Help please from Scottish folks. Trying to choose between Ireland or Scotland for a ten day/two week trip next summer. Can't call it touring because I like to stay for a few days in a holiday cottage and use that as a base for luggage-free day rides rather than keep moving on all the time fully laden. I've found a really nice looking place that is really good value for me on my own. Its on the edge of the Trossachs about 15 miles west of Crieff. I'm up for 350 mile days. Done 450 before but that's too much for stopping and looking around. Question is, how much of Scotland's best biking roads and scenery would be within reach on a day ride from this location? What's the local biking like? I would be looking at going before the summer holidays, probably last week of June/first week of July. Good spot/ good time of year for this location? What do you think?
what you thinking, killin?. you could easily do both Ireland and W.Scot no prob. and still have chill time. .
if it helps my brother in law owns Camus House, Onich, Fort William, great central loch and mountain location, has secure motorcycle storage, happy to accommodate stop-offs and mid stays, operates april till oct with negotiations before and after official close dates, no bar/resturant but thats good a very short walk down the road, search Camus House, Onich ??????
Just done the NC500 and Orkney in September Took 2 weeks and booked B&B with a couple of nights at each stop Worked well for us, didnt take bike as Scottish weather is a gamble, took Alfa spider which was nice however top only came down a couple of times and observed many bigers in wet weather gear - they looked thoroughly miserable My advice if you use B&B is books months in advance
that's the thing. If I go I'll want to book now. Was thinking of having a week in Dumfries and Galloway then moving on to somewhere near Inverness. But Dumfrieshire seems to have become popular and expensive and I couldn't find accommodation within budget that wasn't booked up already. Take your point about mileage Bradders.. @finm its by Loch Earn near Lochearnhead.
lochearnhead v,nice. at the foot of glenOgle. heading through there later on today. good biking area but heavily policed. i mentioned this route before taking in Dum/Gal up to adrosson, ferry over to Arran then from there over to the mull of kintyre, up to oban (no coppers) and easy doable in a day with plenty to spare, tho limited in experience on other uk roads i doubt there's a better road to be had anywhere. from there yer options are limitless. lochearnhead is a good starting point if you want to go central and north, tayside, balmoral, grampians, avimore,spean bridge,fortbill, all good roads. camus house is a nice place between glencoe and fortbill. i could recommend a v.nice campsite with pods with top notch facilities near to there also. come May June time,chances are weather will be fine.
We used to base ourselves in or near pitlochary there plenty of trips out that can be done in the day
nah, just blue routes, the red and white ones where banned about 10years ago. . maybe in edinbro, i will find out later today
I've done about 5 trips to Scotland now of varying lengths from 4-6 days. We have always stayed our first and last night at the Lochearhead Hotel. Robert, the owner is a biker and opens his garage for the bikes and has a great boiler room for drying your gear. Lochearnhead is a good days ride from where I live and pits you in the 'good stuff' for the next day. I think that region would be a good base for some riding but I'd also want a base further north west for the second part of the trip so you could do Ullapool to Durness. The southern stretch of that route is amazing. As are lots others in Scotland. The weather as you may expect can be varied, we've had a dry and windy trip, very wet trips and pretty warm trips. We wear textile gortex suits and travel light with a waterproof roll bag and Kriega rucksack strapped to the bike which is plenty. With so little on the bike you don't notice it and tend to travel around staying at a different place each night. We tend to go in spring or autumn, the midges can be unbelievable little buggers at times. I'm looking forward to going up on the new cheap GT this year
Glencoe, or just across the water to Strontian. Cheap and regular ferry saves the long road round via Fort William.
If it was me i'd do Ireland and try to get a bit of road racing in. https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/motorcycling/irish-road-race-dates-confirmed-for-2018-1-8274079
