Scotland's West Coast

[HGP61]

Our Summer tour 2020

I have now returned from a fantastic week away with my two motorbike pals. The possible COVID19 restrictions had made us change our initial plans for part of our week taking in Scotland’s NC500 route and going with “plan B” We based ourselves at our friends caravan in Inveraray for 4 nights followed by a few nights in the tents at the Glen Nevis campsite in Fort William. Brief outline below. With some images snipped from google maps.

Day 1 To Inveraray, Motorway blast to get us a bit further north the route we started out on  had to avoid a more direct road to avoid a road closure on the A82.  Traffic was very very slow and congested through Callander because of the diverted traffic. Filtering up past the traffic was difficult at times because of the loaded side cases and I felt our fun stuff only started when we got through the town and continued to our first base with a much needed and spirited run using the  A85 and A819.

Day 1 Ben Ledi

Day 2 The bikes felt back to normal with our kit left at our base and we took a run down the Kyle peninsula to Campbelltown and Mackrahanish using the narrow single track road on the east side with its poorer surface and more challenging steep hairpin bends, and the better wider A83 for the return leg.

 

 

 

Day 3 My two pals had some unexpected business to attend to and it was easier for them to run back home for a few hours to sort stuff out. I opted to visit friends and meet them off the Dunoon ferry in the afternoon when they came back. We spent the rest of the day bimbling about the Cowel area taking in Tighnabruaich and a return run along a rough single track B8000 with grass growing up the middle of the road.

 View below From Dunoon

View to the Kyles of Bute

Mackrahanish Bay

 

Day 4 Took in the lovely coast road from Lochgilphead to Oban and continued further north to eventually run through Glen Coe and loop back down to our base

D4 A816 Lochgilphead to Oban

 

Glen Coe

 

 

Day 5 An early start took us to Oban for breakfast and the ferry across the Firth of Lorne to Mull We spent a good few hours on the single track roads round Mull eventually getting to Tobermory the main town on the Island. We caught a second ferry from there over to Ardnamurchan  and more single track roads. We eventually found our way to the A830 the main Mallaig to Fort William road and could pick up the pace a bit as we headed to our campsite. One surprise that day was how good the Tracer was on fuel consumption, apart from the first 40 miles to Oban and the last 25 miles to Fort William we were on quiet single track roads. When I fuelled up on the Thursday morning I had used 11.3 litres of fuel over a sat nav confirmed 168 miles or 68 miles to the imperial gallon,

Day 5 Mull Pictures could be taken in any direction

 

Day 6 After our “single track day” we felt a day on faster roads was needed and we took a run round to Kyle of Lochalsh past the much photographed Eilean Donan castle. We had thought of going on to Skye and taking the ferry back to Mallaig to return but spent to long looking at the scenery so returned to our campsite via Plockton and the same roads we took out.

View from Plockton's main street

 

Day 7 And We had to think about heading home and rather than stick to the quicker busier boring route we opted for a more Zig Zag return . North to Spean Bridge, East to Dalwhinnie along the fantastic A86, South to Pitlochry, West to Killin alongside Loch Tay, South to Stirling before joining the motorway for the last boring bit home.

Fantastic week with good friends and Scotland at it’s best, apart from one wee bit of rain one evening we had beautiful dry warm sunny roads.

 

 

[Stew]

Awesome. So many brilliant roads , and you got some brilliant weather as well. I was thinking about your trip a few times, especially when the rest and be thankful was closed (as it often is)
Glen Nevis is a great place to camp.
Man, I need to just take a few days and head north.
Thanks, been waiting for the report on this one

 

[knyte]

That looks like a very fun ride!!  Thanks for the pics and the write up

[betoney]

31 minutes ago, HGP61 said:

If I could just have endless winding roads like that surrounded by high cliffs on one side and a raging river on the other...  VERY beautiful. Thanks for the photos and ride report.  👍

[Wintersdark]

God, I'd love to go ride around Scotland.  So beautiful.

[Stew]

4 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

God, I'd love to go ride around Scotland.  So beautiful.

Dive over any time, you can borrow my bike for 2 weeks if you insure it.

 

[Stew]

Had to come back for another wee look. After my big service on friday coming, I reckon I'll jump on the motorway up to Glasgow, then head over the Erskine Bridge and see where I end up.

[HGP61]

3 hours ago, Stew said:

 see where I end up.

That's how we usually plan our camping tours, We had to book this year because of the covid restrictions. Glen Nevis campsite was very good, I haven't used that one for many years the plus point was that they opened the bar and restuaraunt on site the week we were due to arrive.(Very nice way to avoid the wee midges.

[HGP61]

15 hours ago, betoney said:

If I could just have endless winding roads like that surrounded by high cliffs on one side and a raging river on the other...  VERY beautiful.

Unfortunatly Scotland being a relativly small nation the good roads do come to an end But thats where you do a U turn and double your enjoyment by doing it all over again. Glen Coe in the picture has dramatic scenery but is not the best road for biking. But maybe thats just as well as your too busy looking at the view. Best bit about Glen Coe that day was zooming past about 15 cars bimbling along behind a camper van about 35 miles an hour on one of the long straight sections after ths Glen.

[Stew]

I haven't camped at Glen Nevis for a loooooong time, I used to just wild camp by the burn, in the woods.
I also camped just by the bridge at Inverary Castle one time, had to get up early so the gamekeepers wouldny find me

Happy days!

 

[nhchris]

Wow, a great tour and no rain!!

Glen Coe photos brought back great memories of my time there as a young "hard man" climber back in the day.  We thought we were Hammish McGinnis after our romp up Tower Ridge on The Ben.  Then we got lost in the clouds on the way down!

There was a pub in town that actually had a "Climbers Entrance" round the side.  Wonder if it's still there and now sporting a "Bikers Entrance?"

Thanks for the great photos.