here's a few pics from our latest trip around scotland. a lot of you will know or have seen what this country has to offer in terms of pure biking heaven......but everyone loves pics. Day one: after meeting the last of our group at dumbarton, we headed for Spean Bridge for our first overnight stop, taking the military road past Faslane sub base & heading for Inveraray/Oban/Glencoe/Fort William. grub at Oban harbour, soaked at Glencoe & a nice wee farm cottage to stop for the night (I say wee, it slept 10, it was bloody huge). the wee wifey in the main farm house got a shock when 8 bikes came up the driveway, but she had made us fresh scones about an hour later, biker friendly indeed.
Day two: we headed for Mallaig to catch the ferry to Skye, great stretch of road for an early start with some nice twisties. we just skimmed the island due to our mileage that day but from what we saw, it is a stunning place, we're adding a day in next year to do the whole island. Over the Skye bridge to Dornie to see Eilean Donan castle, where we managed to hide from a torrential downpour. then we headed to Applecross over the Bealach na ba. definitely a bucket list road, twice we've done it now & the adrenaline still sky-rockets & unforgettable views. after a kick-ass steak lunch, we left using the coastal route which isn't as scary as the pass but still tight, especially when you're met with a herd of highland cows blocking the road. we continued up the coast to Gairloch for a fuel stop, we hit snow just after that which made for an interesting few miles before reaching Ullapool for our second night.
Day three: woke to bright sunshine which was a nice change. long jaunt to Durness with plenty of stunning views & twisty roads. we stopped at Smoo cave to check it out. awesome place, I don't think the tour guy expected 9 bikers in full gear to come stomping in for a tour of the place, but he was very knowledgeable & clearly loved his job so it was a nice surprise. continuing along the north coast we stopped at John O'Groats cause you just have to really, pics at the sign etc. the next section was a surprise after all the stories of the A9 being crap with average speed cameras, I didn't realise this was from Inverness southwards, because the road from John O'Groats to Inverness is great, the hairpins certainly made us more alert when they snuck up on us. then to Inverness for the night.
Day four: after breakfast we headed for the Cairngorms & over the Lecht road, those who know it will know what I mean I say "holy s**tballs!", 1 in 5 gradients, dips & bumps, with everything going light & lifting you out the seat over the crests before smashing your chin into the tank as you hit the bottom of the dips, love it. after splitting off from some friends who live in Aberdeen, the rest of us had the "we're heading home now" head on, despite being 6-7 hours from home, which basically turned it into an endurance run with less stops & some very sore bones. all in all, the four days were fantastic, Scotland is amazing, pictures & words can't do it justice
looks great.. you should try doing it in summer sometime . lol. we are heading up pretty much the same route the second week in september . the road past faslane is great on my ducati hyperstrada as i spend most of my time powering over the dips and crests . my mates behind said they now have hearing problems due to the noise made whilst i was doing it. We are going to miss the j.o.groats bit though as the road that goes to it is pretty boring compared to the roads you have ridden in the run up to the top of scotland.
haha what summer? last year we did it in may & got 3 days of glorious sunshine, so I figured I'd arrange it for around the same time. apart from the snow when we were at high altitude, we got a few showers days 1+2, but nobody really cared, rainsuits on & go. it was a cracking route, you'll love it. the faslane road seems to be popular among the scots on this forum.
yeah, just ordered some better waterproof gloves just in case. i hired an f type jag earlier this year and managed 700 miles in 2 days in it … it sounded awesome giving it the berries up the hill to apple cross .It was much better value than paying £400 to do a couple of laps of a race circuit in one.
I bet the noise echoing off the hills & valley was something else in that thing. This is from last years trip, the gopro was on my sis-in-laws helmet & we were taking it very easy being our first time on it. for those who don't know it, the valley section starts around 9mins just before the hairpins. it's a hell of a drop. I couldn't imagine doing this in a car.
might as well throw a few pics from our 2014 trip in here too. Me & my bro at Glencoe - makes you feel small standing in this place
Thanks for the report and pics. I'm heading up to Inverness from Lancashire with a group of about 12 others first thing tommorow (Thursday) morning and will be doing some of the roads mentioned in this thread. I think we will be doing about 1300 miles over 4 days so my tyres are going to be fu*ked by the end of the trip and hopefully the weather will be kind to us.
nice. the last 2 pics I posted are at Loch Glascarnoch which is just along the A835 from Inverness, from there you can take the A832 which is a cracking stretch & it loops round back towards Inverness. a great little circuit. be sure to check out the Corrieshalloch Gorge just after turning onto the A832. I hope you get it dry but if it rains, who cares, its amazing up there regardless
A few pics of our 1300mile, 5 day run around Scotland (including Skye) last week. Amazing country, amazing weather, Skye has some spectacular views. Third year of doing this run, best one yet. Dumbarton - start Glencoe - bro and his zzr Glencoe Commando memorial Road to Mallaig - couple of action shots My Mrs on her Z1000SX Skye - Kilt Rock Skye - Quiraing
Skye - Quiraing Skye - heading to Fairy Pools, not the best idea to go in full gear! AWWWW IT WAS SO GOOD! Applecross Viewing thingy stole his money - he wasn't happy.......we were!
