Scotland C2C Advice

paul_or

Hi all, I'm mainly a road rider, but have recently been attracted to touring by the (near) completion of an ongoing 'project', the restoration of my elderly British Eagle bike, which started life as one of the early MTB's, but was adapted to touring with less aggressive tyres, pannier racks and so on. As a side interest, you can read all about the project via various posts I made on my blog:

http://paulmor.wordpress.com/category/project-british-eagle/

So, once the bike is finished, my buddy and I are considering some touring. He has an advantage - he rides a Thorn Raven Sport. Hmph!

Does anybody here have any experience regarding north of Scotland touring, possibly a coast to coast route from Kyle of Lochalsh to Aberdeen kind-of-thing? I'm also interested in a route on bikely -

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/250-Miles-from-Inverness-to-Durness-and-back

Any recommended route suggestions (about a week max) and other thoughts would be most welcome. Also any recommended accommodation, as the tent idea may not be that attractive - wimp!!!

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rankbadyin

Hi Paul
I have covered most of the Invernes-Durness route and they are great roads for cycling with little traffic and lots of empty space to enjoy, accomodation is a bit limited but there are places and with a bit of planning should not be a problem. Not sure when you plan to go but there are YH's on the route which are open until Sept/Oct time (Carbisdale Castle YH is a must )

Just be sure and take plenty of bonk rations to cover for the ' lots of empty space'.

Enjoy

Cheers
rankbadyin

paul_or

bit of an update on the bike, here she is in all her glory, ready to get panniered up and on the open road...

http://paulmor.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/project-british-eagle-completed/

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amaferanga

If I were you I'd do everything possible to avoid the A9 - I used bits of it from Inverness to Alness on a recent LEJOG and it wasn't much fun. You can avoid most of it by taking the minor roads.

A few years back I got a train up to Alness and started a short tour from there. Up to Durness same was as you, but I then went down the West coast onto Ske before heading back across to Inverness. Sutherland is my favourite part of Scotland for cycling by a long way. Altnahara to Hope has to be one of the most scenic stretches of road in the whole of the UK. If possible you should also try to make it to Applecross and cycle the Bealach na Ba pass.

philkeeble

On 29th May this year 23 of us from BP, here in Aberdeen, did exactly that. We designed it as a charity ride to raise around £80,000 for MS and MND. As a regular cyclist and motorcyclist around most of northern Scotland, I knew the roads so took on the mantle of routemaster. We did it in 3 days (with support car for baggage) and traversed the best cycling terrain Scotland has to offer. The route took me ages to plan, map, recce, and refine but it was worth it.

We started from Kyleakin (other side of the Skye Bridge) with a first night in Evanton (north of Inverness) where we could get a hotel to sleep 26. Second night was Grantown-on-Spey. We finished in Newburgh (just north of Aberdeen). We were on a mission (it had to be done in 3 days) but it would fit well into a week so that the places could have been enjoyed on the way.

I can send you MemoryMap files for the tracks, waypointed routes for MM to transfer to a GPS, height profiles, and route instructions. If you don't want that then say so and I'll cut'n'paste the route details here on the forum.

In fact, you could check this link out and experience the route as if you were there. Beware, it uses Youtube's full 10 minute allowance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIMwxN8KDnM

Phil

priory

It will be hillier than you expect is my experience. I find that between 70 and 90 miles is more of a struggle than fun with a load on when you are doing it every day. The little sharp hills keep hitting your legs in the last few miles.

I put a route on this forum that worked well this summer, look for it via my profile.

Regarding his thorn: it not about the bike , especially when you have luggage, and yours has been set up with care so will be just as good

TerryJ

priory

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/

I just discovered this . It shows elevation , a great thing for planning scottish trips.