Any advice? – long or short options welcome.

Thanks

Circuit of the mountain (Ben Alder) is the classic – Culra, Bealach Dubh, Bealach Cumhann, Ben Alder squat, Belach breabag and back.

Fairly hard route IME, I think it’s 50K ish so not too long, but has a pure miserable carry up from the loch to the Breabag, best part of 500m ascent. Overall has an epic feel to it.

thanks for that – what are the descents like? And what’s the bog factor like on the carry section?
cheers

Did this a month ago and loved it but know that others have hated it. I’d say the perfect weather we had made a huge difference. about half of the route is on a very smooth access road. the rest is almost all singletrack, not too technical apart from all the water bars and drainage ditches. a little bit loose in places. the first climb is rideable apart from the last little bit and is good fun. the second climb is a pain and if you don’t like carrying your bike you probably won’t enjoy this route. but if you have a rest and enjoy the views it’s not so bad. it’ll be a lot harder when it’s wet as its quite soft going as is the top of the climb until you get back onto singletrack after the loch. do it on a dry summers day with a gentle breeze to keep the midgies away.