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If you fancy island hopping, the Hebridean Way is a road ride that takes you from one end to the other of the wild and remote Outer Hebrides. It takes in ten islands including Vatersay, Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis. On the way are six causeways and two ferry rides.
The route takes in everything from Glen Fearnach and Glen Tilt to the Cairngorms, the River Tay (Scotland’s longest river) and even passes the last surviving oak tree from the wood that inspired Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The best months for riding in Scotland are usually May-June, and September-October, avoiding midges and tourists in the peak summer months, and snow and unpredictable weather over the winter. Beautifully illustrated, easy to use and with a ton of useful information … perfect for exploring on two wheels.’Richard Bath, Scottish Field
1. The UK’s longest descent at Highland Wildcat
Momentum was slow early on, as we frequently paused to allow the eye-popping vistas wash over us. We were also climbing a steep hill out of our base, the sleepy village of Kinloch Rannoch. This may also have had an impact on our progress.
Each of the stages will have two starts, racers heading off well ahead of those who want to test themselves but not at the expense of seeing the surroundings and having a chat!
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It’s a good idea to carry plenty of food if you’re heading somewhere remote, as options to shop or for a coffee stop may be few and far between. Cash may still be king in some remote areas. Make sure you can carry enough fluids too, unless you’re happy to refill water bottles from a stream. You can also extend things by looping around Arran, which adds 88km for a complete circuit of the island. The other thing that I found really interesting is that we passed a house which used to host a recording studio, where Jamiroquai and Portishead recorded albums. So you get routes in the book that have all these big landscapes and stories centred around them, and then you have these more urban routes where popular culture creeps in.
Big Rides: Great Britain and Irelandis an inspirational guide to the most iconic, epic and popular long-distance cycle trails in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, including two excursions from mainland Britain to Northern France. The twenty-five featured routes showcase the best of Britain on two wheels. For those who prefer to pedal on-road, the routes take you along the historic Way of the Roses trail through Lancaster and York, as well as across Scotland’s Atlantic perimeter on the Hebridean Way. The trails head off-road to Northern England’s hills on the Sea to Sea (C2C) and past iconic monuments in Southern England on King Alfred’s Way. Mountain bike enthusiasts will find plenty to challenge them in the Sarn Helen and through the Scottish Highlands on the renowned Highland Trail 550. The routes then head offshore, to Ireland’s coast on the Wild Atlantic Way and from Devon and Dorset’s Jurassic Coast to Normandy’s alabaster cliffs on the Tour de Manche. Vertebrate Publishing’s Big Rides books are designed to inspire big adventures. Rather than being carried along the route, this guide provides everything you need to plan and explore further, including a general overview of the trails, specific technical information, overview mapping, key information and stunning photography. As well as this, each route specifies approximate timings which allows for you to plan your adventure at your own pace. Whether you’re completing routes at a leisurely speed or racing towards the finish, let Big Rides: Great Britain & Ireland be your guide. Trains offer a great way to link up routes. Scotland is home to some iconic train lines like the West Highland Line and the Scot Rail from Glasgow to Oban (and soon extending to Fort William), which has dedicated bike carriages. Some routes rely on trains, such as Beauly to Ardgay, so train stations are indicated to help you link up the rides. While the Cairngorms are home to four of the five highest mountains in Scotland, there are no extreme climbs and descents on the route, which is suitable to ride on gravel and mountain bikes. Several businesses along the route offer bike hire and bike-friendly accommodation. You can find out more here. Stitz’s companion for this ride was gravel rider and furniture-maker Andy Dix. We actually rode this route on wooden gravel bikes... Oban to Fort William (route 78) - these popular Highland towns are connected by 48 miles of mostly flat paths that take you past lochs, castles and the picturesque coastline.
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With a social ride the day before the action begins, and the accompanying festival Raiders Gravel has the optimal mix of competition, adventure, exertion, culture and relaxation, making for an unforgettable cycling event in one of Scotland ’ s unspoilt gems.
Scotland is home to trails and routes galore that allow you to safely explore the country away from busy main roads, using a mix of railway path, canal towpath, forest road, shared-use path, and cycle lanes. His goal is to establish Twmpa as a genuine competitor to other gravel bikes. For him it’s easy to view wood as a novelty product, because there are very few wooden gravel bikes out there, but his reasons to use wood are not about novelty. Andy believes that wood has particular properties, such as absorbing vibrations, that makes it well suited for bike frames. Great British Gravel Rides is not your ordinary cycling guidebook. Instead of simply compiling a variety of routes to ride, I (Markus Stitz) took a different approach and introduce you to key people in the gravel riding world, understand their motivation for cycling and to ride their favourite routes in Britain. The book features a total of 25 different routes for beginners, intermediate and expert riders, spread across England, Scotland and Wales. To fill the considerable holes in our knowledge of the region, we had recruited the planning expertise of Komoot ‘Pioneer’ and local rider Neil Henderson. The path to Pioneer level involves having ridden a lot in a particular area and knowing every nook and cranny.
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Before reaching that promised land, however, there was the other promise that Neil had mentioned at the start – crossing that aforementioned “boggy” bit. It would transpire that “boggy” was a gross understatement, with the emphasis very firmly on gross. Scotland is probably best experienced in the late spring or early autumn, unless you’re looking for a heroic winter adventure. High summer tends to bring out the tourists and holidaymakers and so can get busy. Midges have their heyday through the summer too. Being so far north, daylight hours are long through much of the period from April to mid-September. Adventure … gravel biking lets you explore remote places and discover incredible sights on your own steam, what could be more thrilling?
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