Looking for hilly routes around Edinburgh.

fuzzynavel

Hello all. I am looking for decent hilly routes in and around Edinburgh. I already do the Clermiston Brae/Drumbrae loop and Arthur Seat but I am looking for some longer climbs.

Do any of you have any ideas......am willing to ride for a bit before i get to the hills so borders or East/West Lothian are fine.....Essentially Edinburgh + about 30 miles(ish) to make around a 60 mile + ride.

I have been on the various bike mapping sites such as "bikely", "biketoaster" etc to look for previous route to plug into my Garmin but no really decent looking ones with long sustained 5% + climbs
thanks for any help.

P.S....the reason for this self abuse is that I want to do my first century in March/April when the weather gets better. The route I have chosen has several thousand feet of climbing between Edinburgh (start) and Montrose (end at In-laws house)

mercurykev

What you need is a trip out to East Lothian. Starting in Musselburgh, head towards Giffords, via Pencaitland. You then that the Duns road, climb up Redstone Rigg, over to Longformacus and back along the Whiteadder reservoir to Garvald and then Haddington. From Haddington, over a wee hill and then back along the coast (where the wind is your hill). 108km and 1300m of climbing, with most of it in the middle.

A bikely route:

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

mercurykev

By the way, the climbs in the route I mentioned will set you up for anything you'd encounter between Edinburgh and Montrose. IIRC, the only climb of note between here and Montrose would be from Leslie to Falkland, over the Lomond Hills, which isn't too steep but goes on for a bit (nice decent into Falkland though).

Good luck with the ride though, there's some nice riding through Fife, once you clear Cowdenbeath.

ellieb

The area S of Linlithgow has got a few hills. The climb up to Cairnpapple is quite decent. given that we are in the Lowlands

LittleB0b

thisroad* was, err, hilly


*I used the term loosley

OS 65

West Lothian Clarion CC have put a load of routes onto bikely
try this link:

http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/routes.html

OS 65

andyrr

The road East from Gifford is certainly a very tough one : Musselburgh RCC run an Audax on 15th Feb that uses that very route - from Musselburgh it's all uphill it seems for the next 25 miles or so ... just over 100kms total for the Audax.

Alternative I can quickly think of : head South from Edinburgh to Lasswade, down then up past the Laird and Dog pub, turn up through Bonnyrigg then head South to hit the A7 and go South until the turn for Innerleithen. Nice steady hill here (known as the Granites) and you can head down to Innerleithen. From there you have a few choices. Further South to get some big miles in (big climb of Tala beckons) or East towards Galashiels or West towards Peebles, past Glentress.

East then you're on the A72 and before you hit the A72 / A707 r'bout west of Clovenfords, take a left turn for Thornylea : real steep climb a few hunderd metres off the A72, flattens after a while then there is a 2nd section that just takes the last of your energy. Couple of routes from there to head either through Stow on the A7 or up the road that runs parallel to the A7 to go into Heriot and then either back up the A7 or head West to then pick up the road that you descended off the Granites previously. Could even head from Stow across to Lauder which is on the A68 : climb up from Stow is a toughie.

lochindaal

There was a route called the hills of west lothian that was in C+ last year.

From edinburgh out via winchburgh to Kingsgavle, over Beecraigs twice, up cairnpapple and then back. About 55 miles.

fuzzynavel

Fantastic....thanks for all the help.....bring on the pain!

Now I will see if the directions on the garmin actually work!

ded

I've got a few posted on Bikely... (some overlap with mercurykev I think )

Penicuik, Temple, Gorebridge Hilly Loop 66km
Penicuik, Temple, Moorfoots, Humbie, Musselburgh 104km

The 66km doesn't have that many long hills but has quite few steep ones - it's a good one if you want to get out but don't have enough time for a full 100km+...

fuzzynavel

ded wrote:

I've got a few posted on Bikely... (some overlap with mercurykev I think )

Penicuik, Temple, Gorebridge Hilly Loop 66km
Penicuik, Temple, Moorfoots, Humbie, Musselburgh 104km

The 66km doesn't have that many long hills but has quite few steep ones - it's a good one if you want to get out but don't have enough time for a full 100km+...

Looking at the 100km elevation profile the best hills are down around Middleton, Heriot, Gilston direction.....will see if I can get a route onto my garmin that takes me down there.

Steve_F

The one mentioned from Gifford is in the Lammermuirs, can't think of anything round here that could even come close to them and there are a couple of different roads that loop around.

There is a route that the Edinburgh -> St Andrews ride takes in over the bridge near Knockhill that I was told was super hilly, it might be coming back but heading out was disapointing.

Haven't tried the Granites yet but they don't look as hard as the lammermuirs.

fuzzynavel

I'm now the proud owner of a day off work next Tuesday so I will plot a route tonight and see where I end up. Hopefully there will be several thousand feet of climbing involved!
Did 17 miles with 1500ft of climbing last night which was fun.