Bikepacking the Scottish Highlands

Near the end of my visit with Jill this December in Colorado we started talking adventure and the need to plan one.  Though our conversation had largely revolved around Antarctica, a place we would both like to adventure though this may be more fantasy than reality given the incredible expense and logistical difficulty involved, Scotland came up as a place Jill would like to visit.  I had not yet been there, but eagerly jumped on this idea, having recently befriended Scottish Barry in Kyrgyzstan.  While Barry was unable to ride with us, he put together this route and it was absolutely phenomenal.  Amber came with us and the three of us made a good trio for the adventure.  We encountered every kind of track imaginable, all the while avoiding much in the way of vehicle traffic.  There are networks of "ways" and cycling routes that seem to connect everything and highlight the beautiful scenery and lovely towns.  We also lucked out with weather, which was mostly sunny and perfect.  That did make for a few very cold nights, but it was well worth seeing the countryside under blue bird skies.  

DAY 1 -- INVERNESS TO LOCH NESS VIA GREAT GLEN WAY   

Amber and I did not get our bikes until the day after we arrived, so we started riding a bit late on Sunday.  Our journey took us into the Inverness City Center and then through the throngs of tourists through lovely riverside parks and cross islands.  We quickly met up with the Great Glen Way, the first of a well established trail/route that showed off some spectacular landscape.  This section featured lovely forest and views of Loch Ness.  (As an aside, although I just got home yesterday, the days blur together a bit so don't take any of the photo placement as gospel that they're where I think they are or were taken when I think they were.  I could use the photo metadata to be accurate but that's not really how I roll :p)

Urquhart Castle - the remains of an important medieval castle

DAY 2 -- CONTINUE ON THE GREAT GLEN WAY TO THE EAST HIGHLAND WAY

"Stone Chair"

We continued following Loch Ness until the busy tourist town of Fort Augustus and began following the East Highland Way.  The landscape eventually became less forested and more open.  

DAY 3 - FERSIT TO BLAIR ATHOLL VIA DALWHINNIE

I had booked a distillery tour at Dalwhinnie for Tuesday fairly early -- it was the only time available.  So, being the slowest of the group and the only person that interested in whisky, I packed up extra early to make my way over the next faint single track section.  Navigation was a bit of a challenge and it ended up taking me quite a while.  Though Amber left a couple hours after I did, she caught me once I finally figured out a good track to get us where we needed to go.  Jill followed a much sportier route, which was the official route we were supposed to follow.  I chose to follow a seemingly easier route that was probably only marginally easier.  This section took a long time and we missed the tour but were able to do the sampling nonetheless.

You can see the track.  It was pretty boggy and wet.  I had my first crash on this section and horribly bruised my tailbone or something.

The whisky tasting was fun.  

DAY 4 - BLAIR ATHOLL TO CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK 

This day saw one of the top lovliest rides of my entire lifetime through Glen Tilt.  It was idyllic.  I felt nothing but joy in cruising through this landscape, warm under the sun, enjoying every second.  The road turned to single track which I hiked a lot of -- not wanting to repeat my earlier crash.  I'm not that great on single track to begin with, much less on a fully loaded bike.

Jill Homer took this photo

There were interesting ruins along the way

Also a Jill Homer photo

Red House Bothy

Although the timing did not work out to sleep in a bothy, we rode past several lovely bothies which are essentially public huts that anyone can stop to stay in.  Scotland has incredible public access laws and infrastructure.  Evidently resources such as fish and hunting are private, unlike in the US, but the access definitely beats the US.

After the Red House our track took us through very boggy and very challenging terrain.  It was beautiful but not especially rideable and took us a long time.  We finally found a place to camp that was dry and it was beautiful.  We had been hoping to make it to the next bothy, but it was a good choice to just camp here.  We were on vacation, afterall.  No need to push past our limits.

DAY 5 - GLEN FESHIE TO LOCH EINICH 

Poshest Bothy in Scotland

Our fifth day took us to Aviemore, which had a Tesco, our new favorite grocery store, and then rode to camp at Loch Einich.  This was tied with Glen Tilt as one of the most beautiful and lovely rides of my life.  The photos don't do any of this much justice.  It was an enjoyable climb to a gorgeous place that we had all to ourselves.  At one point in the night I peeked out of my bivy to see if there were northern lights, and I saw an incredible sky full of stars that rivaled any night sky I've seen.

DAY 6 - LOCH EINICH TO THE DAVA WAY VIA GRANTOWN ON SPEY

On this day we rode by a bothy that my family had walked to in December in a blizzard.  Needless to say this was a more pleasant experience.  We had a sunny lunch here and chatted with a Scottish couple who wanted to know what our disappointments had been and what our criticisms were of Scotland.  "The service?  The food?"  Though we did learn restaurant experiences might take a bit longer at times than we are accustomed to, we told them we found everything to be great and had no complaints at all.  

I'm in love with cooeys - this one at Castle Roy likes his head scratched

the remains of Castle Roy - another castle from the 1300s

We spent some time in the old cemetery near Castle Roy, and I was struck by the number of WWI casualties from this small area.  We had been discussing, relative to walking through wet boggy areas and having wet feet, how soldiers would spend so much time wet and cold in trenches being shot at and how our lot are likely not hearty enough to even comprehend this existence.  It was a bit heartbreaking to see all the fallen Highlanders in this one small cemetery.  

DAY 7 - THE DAVA WAY BACK TO INVERNESS

We stopped at Brodie Castle before our return to Inverness.  The next scheduled tour was not for awhile so we just checked it out.  The remainder of our ride was through rolling farmland and featured the most adorable little baby lambs ever.  

This day also took us to Nairn, which is on the sea, which was where we enjoyed lunch.  The weather was starting to deteriorate so we decided to go ahead and get back to Inverness.  

So cute!!!!

Inverness Castle (Amber and Jill)

This was a phenomenal trip.  Highly recommend.  I imagine there are also other routes one could follow in Scotland and there are of course routes on Bikepacking.com that look neat, such as a new "Pictish Trail" route.  If anyone has questions please reach out.  This was a fantastic holiday!!!