getting the Fortwilliam train and riding somewhere between Ardlui and Ft William (West Highland Way for ideas – it roughly follows the railway line).

If you want to feel as though you are in the middle of nowhere, but have the convenience of a train station then Corour is hard to beat!

Oh – and as I recall there’s no showers on the train – so you may want to end up somewhere to have a shower before boarding! i.e. one of the “big” stations like Ft William – or Corour hostel offered showers to day visitors for minimal cost last time I was there (best to check as theres been some changes since then). Your could probably get a shower at Bridge of Orchy hotel etc too.

Crainlarich to ft William on WHW easily done in two days.

I’m sure the mag covered this in a feature some years ago…

Loop from Aviemore. Cheeky shower at Glenmore Campsite on the return.

What about sleeper to Fort Bill, then big ride eastwards across to somewhere like Dalwhinnie for a B&B [WHW to KLL, up to Lubeig, across to corrour way, then up that valley to the back of Ben Alder, then out to Dalwhinnie, for example].
Then you’re on the east coast mainline, so you could do something a bit easier on Sunday – tickle the edge of the Cairngorms and head back on the night train.

The Sept (which may still be current) Outdoor Fitness has just that, although they weren’t going from London.

Train to Blair Atholl, to Braemar overnight then on to Aviemore and back. Just about do-able on trains from London (BA is about 2hrs from Edinburgh) if you can slope off a little early on Friday.

Else sleeper to Ft William makes a lot of sense.

I have also looked at this for a short weekend of riding. I like the idea of not having to spend hours in a car, but I think it still works out pretty expensive and not sure Scotrail let you book that far in advance?

Let me know if your plans develop further, want to loom at the same thing for a future trip. Will also look at the mag in the shops.

I’ve done this a couple of times but by coach as I found the train ridiculously expensive. Coach is usually £50 return from London Victoria but as you’d expect, a pretty miserable experience.
Plot a route from Aviemore and you’ll have a great time. There are public showers in Aviemore itself but I think they close at 3/4pm. Failing that, a nice word at the SYHA works.
One of the outdoor shops has looked after my bike bag for me before.

As ever thanks all for sharing your wisdom; I’ll report back if the plan comes to fruition.

Anywhere with a public swimming pool will have showers so both Aviemore and Fort William would be OK.

When looking at costs, consider that a return journey may well be cheaper than two singles so riding between different lines (eg Aviemore to Fort William) could cost more.

A loop from one station would also provide the possibility of leaving some dry clothes at the start and finish point.

You may be able to get a bargain berth which start at £19 each way – http://www.scotrail.co.uk/content/caledonian-sleeper-bargain-berths.html

Just be aware that there will be plenty of folk who work in London all week and return to their Scottish home for the weekends, so Friday and Sunday night services are usually quite busy.

Don’t discount the megabus sleeper service to Glasgow if you fancy some WHW action.

http://uk.megabus.com/megabus-sleeper.aspx

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Got on the sleeper for some mountain biking last week – took a day off work and went up from Preston to Dalwhinnie. Rode through the mountains to Fort William, and back down that evening. Great trip, felt like a bit of an adventure. The sleeper is really showing its age, but it’s comfy and has a lot of charm.

Big roll of the dice with the weather. Got off at Dalwhinnie in darkness and driving rain and felt like turning around and climbing back on the train. It soon cleared, though, and was light rain most of the day.
Beautifully remote route – went through the bealach dubh and corrour – but turned out tougher than I expected. Should be a pretty comfortable ride, just looking at the distance and climbing, but there were two 4 miles sections of wet hike-a-bike that were gruelling.

Only drawback was getting on at Preston – the sleeper pulls in at 1 am, which is a bit late for a decent night’s kip. Some lateral thinking would have had me get on at Crewe (I started from Manchester), but you’ll get the best out of it if you’re coming up from London.
Definitely one to repeat in the summer – take it a bit more civilised, over a weekend, spare bag at a B and B etc. But for a one day trip it was a nice way of getting the Scottish mountain fix.