Kerrera island, is it suitable for kids? And Benderloch.

Hi all, going to be staying near Oban next week and fancy a trip round Kerrera with the bikes. How easy is it to do a circuit of the island, bearing in mind I will have the kids with me (5 and10)? Would it also be a nightmare if wet?
I will be staying at Benderloch and have seen some info with there being trails close by but it was from a couple of years ago, anyone got any pointers on these nowadays? I will be leaving the kids with the wife for these ones 😉

Cheers

It’s fairly rough and undulating in places from what I remember. Only ever walked it. Reckon it might be a bit much for a 5 year old, unless they’re hard as nails.

Cheers Kevin, thought it might be. Is there an easy route about the island that could be kid friendly? The 5 year old is probably closer to nails than his 10 year old sister though, he’ll cycle his 16″ wheel single speed bike places you thought not possible, it’s his lazy ars sister I’m more concerned about.

there is only one route. it’s a landrover track and not particularly difficult tho there is one uphill bit that might get the whininess quotient up a bit, might be worth checking if the teahouse is open if you’re planning a breather. not sure the parrot place will be open this time of year. beyond that there’s nothing there at all. it’s brilliant. totally go and if the dog is there remember he’ll expect you to open the gates….

Benderloch hmm? My home village, also home to a couple of pretty handy downhillers.

First port of call is Beinn Lora, the hill had some pretty decent DH tracks until a couple of pretty severe storms felled literally hundreds of trees over them. If you push up the walker’s path you’ll see little things coming out of the trees here and there, but I think there is only one really continuous line that now exists, and its 30 seconds long if you’re lucky 🙁 If you search really hard you might even find the ‘North Shore’ line I started over the windfall until time caught up with me, and I realised I’d never be able to ride it anyway 😳

Barcaldine forest had some really tasty singletrack built by the North Argyll Cycle Club. Last I checked it had survived the storms slightly better than Beinn Lora, and these trails were less brutally steep. They would make a decent day out in a sort of 75% fireroad, 25% really cool singletrack sort of ride.

I think your best bet is to contact Kevin at Nevis Cycles in Oban, or the NACC. Tim Brand of the latter was pretty well involved with the trails in Barcaldine, as was Nick Charlton.

Finally, if you wanted a sort of longer wilderness ride, you could do far worse than ride from Benderloch to Bonawe (ride what you can up the Beinn Lora walkers track, follow the new forest road into Barcaldie Forest and traverse across to Glen Salach, descend to Bonawe) ride through Bonawe Quarry and find yourself on the shores of Loch Etive. You follow mostly fireroad but if you take the diversions down to the shore there’s some good trail and some great scenery. You eventually rock up at the foot of the Trilleachain slabs, then just the final kilometres up the Glen Etive road to the Kingshouse pub while your wife comes to pick you up in the car 8)

Actually I’ll take advantage of my accidental double post to recommend taking the road bike if you have one, heresy I’m sure but the loop from Benderloch – Tayuilt – Kilchrennan – Dalavich – Kilmelford – Oban is pretty epic, as is the loop of Mull if you have a day spare, as is Benderloch – Corran – Lochaline – Fishnish – Craignure – Oban – Benderloch. Benderloch – Musdale and back via the back roads is also a belter.

my folks live on the musdale road… I rode Beinn Lora last week and it was good fun riding the walkers path up and down for a quick blast. The path that is closed still has masses of storm damage, I gave up.

Also if you carry on the musdale route you ge to another old road that leads back round to kilchrenan.

Glen Coe is 40 minutes away for the lift assisted red route, does only take a few moments to rattle down that though. but there is some fun routes up on the plateau

Lismore might be a easier island to do…???

visit Robins Nest in Taynuilt for tea + cake/soup (cash only)

Kerrera is fantastic with the kids! took my 10 and 14 yr olds this aug. I think we went on a Tues and the cafe was closed. You can “ride” down to the old wrecked boat for a careful clamber, the castle is incredible, like being on a film set. Stinky goats and a rock like a cheese triangle. Yes there will be a bit of pushing, but choose a nice day and you should love it.

Seil is worth a visit with the familia, Ferry over to luing and ride about? Luing is a great little island to explore, old Quarry and great landrover road over the top.

We walked round Kerrera, wish we’d taken the bikes. If you;re doing it on a bike, then I reckon anti-clockwise will be a more fun loop than clockwise, the climbs aren’t as steep and the DH looks more fun that way. Keep your eye out for wildlife, we walked all the way from Oban Marina to Gylen Castle and saw loads including a peregrine falcons!

The waymarked forest trails at Barcaldine are just forest roads, the views aren’t anything special either. We did see some singletrack but it looks like the kind of place where you could do with a guide or inside knowledge – the lady at Nevis Cycles just gave us a forestry guide, didn’t seem to want to share knowledge of singletrack trails like Beinn Lora. BTW the Ben Lora café at the foot of Beinn Lora does free wifi and nice shortbread, and nice wood fired pizzas at the weekend

Cheers folks, we will definitely do Kerrera weather pending. Looks like I will do a bit of explor ing locally see what I can find when I get the chance.