Scotland 2019...

The B&B is situated in a place called Colintraive in Glendaruel. As mentioned earlier the scenery and setting is stunning and the building itself is beautiful but i wouldn't recommend it. The rooms wasn't particularly clean, towels were old and worn and we had arranged for an evening meal which was charged at 20.00 per person.. The food wasn't great and we weren't even offered a drink to go with it. The host was lovely but i think is a little remove from what people really want and could do with some hired help...

Anyway, this is a ride report so i'll stick to that and move on...

We left the B&B at around 0900, the weather was warm and sunny with some ominous looking clouds hanging around. It had obviously rained during the night but for the time being it was lovely. The destination for the day was Lochcarron via Fort William, Glencoe and the Kyle of Lochalsh. This was the day i'd really been looking forward to. I've ridden through Glencoe before back in 2009and the weather was horrendous. Side winds that threatened to blow you into oncoming traffic meant keeping the bike at 45 degrees just to stay in a straight line. I was hopeful that this time it would be a little easier..

Before we got to Glencoe there was plenty of great roads to ride and more spectacular scenery to be viewed....
 

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I swear, if someone had knocked me out and woke me up a few hours later in this place and asked me where i thought i was i could easily have thought it would have been Canada.... Simply stunning..
 

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After riding through the forest next to the river the next great view came from the wonderful Glencoe. Whilst the wind had died down this time round he weather gods were obviously at breakfast or something because the heavens opened and we got a good soaking. Not a problem though, we'd been expecting this from day one and the Badlands Pro worked it's magic keeping out the wet as did the Streetguard Erika was wearing..
 

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Glencoe is just one of those places everyone should ride through,forget the Stelvio etc this does it for me every time. It is simply stunning in every respect, the Scottish mountains and different from the Alps, less jagged and more formed and in my opinion much better looking, there is also less traffic and more of a feeling of remoteness about them...
 

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The next stop for us was in Fort William under the shadow of Ben Nevis. The weather gods had clearly finished their break as the clouds had gone and sunshine was now the order of the day... We had planned to take a bit of a break in Fort William and wanted to ride the Jacobite Steam train out to Mallaig but when we found out this wass almost a full day trip we decided against it. The next train wasn't due to depart until 1430 (it was only 1200 now) would take around 6 hours for a round trip and we still had somewhere near 100 miles to cover. So we decided we would head out to the Glenfinnan viaduct to watch the train cross at 1500ish before pressing on to Lochcarron...
 

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After Glenfinnan we pressed on towards Lochcarron via Eilean Donal castle where we stopped for the typical photo. We were then treated to a fantastic ride down to Lochcarron on the A890 just off the A87, miles of lovely sticky tarmac with lovely sweeping bends that go on forever..... Brilliant fun..
 

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Nice to see you took your daughter with you :thumb2

Surprised you never took a photo from the viewing point above Lochcarron but the road down from there is hellish :mad:
 
Keep up with the mini B and B reviews, they're all part of your trip and may help a fellow rider find a gem or avoid a crappy B and B (Maybe send some feedback to the host at Colintraive ?)
I know what you mean about Scotland beating the Alps, it shouldn't but somehow it does it for me too
 
Nice to see you took your daughter with you :thumb2

Surprised you never took a photo from the viewing point above Lochcarron but the road down from there is hellish :mad:

Thanks Cabby, my wife thanks you for the compliment, me, not so much!!:D

TBH I didn’t know there was a viewing point above Lochcarron... I have a great review of the B&B we stayed at there and will write that up later.. :thumb2
 
You'll not be surprised to know it was at the highest point just before you started dropping down towards the railway line.
 
You'll not be surprised to know it was at the highest point just before you started dropping down towards the railway line.

Nope not surprised at all, makes perfect sense. Amazing view from up there.. Just arrived in pitlochry for an afternoon/evening at the Pitlochry Hydro Hotel...lovely
 
There are a couple of really funky single track roads not far from you though not easy to find but if I were to suggest one it would be cluny dam to Foss takes you up the south side of loch tummel. From there you could go all the way out to Rannoch station.
 
Right, back on track and starting where I left off..

The B&B we stayed in at Lochcarron is called the Sithean (pronounced She un) and was pretty bloody good!! Only a small house overlooking the Loch but the views were simply stunning. It was easy to find and did only offer B&B so either take your own dinner with you or jump on your bike and head into town to the local pub for food...
 

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I should mention that regardless or where wee stayed the cast was pretty much the same for B&B and worked out at around 40.00 pppn...

After a good hearty breakfast we set off for an incredible days riding which took us over to Skye for a very brief visit and a coffee followed by the infamous Bealach na Ba (pass of the cattle) down to Applecross... Amazing ride and not for the fainthearted, around 12 miles of narrow single track road with a few very tight switchbacks thrown in at the top for good measure. Cold and wind at the top but worth it for the ride and the views...
 

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Once through the pass we headed into Applecross for another quick coffee stop and looked at where we would be headed to next. The route we were following took us up the coastline before heading inland towards the mountains of Torridon. Lovely views and stunning roads (again). Soon after that we were onto the A896 followed by the A832 past a very sleepy village called Achnasheen where we stopped for a few minutes to take a few photos for a work colleague who grew up there.. The A832 from there on in was lovely to ride, easy to ride at pace with long sweeping bends and little traffic. Something had happened somewhere along the road as we had numerous police and ambulances headed the opposite way to us during the ride. Given the complete lack of other road users it was odd to see them hurtling down the road, lights and sirens blazing...
 

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After a long day in the saddle we were looking forward to our accommodation for the night and we were really in for a treat!!
I'd booked Torguish House after the recommendation from the author of the book (The Motorcyclist Guide to Scotland). It sits in a little hamlet outside of Inverness called Daviot and is run by Ben and his Mum and Dad. They are also antique dealers and the place is a treasure trove of antiques and 'stuff'. Soooo much character, you could spend hours just walking around looking at all the stuff they have. They are also very much into bikes (although Ben has a thing against BMWs, his only downfall) and couldn't do enough for us. We asked him about where he would recommend for dinner ad he told us the local does good home cooked food and they would be more than happy to drop us off there and pick us up whenever we wanted... Lovely place and great people...
 

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A few more from Torguish house...
 

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It looks like you are being very lucky with the weather Chris

Loving the photos


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
After leaving Torguish House we were in for another day of fantastic riding.The weather was lovely, warm sunshine and blue skies called for open vets on the Badlands Pro (one thing i was not expecting in Scotland) and the route today would take us through more breathtaking scenery. Heading out of Inverness towards Nairn we soon picked up the A939 which was a joy to ride. Taking us through Grantown-on-Spay and Tomintoul then climbing through the Cairngorms ski resorts before decending down to Cock Bridge and skirting past the Balmoral estate. The route then took us on to Breamar followed by another breathtaking ride through Glen Shee and on to our final destination for today - Pitlochry and the Pitlochry Hydro Hotel....
 


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