Lastminute roadtrip to Scotland.

Decided last night to squeeze a quick trip away next week before all my work colleagues start their silly season holidays.

Live in the south east and going to set off early doors Wednesday morning. Very vague route at the mo but will most prob head up through Wales, then the lakes and hopefully get as far as the orkneys.

Just a quick shout out to see if anyone is interested in joining me?

Just a tad too lat minute for me,but enjoy the trip the roads are fantastic the higher up you go,especially the west coast!

Thanks Dude

Any recommendations? a local chap has pointed me in the direction of some routes north of blairgowrie?

Any tips would be apprecaited, am i right in saying i can camp anywhere in scotlnd?

cloonster

Hit me a pm and we'll meet up. I'll show you some awesome.SD roads. There are some superb smooth fast roads in the borders you can hit on the way up. I live near stirling which is the southerly start of all the great rds.

I'll do some thinking and send a few ideas. So so many great roads though, everything from 2nd gear.undulating rollercoaster B rds to fast open smooth sweeping A's.

I would say keep west up here. Blairgowrie is ok but not a patch on the west coast.

Nice one Viking. pm sent.

So stay west is what i am hearing? did a quick google map on stirling, so know roughly whereabouts you are. most probably be in your neck of the woods thurday sometime.

Weather permitting i wouldn't mind camping out on some high peaks to get a good sunrise in the morning, any suggestions?

Cheers for all the advice btw.

Hey mate, did a few routes for you. Thought i'd post them in the thread rather tham PM so other guys can use them if they come up

1st one is a good borders run. The A701 when you leave Moffat is superb.



Worked a out a bit of a loop round some of the best roads i ride. The little loop at "B" next to Queen Elisabeth Forrest is called the Dukes Pass. It's like a rollercoaster, all 2nd and 3rd gear, loads of humps and jumps. 2nd bit of the road open out and there is a long straight with 4-5 humps you can get monster roll on wheelies off.

The section from "D" to "E" is called the Sma' Glen. Another great road. Not the best surface, and can be a bit tight and blind in bits but it takes you through a huge glen with cracking scenery.

I've not really been way up north for ages so had the end it at "K". If you look N/W for there you'll see Ullapool. A few of my mates go up there for a seafood festival and say the roads are awesome and deserted, so might be worth a look up that way too.

You wont be dissapointed with those routes.

Cant get youtube vid to embed. Can someone fix it. Cheers

Viking, you are a top man.

Thanks, much appreciated for the routes, will print em off and more than likely check em out.

pm me you number and i will drop you a text when i am in the region. if you can make a ride i would be stoked.

Cloonster

Vikings routes are top notch! might I suggest that once you get to Fort William you try the A830 to Mallaig. AFAIR. Smooth tarmaced roads with whiteline borders.
You'll like it so much you'll want to go back.(Erm.... you have to.)

Btw there are also a few East coast borders routes that are so tempting.Turn of at Moffat and go the A708 and you will eventually come to St Marys Loch. Probably one of the most popular Scottish Sunday rides/meets.

Selkirk/Galasheils and A7 to Edinburgh takes you to the Capital. The best Scottish road riders and Rally drivers Earned their craft in the Borders Jim Clark/Jimmy and Colin Macrae/Steve Hislop/Louse Aitken Walker/David Coultard/Johnny Dumfries.

Checkout the network of roads in that area. Proper SD country

Seriously you'd be too knackered to go much further

Real Playground.

this is all such good info, exactaly what i am after, nice one.

Nice one Viking.

What about petrol on the routes, i presume the 1st should be cool, what about the second?

Dave

Awesome Trip.

Scotland is an SD playground dream.

Thanks to Viking for putting together those routes for me, it was better than expected, I actually went for a ride this evening now that i am down south and was a little miffed out as i have been spoilt over the last 5 days.

Road surfaces on a whole were in great condition, and a variety to suite any rider. The scenery was absolutely stonkning. I covered so much ground i didn't know which glen or loch I was at, just following the route and sucking up the scenery whilst burning the SD.

Dropped the ol girl but minimal damage.

Couple of pics.

Glad you had a good time.

What route did you end up taking?

minor hijack here - weather pending I might be heading from Preston to Glasgow at the weekend - any tips other than "avoid the m6"???





this is what i've come up with so far

Made a couple of adjustments.

I took the road from windermere in the lakes that goes around Ullswater, great scenery and some good open sections with fast flowing A roads.

The second part Viking suggested to me and you wont be disaapointed, leave the M6 at moffat

[url]http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=pr25+4qr&daddr=53.88834,-2.95606+to:54.07711,-2.71198+to:54.51962,-2.31746+to:54.8629031,-2.8769609+to:54.9155208,-2.9036767+to:54.9536572,-2.9825335+to:54.99695,-3.06026+to:55.1743731,-3.3973218+to:glasgow&hl=en&sll=54.941146,-2.971287&sspn=0.052754,0.154324&geocode=FeZ5MwMd7hHX_yl_tA1iNQ17SDHDJqaBmc7-xw%3BFVRFNgMd5OTS_ymP6VnWWl17SDHh7fLWnvkMEw%3BFbYmOQMdVJ7W_yklSGun7IJ8SDHxfuNBvGIQEw%3BFUTnPwMdbKPc_ymdgsx2k0R8SDHQMUlbN9EPEw%3BFTckRQMd4BnU_ylRKCKECxt9SDFwRLRbN9EPEw%3BFcDxRQMdhLHT_ynHmVgXcBp9SDHRxPJQN9EPEw%3BFbmGRgMde33S_ylBQgaXFhd9SDHArkLXnvkMEw%3BFdYvRwMd3E3R_ykv6v5wHBZ9SDHBxSThGWgMEw%3BFeXkSQMdNynM_yn1kUWJNUl9SDGAcjDiGWgMEw%3BFRtxVAMdOQq__ynrzlYgVhWISDEeUe8FuIPmcQ&mra=dpe&mrsp=6&sz=13&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8&dirflg=h&z=7
[/url]

Not sure why the URL tag doesn't work for me, a copy and past i am afraid.

seem to be having internet/PC issues, that last link didn't come out right.

If i were you I would up through windermere in the lakes and take the A592 from windermere to penrith, some awesome scenery and good fast A roads towards the end part. The beginning part is right through a high pass which too is great.

Once back on the M6 i woul look at the 1st link viking posted further up this thread from Moffat.

As another addition to cloonster's, I'd turn off at Gretna and take the A75/6 rather than the A74(M), only cos I know that the 74 is just as boring as the M6.

cheers guys - I'll have a go at adding that all up and we'll see how many hours it all adds up to - I'd like to treat this as a road trip but I do have a weekend in Glasgow I'm supposed to be going to as well, so I can't spend all day getting there... I reckon maybe 5-6 hours would be about right

appears that time of year is coming up again, and oh yes another trip up to scotland is on the cards, will be going with some bmw folk, so might just tail them on the highways and slip stream them and then leave them for dirt once on the a/b roads. bring on summer.

Fancy "The Trossachs" this time? Central Scotland @Stirling.

Was out for a run in the car on Sunday. Many BMW Riders like these roads.

Cloonster, only if you had told us a bit earlier. I'm down in reading and it would have been good to have tagged along .
Nick

Nick

Planning it for this summer mate!!, i am in fleet, we should hook up for a ride anyway.

currently in a neck brace (broken neck) but hopefully back on the road mid June.

Cloonster

seems like it might be a plan to meet him somewhere and have a blether seeing as he,s coming over the border,wonder if he might be interested in having the scots sd owners tagging along for a day and a cuppa? anybody else up for this?