Scottish Recommendations 2

[R800]

Well ladies and gents, thanks for all the very useful info... Trip is from next Thursday to Monday, so if anyone sees a Gs lc, a goldwing, and a 650 vstrom... Honk!!! Can't wait, cheers

 

[Northern jock]

Well ladies and gents, thanks for all the very useful info... Trip is from next Thursday to Monday, so if anyone sees a Gs lc, a goldwing, and a 650 vstrom... Honk!!! Can't wait, cheers

Take some warm gloves, it's still winter up here. I was skiing yesterday and had a cracking afternoon in windless sunshine with fresh snow.
Now it's a bit blowy and snowy so keep an eye on the forecast.

 

[Deleted account Cooperman]

Not to hijack the thread but hopefully amplify, I have sketched out the following with stops in Ballater, Ullapool and Fort Bill.

Any suggested amendments?

 

[G.C.]

Trip is from next Thursday to Monday

Please tell me you have accommodation booked, its SSDT next week here in Fort William.

Is that a legal right of way? Bloody rare thing if it is.

No, its not. Locked fence at either end. Definitely no access next week, there are sections there controlled by SSDT.

 

[Franm]

Hi Rory,
How did your trip go?

I'm looking at heading to Scotland as well for around 10 days in early July with herself lashed on to me.

It will be our first trip to Scotland so I'm wondering about all the must see / must stay places.
Speaking of accommodation, is it advisable to have all this booked in advance? (we're not camping)
She'd also perfer not to be doing too many long days on the bike so we wouldn't mind having the odd day off here and there.

I also have this nagging notion that I'd like to have a spin on a steam train

All advice and local knowledge would be much appreciated (including sat nav stuff).

Thanks in advance
Fran

 

[RedRick Esq.]

Hi Rory,
How did your trip go?

I'm looking at heading to Scotland as well for around 10 days in early July with herself lashed on to me.

It will be our first trip to Scotland so I'm wondering about all the must see / must stay places.
Speaking of accommodation, is it advisable to have all this booked in advance? (we're not camping)
She'd also perfer not to be doing too many long days on the bike so we wouldn't mind having the odd day off here and there.

I also have this nagging notion that I'd like to have a spin on a steam train

All advice and local knowledge would be much appreciated (including sat nav stuff).

Thanks in advance
Fran

Book your digs !

We were in Strathcarron last week and both that particular hotel and all the others in lochcarron were turning folk away

 

[bowser]

Seems to be a massive error in the tour, where are the stops to visit distilleries and recovery time after?

 

[Pablo1]

Hi Rory,
How did your trip go?

I'm looking at heading to Scotland as well for around 10 days in early July with herself lashed on to me.

It will be our first trip to Scotland so I'm wondering about all the must see / must stay places.
Speaking of accommodation, is it advisable to have all this booked in advance? (we're not camping)
She'd also perfer not to be doing too many long days on the bike so we wouldn't mind having the odd day off here and there.

I also have this nagging notion that I'd like to have a spin on a steam train

All advice and local knowledge would be much appreciated (including sat nav stuff).

Thanks in advance
Fran

I'd be happy to do you a route if you have a garmin and some software on your pc such as basecamp or mapsource, if your interested drop me a pm with your email address and daily maximum mileage your happy with and i can put a nice tour together. booking.com is your friend for accomodation.

 

[beekeeper]

Yep get your accommodation sorted or else you'll be sleeping under a hedge. I think the Scottish Tourist Office can still book ahead for you for a nominal sum.
Ullapool is chockers now, its a Bank Hol of course this w/e as well as the Coastal Rowing Regatta. We are now in tourist season and I'd hate someone to come all this way and struggle to find some where to sleep. Also a word of caution, the North Coast 500 is a great ride but its brought with it a bunch of speeding probs, recently 5 bikers were bagged on the Achnasheen road at 100, the police are out in force in unmarked cars.
Weather today was 19 deg C blue skies wall to wall and its set to be good for some days. Enjoy.

M

 

[R800]

Hi Rory,
How did your trip go?

I'm looking at heading to Scotland as well for around 10 days in early July with herself lashed on to me.

It will be our first trip to Scotland so I'm wondering about all the must see / must stay places.
Speaking of accommodation, is it advisable to have all this booked in advance? (we're not camping)
She'd also perfer not to be doing too many long days on the bike so we wouldn't mind having the odd day off here and there.

I also have this nagging notion that I'd like to have a spin on a steam train

All advice and local knowledge would be much appreciated (including sat nav stuff).

Thanks in advance
Fran

Hi Fran,

The trip was top class... Roads excellent, food very good everywhere we ate, people very friendly and helpful, and beer and whiskey everything youd expect.

This was my first biking trip to Scotland also after doing most of europe so I wasnt sure what to expect only being told that the roads were like racetracks in the highlands... (not that we were racing as such )

We booked accomodation before we went which I would recommend. I got the places from guys on here and also from the motorcycle scotland website.

For routes I also got some great advice from the chaps here including one very helpful lad who sent me on routes also. With these ideas and a michelin map i plotted some routes following the green routes, you really cant go wrong with these for your first trip. Here's a summary of my trip...

Our ferry brought us to Cairnryan after lunch on the Thursday so we got up past glasgow and loch lomond and stayed in Ben More Lodges... timber lodges that were warm which was welcome because if was pissing all day and it turned to snow 30 mins before we arrived. Great food and Id recommend the malt of the month!

That was the last severe rain we saw until we headed home on the Monday.

Friday we stuck to the a82 north through glen coe to fortwilliam and headed west on the a830 to Mallaig for the ferry to skye. Road was fantastic. Ferry to skye was beautiful in full sunshine with snow on the mountains all around. Up the road to Portree and we did the loop around the Trotternish (spelling?) peninsula and down past the old man of storr, lovely place. Stayed in the royal Hotel Portree, nice spot and very friendly.

Saturday headed off skye over the skye bridge with great views again and went over for a look at Eilan Donan castle. Up the a890 to strathcarron and then over the Bealach na Ba pass to applecross where we had great fish and chips. This pass was great fun. We stayed on the coast road all the was around the peninsula heading north and I would highly recommend this road, no traffic and some great visibility. Joined the a896 and kept going and joined the a832 heading for Gairloch. Kept on the a 832 until we met the road from ullapool to inverness the a835. At this junction we stopped at the corrieshalloch gorge spanned by a suspension bridge, i think its victorian. well worth the stroll down from the road. then we headed 10 miles towards inverness and stayed in the aultguish inn near Garve. Lovely rooms, fire lit and great hospitality, a real biker friendly place.
This was the best driving day we had, some exhilarating stuff. The satnav was easy and Just put in my start and finish points with a few way points, it took 2 mins. You really cant go wrong up here, there arent that many roads to get lost on just keep going!

Sunday we had to head south to be within firing distance on the ferry monday morning. Just put back in the ben more lodge crianlarich and it brought us back to the a82 by Urequhart castle, nice spot. stayed on the a82 the whole way down. I think this can get busy but again we were very lucky again. stopped to take in the lake and the commando monument and glen coe again and that was it, nice relaxing day.

The was home monday it pissed again until Irish soil (surprisingly not Pissing).

Our diets consisted on scones, coffee, fish and chips and steak pies. Top class. Dont know if it would suit your Missus but we had an absolute ball.

As I said, if its your first trip everything will be new and you cant go wrong with the roads in the highlands.... you could spend a month there so Ill be going back again. Hoefully I get the same weather.

I dont know if that was any help but if you have any questions Il do my best and if i dont know il find out. Just message me no problem...

Good Luck and enjoy it, be safe!

Rory

 

[West coast gser]

Hi Rory,
How did your trip go?

I'm looking at heading to Scotland as well for around 10 days in early July with herself lashed on to me.

It will be our first trip to Scotland so I'm wondering about all the must see / must stay places.
Speaking of accommodation, is it advisable to have all this booked in advance? (we're not camping)
She'd also perfer not to be doing too many long days on the bike so we wouldn't mind having the odd day off here and there.

I also have this nagging notion that I'd like to have a spin on a steam train

All advice and local knowledge would be much appreciated (including sat nav stuff).

Thanks in advance
Fran

Seeing as you'll be coming into cairnryan ,follow the A77 all the way up thru girvan and turn off @ turnberry n follow the coast road thru maidens and by culzean castle about another mile there is a turn off on the left to dunure/ayr good roads you'll also go down the famous electric brae .. need to stop on it and a watch as you roll up hill lol ..

 

[Franm]

Thanks for the report Rory, (and others for info as well) I have a lot to digest now.
All the best.
Fran

 

[R800]

Thanks for the report Rory, (and others for info as well) I have a lot to digest now.
All the best.
Fran

There's no fear of Ya!

Michelin map to plot a few routes, Google things you like to see, and book accomodation. Either the comparison sites or motorcycle Scotland website.

Give your mrs the locations and let her book it then she can't complain, just make sure there's somewhere safe for the bike!

Enjoy

 

[Boxed-in]

When going to Applecross, I always like to come in from the Shieldaig end, it looks across to Skye, and is just a nice run, then when you go out again over the top, it somehow seems more spectacular.

Just my thoughts.......

 

[Mr K]

I've heard the Mallaig ferry can require booking, as it is now a smaller boat with fewer bike spaces?

 

[R800]

I've heard the Mallaig ferry can require booking, as it is now a smaller boat with fewer bike spaces?

Maybe... I got it on friday 29th of May, there was a ferry there but it was busy so we had to wait for the next one... Just enough time for coffee and Icecream

 

[SimonB]

Fish and chips from the caravan at Applecross are awesome!

And the road to Sheildaig is more interesting than the pass (in my opinion)

 

[Franm]

Hi All,
I'm having difficulty sourcing accommodation. Everything mentioned on here seems to be fully booked up at this stage. Some sites are showing fully booked till September.
We're now looking at maybe staying around the Fort William area for a few days as there's an Airhead group passing through that I'd like to meet up with on July 9th. And then staying somewhere else further north for a while.

Has anyone got any other B&B or suchlike recommendations that we could consider.

Thanks in advance.
Fran
ps anybody vacating their country cottage for a while during the summer or have a converted barn / cosy kennel? ........no harm in asking

 

[R800]

Hi All,
I'm having difficulty sourcing accommodation. Everything mentioned on here seems to be fully booked up at this stage. Some sites are showing fully booked till September.
We're now looking at maybe staying around the Fort William area for a few days as there's an Airhead group passing through that I'd like to meet up with on July 9th. And then staying somewhere else further north for a while.

Has anyone got any other B&B or suchlike recommendations that we could consider.

Thanks in advance.
Fran
ps anybody vacating their country cottage for a while during the summer or have a converted barn / cosy kennel? ........no harm in asking

Try ring the places directly, forget the sites if that's the case. If they don't have room they'll recommend places nearby... That happened with two of the places I booked

 

[beekeeper]

Hi R800, As you are now learning you have to plan well in advance your accommodation in the North West, tourist season is upon us. One tip I can offer, you can try approaching the local Visit Scotland Office they can book accommd ahead for you, if successful they will make a small charge for the service.

I've got ask where is "further north" to be, East or West if I knew I could perhaps make some suggestions.

Good Luck & Regards

M