10 days in Scotland

Garrigou

Considering a 10-day visit to Scotland in early/mid October. Would probably favour 2-3 'base locations' offering 3-4 days good road riding loops from each. 80-150km per day. Don't mind the hilly stuff. Likely to fly into Glasgow. Can transfer by car to/between the 'base locations' so no particular limitation on how far apart they might be. Scenery, quiet roads, history & hospitality would be the priorities.

Anyone got some suggestions for us?

Cheers folks.

daviesee

Hi,

I have not done much riding up there but from plenty weekend breaks I would say to head as far northwest as you can go.
Maybe a loop using Oban/Fort William, Ullapool & Inverness as your bases.

Mind you, a 10 day trip at 80-150km/day and you could do it all by bike :P
You just have to look at routes. Personally, I would avoid the A82 & A9 where possible.
All other roads are fairly minor.

Plenty hills 8)

Pack your layers. October weather can be anywhere from pleasant to bloody miserable :evil:

priory

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z122 ... =slideshow

We did this in june and the weather was lovely. If you like hills you'll love this.

Greenock start, gourock ferry to oban 80miles

oban to fort william 50miles a bit main roady , but you could do corran ferry over loch linne and up the quiet side instead .

fw to inverness. rough paths if you have rough bikes, or b-road to the commando memorial and right at ft augustus

Inverness to achnasheen (rail option) then via ske to armadale ferry and mallaig.

Mallaig to oban. option of loch linne south side and then corran ferry, or if you're hard enough , right at lochailort hotel and round moidart to approach oban from mull or go to corran ferry.

Oban to inverary various routes , next day back to gourock
or oban south to tarbert, next day ferry east and back to gourock again via dunoon.

we cycled on 7 days, but really had at least one day in hand. That was a good thing because my legs had had it by day four.

It is do-able and there are hostels at each stop

TerryJ

priory

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 17294&z=11

If you put this in google maps you should see the route.

You could pay to leave the car at a band b near to the start. holiday inn express charged 20gbp for a week in their car park under a camera and were clean or covered bike friendly.

chasctc

I babysit an independent hostel in October.

You need to be ready for winter though probably it wont be worse than wet/chilly and the sun does make an occasional appearance. I've never wore shorts/mitts in October but might be luckier this year. Although there are still travellers, it's well past the tourist season and many smaller services will be closed until spring.

I'd like to recommend N and W of Inverness but you'd be hard pressed to find more than 1 or 2 daily loops in any location. On that basis try Lochinver or Torridon. For longer stays, consider Inverness, Mull/Ardnamurchan, Loch Tay or some of my favourites, Cowal/Bute, Arran, and SW Scotland. These are largely (and understandably) ignored by tourists keen for the grandeur of the Highlands but great cycling.

Garrigou

Thanks very much for all of those suggestions. Some great stuff to fuel our planning and much appreciated to get some local/experienced insight. Cheers!

amaferanga

One place not to miss is the Applecross penninsula including the Bealach na Ba pass.

My favourite part of Scotland for cycling is Sutherland. I was there recently on a LEJOG (though I wouldn't recommend visiting Thurso or JOG - miserable places) and did a tour a couple of years back starting in Alness and heading up to Cape Wrath before following the west coast as much as possible down to and onto Skye, loop round Skye and then heading back across to Inverness.

Even more years ago I followed the west coast up starting with a ferry from Adrossan onto Arran. Up the coast to Oban, then onto Mull, ferry from Tobermoray to Kilchoan then up to Fort William.

Given how few roads there are in northern Scotland, I'd say it'd be difficult for you to base yourself somewhere and ride different routes for 2-3 days.