3-4 day cycling tour scotland recommendations

letap73

As per title, unfortunately there are restrictions:

1. One of us doesn't have a bike which can carry much stuff on it, thus we would prefer a central base to cycle to and from.
2. One of us doesn't want to climb more than 500m in a day and cycle more than 50 miles a day :roll: ..
The cycle tour is planned for early August, Ideas I have so far are Dumfries and Galloway, North of Dundee (?) and Berwick on Tweed (Scotland/England). Any suggestions gladly recieved.

kevinp

Hi,

As I live in the Scottish Borders not far from Berwick I may be biased <g>, but basing yourselves around Berwick would give you access to some really good day rides see http://www.cyclescottishborders.com/rou ... esort=town on the Cycle Scottish Borders website, The Northumberland council website also has maps http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4373

Based at Berwick you could do part of the coast & castles route down to Lindisfarne and back (50 miles round trip flat). There is also sustrans no 1 to Kelso & the 4 Abbeys route - make that as long as you want 50 -150 miles depending on what you do all generally undualting with good cake stops especially the "bus" at the honey farm at Chain Bridge (on sustrans no1 crossing the Tweed near Paxton). There also some historic sites to ink up to make a day trip or an overnight there and back Paxton House, Flodden Field battle site, Norham Castle, Ladykirk stone church (kirk) plus generally touring the Merse/Tweed Valley.

The roads are generally quite with generally considerate motorists and a bike friendly B&B scheme operates on both sides of the Borders.

North of Dundee and the Kingdom of Fife is good - in my opinion for the coast line and St Andrews although somewhat busy with tourists during August I prefer May or September given the choice.

As for Dumfries and Galloway what about basing at Castle Douglas and doing the Solway Firth north coastline.

As you may have guessed given the restrictions you have indicated if you are using the train based at Berwick and doing the Borders may be my no 1 recommendation - or if arriving by train mid dayish cycle across to Kelso and base there. If by car Berwick, Kelso or Melrose would be good bases. All the routes in the Borders can be contained within 50 miles/500m climb per day

Any way enjoy and hope to see you in the Borders

Kevin

thecrofter

There are some cracking roads in the Borders. There are bits of it where I would defy you to spot the difference from the North-West Highlands, it's beautiful. As for the cycling, stiff climbs if you go over the tops or long quiet back roads if you stay in the valleys and off the main thouroughfares. Also every town has at least one great cafe and also usually has a type of cake or sweetie named after the town.