A short trip to Scotland

Blackblade-rry

Blackblade-rry

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This trip was actually done back in August 2018. I intended to do a write up straight afterwards, but you know what they say about good intentions…

To set the scene, although Mrs. Blackblade does ride pillion, she’s not one for long hours in the saddle and wants to have fairly frequent stops. This trip was about having a few days on my own with the bike, with far longer days than I could expect to do with my other half.

Originally I was going to take the tent. I was unsure where to go, but settled on Scotland. I committed to time off work early enough to be able to get a good 2 night deal on a non-refundable Premier Inn room near Stirling that I had used on a number of occasions when travelling for work, so wouldn't have to bother with any camping gear.

I decided that I wanted to rediscover some old favourite roads, but also to hopefully find some new tarmac that I would be happy to explore again in the future. I didn’t want to be spending a lot of time on motorways and dual carriageways, but where it was necessary I was ok with it. I’m sure that a lot of you will already be familiar with the routes I used, so I won’t dwell too much on the specifics.
 
Wednesday morning I put the puncture repair kit, mini compressor, and a few odds and sods into the panniers, along with all the other stuff that seems essential to modern life.

I decided not to bother with the sat nav, and just use the old school notes on the tank bag for the bits I wasn’t sure about. I was only pleasing myself after all.

I left home in North Lincolnshire, and headed cross country to York, Thirsk, Northallerton, and crossing the A1 near Darlington, on a mixture of A and B roads, picking up B roads leading to the North Pennines, and its rugged scenery. The B6277 heads for Alston, the highest market town in England (UK?) with the steep cobbled streets that are dodgy when wet. Fortunately no weather issues on this day, with a mixture of sun and cloud.

I stopped for a photo call at the derelict Hartside Top café.
 
66165be488a302f1e5333acc6b8d86cc.jpg
 
From Alston, the A686 is a really good run down to Penrith, but I had to resist the urge, and headed North to Haltwhistle, through the Kielder Forest, and into the Borders. B roads up to Hawick, then Selkirk, and the A7 to the Edinburgh City Bypass and on via motorways to my overnight stop outside Stirling.

320 miles covered door to door.

An apology at this stage for lack of foodie snaps. As the Premier Inn is adjacent to a Brewers Fayre where I had dinner and breakfast booked, I’m sure you will appreciate that whilst I didn’t starve, it wasn’t gourmet standard. A few well earned beers were quaffed.

:beer
 
Thursday morning was bright, and with a 7,30 start, still a little chilly 9C. Nevertheless, I looked forward to a long day in the saddle.

From Stirling, cross country to Perth, on the B934and 9112, before picking up the A93 to Blairgowrie and Braemar, then the B976 and A939 through the Cairngorms to Tomintoul and Grantown on Spey. For anybody that has never ridden these roads, they are well worth a try (IMHO).

I was heading to do the Applecross loop, so having skirted Inverness, I picked up the A832 west, then SW on the A890 through Lochcarron. I’ve done the Applecross loop before, and had wanted to try it again for some time. Preferring to come in from the North, I rode passed the first signs for Applecross, towards Shieldag, before turning onto the peninsula and the run to Applecross, and the well known Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle), and obligatory shot of the sign at the bottom.
 
Once I’d got west of Inverness, the weather had changed and the rest of the day was to be a mixture of sun and showers. Nothing to take the shine off the day though. Having achieved my objective of the Applecross loop, it was back to Lochcarron and then the zig-zag south on the A 87 and 82 to Fort William and across Rannock Moor to Tyndrum and Crianlarich and back to Stirling.

It had been a frustrating run for 20 or 30 miles into Fort William, having been caught in a traffic queue headed by a police car doing just sufficiently below the limit to make an overtake risky. With the overall speed low enough to let frustration creep in, and my mind also beginning to wander, I was starting to think that I didn’t have a Sargeant seat shaped behind and needed to shuffle to keep the circulation going.

Back at base for another Brewers Fayre washed down with a few beers, having done 477 miles. For anybody that’s never ridden these roads – don’t fall into the trap of looking at the map and mileage and thinking of a 60 mph average speed. I’ve ridden and driven a lot of these roads before, and knew what to expect. It was probably 11 hours plus in the saddle this day, excluding breaks.
 
Friday and my third and final day. I had a plan that on my way home included a detour to visit a pal who was unfortunately in hospital in Sunderland, so my route would take me east. Not before I had ticked off another photo opportunity though.

In the course of work, I had driven past the Kelpies on a number of occasions. I wouldn’t have time to visit properly, but my first stop was in the car park just to get a shot of them in the background, with a mental note to revisit at some point.

Avoiding as much as possible the built up areas, it was back into the borders on the B roads down to Lockerbie, passing the Buddhist Monstery at Eskdalemuir. Unfortunately, and earlier road closure and detour had put me behind schedule to get to Sunderland, and so I scrapped my planned cross country route in favour of the M74/M6 and across to the east on the A69 to Newcastle.
 
Having done my duty with the hospital visit it was down the A19 dual carriageway and into North Yorkshire to pick up part of the “Helmsley GP” route to Malton. Then onward on the last leg through East Yorkshire and back home into North Lincolnshire, and yet another few well deserved beers.

This days mileage 336, all of it in dry, mainly sunny conditions. The sun shines on the righteous eh?

I guess one of the reasons for writing this is to show that you don’t need to have lots of time off work to be able to ride some stunning roads, with scenery that you would be very happy to ride through on an overseas jaunt.

I’ll be doing it again at some stage, maybe next year if we can’t head over the water for obvious reasons.

:thumb
 
Fab trip.

Love those roads, esp tomintoul area

Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

I have a feeling that Scotland will be very popular this year


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I'm sure you're right about Scotlands popularity.

Although it may be busy with home grown tourists rather than the hoards of Italian motor homes in convoy that can't/won't use the passing places. (Other nationalities are also available :D).
 
Nice little trip out you had there....:beerjug:
I passed them horse figures a few months ago,didnt have a clue what it was..(apart from a horses head.)
 
I’m sure you’re aware - lots of stuff online about the Kelpies. I think the sculptures are meant to represent spirits that live in the lochs :nenau
 
S92GS said:
Fab trip.

Love those roads, esp tomintoul area

Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

I have a feeling that Scotland will be very popular this year


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Click to expand...

I think there might not be enough time left this year
 
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