Scottish Highlands 2021

brosonourbikes
Jun 14, 2021
6 min read

Updated: Jan 21, 2022

With Covid-19 ruining all plans for overseas trips, it was time to explore closer to home. Having secured nine days off from work and the family, I was also able to rope in a wingman, Joe, who was eager to put his new Triumph Tiger 1050 Sport through it's paces. My choice of steed was my Aprilia Capanord Rally 1200.

The idea was to take 2 days to get up to Scotland, take 5 days to circumnavigate the Highlands, taking in most of the NC500 route, then another 2 days to get home, avoiding motorways as much as possible; about 2,000miles.

With the expectation of notoriously bad weather, I stocked up on a full set of weatherproofs and a can of DDT for the equally notorious midges.

Day 1: Surrey to Ilkley, Yorkshire - 286 miles

Early start for me with a quick blast up the motorway to meet Joe and his mate Paul at the National Motorcycle Museum for 8:30am.

First bike fault occurred 20m after leaving home when the fuel gauge packed up, it's Italian, never trusted it anyway.

We all arrived at the museum within a couple of minutes of each other, then sat for twenty minutes while we waited for the to open the gates, then got told by a passing cop to just ride round them and in we went.

We practically had the place to ourselves, a hug variety of famous and obscure British bikes, we spent a couple hours there before waving Paul off and heading ever north.

We headed up through the Peak District stopping at Bamford for lunch before riding the Snake Pass, which was a fabulous, fast, twisting road. We then headed to Ilkley; this has always been a difficult route to plan due to the proximity of many large cities (The Midlands), but by using a route recommended by Nathan Millward we managed to miss all the motorways and cities. Although it got a bit misty with some light drizzle going over the South Pennines, it didn't dampen what was a super days riding.

Good mate

After an impromptu tour of Ilkley due to me never updating Tim's address in my phone, we got to his place where he welcomed us with open beers and we had a great night catching up and sampling the wears of Tim's favourite bar, Friends of Ham.

Day 2: Ilkley to Stirling, Scotland - 258 miles

After a caffeine injection at La Stazione, where all the staff treated Tim like family, we headed off, having never been further north than Ilkley on a bike before, this was new territory.

Time to try a new navigation method; Calimoto is a bike navigation app. that picks the best route based on "twistyness", we wanted to include the Buttertubs Pass and Kielder Water, but other than that we let the application choose the route.

Well, we wanted adventure! A lot of the time we had no idea where we were, but it didn't spoil the fun as the route took as to parts of the country we never new existed, with amazing vistas across the Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines, down winding single-track where it wasn't other traffic we had to worry about (there wasn't any!), it was the wandering livestock.

Lunch was enjoyed at the quant little market town of Blanchland, before heading off again. Due to the slower pace of the twisties, once we got to Peebles we decided to b-line it to Stirling as we didn't want to turn up late at Vic's as she was hosting for the first time in her new home.

A fabulous night was had catching up with Vic and her parents, Scottish hospitality is legendary; on arrival the conversation went like this:

Vic: Would you like a drink, Joe?

Joe: Sounds good.

Vic: Beer, wine or gin?

Joe: Wine sounds great.

Vic: Red or white?

Joe: Red please.

Vic: Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir?

Joe: What ever's open

Vic: Oh, they're all open!!

The rest of the night passed in great company, complemented by a lovely meal and possibly a little too much wine.

Day 3: Stirling to Kenlockein, Scotland - 171 miles

Morning started with a bit of stagger before the bacon butty and coffee set in, then it was time to say good by to being hosted by great friends and head into the Highlands to fend for ourselves.

After a bit of fuel anxiety we headed for our planned route, taking in great twisties around Loch Venachar and Loch Achray via The Duke's Pass; a beautiful road through the forest hugging the water, considering the sun was out and it being a Sunday, not to much traffic.

We then used the back roads to get to Balloch and timed it perfectly to pull up a pew and a pint to watch the MotoGP over lunch.

Back on the bikes we headed up the A82 which was probably the busiest road we travelled in Scotland, until crossing over a goat track to Loch Long, Loch Awe, Loch Etive and Loch Linnhe, stopping for a break at Inveraray as it appeared to be a bit of a biker's hangout.

Time was getting on, but with only 12 miles left, we turned off the A82 and road along the north coast of Loch Leven, a fabulously twisting, undulating rollercoaster of a road, one of the real gems of the trip (often referred to as Scotland's Nurburgring).

Accommodation was pre-booked at the Tailrace Inn; we sat outside in the sun by our bikes having a few beers and some dinner, chatting to the locals. Two girls wanted to sit on my bike, none on Joe's, so that's 2-0 already.

Day 4: Kenlocken to Applecross, Highlands - 162 miles

Great way to start a day's riding with the Scottish Nurburgring again as we headed back to the main road along Loch Leven. We headed north and took a turning towards Ben Nevis just to take a look. Having not packed our crampons we opted to give the summit a miss this time.

We took the backroads to the Commando memorial where we had fabulous views of snow-capped mountains to the east.

The A87 to Eilean Donan Castle was a real highlight as far as roads go, very fast and sweeping. We took some time to explore the outer sections of the Highlander castle before heading to Isle of Skye with the intention of finding some lunch.

With time marching on and still a fair way to go we decided not to explore Skye, just grabbed a pizza and a breather before getting on the bikes and heading for Bealach na Ba, a must-do single track that climbs steeply to amazing views before descending rapidly towards Applecross.

It wasn't only the weather that was shining down on us, so was good fortune: Having booked all our accommodation in advance several months ago (due to COVID, the Brits were holidaying locally, so Scotland was selling out fast), I was very concerned a couple of days before we left, the accommodation I had booked at Applecross contacted me to say they had cocked up the booking and there was no longer any room! We weren't able to change our dates, so they booked us into a a B&B close by. Originally we were going to stay in a hostel with a shared bathroom, now we were staying in a luxury B&B at more than double the price, and the hostel refused to take any payment! Can't beat Scottish hospitality.

At our B&B, appropriately named, Applecross B&B, we were lucky enough to be visited by a pine martin, we watched him from the lounge as he helped himself to the feeder. Another biker had turned up in a shaken state; he had crashed his bike coming over Bealach na Ba, the owner helped him out (he wasn't actually staying) and called the local fixer who bashed his Yamaha back into shape so he could get home to London, trip ruined.

A very pleasant meal was had at the Applecross Inn in the evening; lucky to be served after forgetting to pay for our first round of drinks when we first arrived in Applecross. David nearly put a dampener on events when he forgot to put his side-stand down and nearly knocking over Joe's bike and potentially rolling his bike off the bank onto the diners sitting outside on the decking below.

Day 5: Applecross to Illapool, Highlands - 143 miles

Lots of single track riding and exploring the west coast of the Highlands.

At Firemore Beach we chatted with an old guy that was stationed there in the army many years ago and told us about the massive military presence here during World War 2. We had a look around the old artillery stations that protected the entrance to the harbour.

Ullapool was a little disappointing

, hoping to get a good meal and have a few drinks with other bikers doing the NC500, unfortunately all we found was a restaurant doing their best impression of Faulty Towers.