Hilly Scottish roads

psychle

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the road to Applecross, with it's proper Alpine-style hairpins.

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=GB|s ... 20PH41%204

DaveyL

Indeed. And its distinctly non-Alipne 25% slog before the hairpins!

The Bealach-na-Ba is pretty well-known now, thanks in part to the sportive, so maybe that's why no-one's mentioned it.

I thought the Applecorss peninsula was worse than the individual climb of the Bealach.

fenski

And for thread completeness, let's not forget the B869 Drumbeg road north of Lochinver - even lumpier than the Applecross peninsula.

Noodley

fenski wrote:

And for thread completeness, let's not forget the B869 Drumbeg road north of Lochinver - even lumpier than the Applecross peninsula.

You mean this one?

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Lochinver-Loop

fenski

Spot on

Captain Fagor

That loop looks taxing - will add that to my must-do list, cheers.

There's also the unclassified dead end road heading west from Torridon towards Diabeg. I haven't ridden it (only been a passenger in a car) but it is nasty!

ru--

I'd definitely recommend the Lammermuirs. This is one of my favourite loops from Dunbar:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Du ... ord-Dunbar

Anything south of the A1 is pretty tough really. The climb from Garvald up through Nunraw is nice, as is the one by Duns Golf Club. And then there's Redstane Rigg too.

Pretty deserted roads too.

Jazza1969

Good to see the Cairnpapple climb getting a mention, but the same ascent from the Bathgate side past Ballencrieff Farm (the "Sports Centre" road) is steeper and more relentless than from Linlithgow. The Linlithgow version is perhaps more interesting, with a hairpin and a great view across the Forth Clyde valley.

If you go past Cairnpapple, the next hill to Knock is if anything, even worse. These last 2 ramps get to the 20% mark, but are short. Coming as they do at the end of a 200 metre climb, they are pretty cruel.

Kinscavil in the same area is well worth a go too - nothing subtle here just a straight unforgiving lung busting ascent. The worst thing is you see the whole damn thing as you approach.

It's quite easy to put a loop together of maybe 30 miles round West Lothian which can include a deceptive amount of sustained climbing, as good as many a highland route.

Another less well known one is the brutal road from Tummel Bridge to Trinafour in Perthshire. 3 miles of climbing in either direction, but worse from the south. Much steeper than the Dukes Pass, and quite exposed. The view of the mountain tops of Schiehallion, Glenlyon and the Lawers range on a clear day, from the summit is amazing.

The climb from Aberfeldy to the Schiehallion road end is not the steepest but it's a sustained grueller, as is the climb from Tummel Bridge up to the same point, which is at about 380m with 250m or so of climbing either way.

Relatively nearby the climb from Loch Faskally to Clunie Dam on the south Loch Tummel road is fairly underrated as well. There's a touch of the Kinscavil about this one too.

Agree the Ben Lawers road being included. Just don't believe what the signs say about it being 10% as it leaves the main Loch Tay road. The first ramp is way more than that, but it then eases, slightly! The descent on the other side's pretty hairy too.

The "String road" from Brodick to Shiskine on Arran rises to a mountain pass,with tight bends on either side. Combine that with the Lochranza climb that has been mentioned and you get a classic 27 odd miler round the north half of the island.

.

Noodley

Okay, I'm gonna dip my toe into audax event organising with an "easy" perm event - Kirriemuir-Tomintoul-Kirriemuir. "Easy" in that it's out and back...not so easy in that it involves Cairnwell and the Lecht in both directions, and also the climbs between Braemar and the Lecht as well...ouch! Oh, and Glenisla.

I'll see how I get on with organising a route sheet. I plan on riding it sometime in August for a recce to get distances sorted out. I also have a few other ideas from what has been posted, but thought I'd start with a "local" route to begin with.

nwallace

This was raised in another forum I visit

The Kenknock to Glen Lyon road has appeared in the latest mapping as a "Yellow" which is more likely to be read as a public road than a White (particularly when white, broken both edges is read as track rather than unfenced road/track/path)

So increased change of finding idiots trying to drive it like its the M77

Having now found and checked both the Perthsire and Stirling council registers of Public Roads on line this appears to have been caused by a Cartographical mistake the road from Kennock to Lubrreoch has been added to the list, which goes past the junction for the Hydro road.