Scotland tour 2021

2 wheel humvee

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We've talked about touring Scotland many times our little group and I but always seemed to head over the channel to Europe or latterly across to Ireland ( 3 years in succession) for a mini break, this year we were short of options so Scotland won.
Day 1 Friday 9th July ;
To Lockerbie, chosen as a as good a place as any to begin the tour properly and fairly equidistant between the 4 of us travelling from the South, Dave from North London, Oscar from Newbury and Sean and I met and set off from Cardiff, Johnny was setting off from Leeds area and would meet us at the hotel, at around 330 miles we made good progress and were at the hotel early afternoon having visited the memorial site on the way.

Sean and I stopped at a services for a refuel and a coffee
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Nearing the Hotel, soft luggage and a tank bag-travelling light, sort of......
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We visited the monument to the lost, very sobering :bow
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And enjoyed a meal, a few drinks and some banter at the hotel.
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We stayed the Sure Hotel Best Western Lockerbie rooms were good, service was good as was the food, lots to recommend it but don't ask if they were "biker friendly" as I don't know what that means :nenau

Day 2;
Dave wanted to see the Falkirk wheel I wanted to see The Kelpies and the Forth Bridge, we were then headed to the Cairngorms as I had seen Johnny mention it on here recently and thought it worth a look.

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Visit completed we rode the short distance to our next attraction The Kelpies, as we arrived a large group of patch club bikes were waved through the entrance, we tagged on with them, it later transpired that they had paid collectively and probably paid for us to park too :D As it was very busy and very hot we took a few pics and departed.

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After a coffee stop, Starbucks of course, we all rode into the car park standing on the pegs-Not! :comfort We motored on to South Queensferry and were treated to a great view of "The Bridge"

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That's a box well and truly ticked for me :thumby:

We ate at the biker cafe nearby and whilst they were running out of options for food they served us with a very passable ham salad roll and only accepted what little cash/change I had in my pocket, great service biker mates :bow

Onwards and upwards we pressed on up the ski area at Glenshee where another coffee stop was in order.

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The route looked very inviting :green gri

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The weather gods had been looking after us but it began to rain as we neared Balmoral, we stopped for a pic as one of us in particular is a fan of Her Maj and the fam
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I swapped gloves to the wet weather versions we all zipped up and pressed on to the hotel at Tarland in biblical rain :tears

We stayed at the Commercial hotel, bikes were stored around the back out of sight, the rooms were clean and comfortable and the food and ale were top notch, recommended :bow

Day 3; We had a leisurely breakfast and waited for the rain to abate, which it didn't so we set off around 9.30 for what should be a day of around 180 miles we headed into the Cairngorms and went via Strathdon where we stopped for a pic or two the rain had now stopped :thumby:

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We were soon back on the road and what a road it was.........

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We made a detour towards Loch Ness (as one does) the rain had returned but Nessie remained elusive.

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Somehow we had lost Johnny temporarily so stopped here to wait and take in the view, probably the A837 between Lairg and Ledmore :cool:

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We soon regrouped and pressed on to Ullapool where some of us ate

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We bade farewell to Johnny who was staying nearby unable to get a room at our place The Summer Isles Hotel, we pressed on, the roads were great and largely free of traffic apart from the odd dawdling motorhome, the views became ever more spectacular so we stopped for a pic or two

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We turned off the main road (I use the term loosely) and started along a single track road with passing places the 10 or so miles to our hotel for the night, we had been advised this would take around 45 mins and so it turned out !

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What a beautiful and peaceful place this is, although I imagine it loses some of it's charm in the winter :eek:

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Pretty soon we were checked in and showered and went in search of refreshments :thumby:

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It was around the time of our 3rd pint that a member of staff announced that the hotel wouldn't be showing the Euros final tonight as they didn't have a tv.......oh how I laughed :rolllaugh I don't care a jot about football but poor Sean was distraught ! Luckily for him he has a mate with an i pad and I set it up at the dinner table and cheered the Italians the whole game :augie

At about 22.45 I went outside to take a pic of the late sunset :bow

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To be continued..........

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Great pics Steve (as always!) - good to see some familiar faces and sights. John (Webster) and I had a trip up that way last September when Pyrenees trip was postponed due to you know what!!
Is the Duke yours? - looks very agile!

Svelte was the term I was really looking for!
 
Great pics Steve (as always!) - good to see some familiar faces and sights. John (Webster) and I had a trip up that way last September when Pyrenees trip was postponed due to you know what!!
Is the Duke yours? - looks very agile!

Svelte was the term I was really looking for!

I called it svelte too
Lovely piece of engineering
Drool worthy
 
Great pics Steve (as always!) - good to see some familiar faces and sights. John (Webster) and I had a trip up that way last September when Pyrenees trip was postponed due to you know what!!
Is the Duke yours? - looks very agile!

Svelte was the term I was really looking for!

Hi Rich, yes the Duke is mine and I’m loving it, it’s a hoot to ride.
 
great pics and story .did you get to chat to the lady in the Lockerbie museum , next to the Memorial ? unbelievable knowledge she had
 
great pics and story .did you get to chat to the lady in the Lockerbie museum , next to the Memorial ? unbelievable knowledge she had

No we didn’t sadly as our visit was brief but Sean was quite knowledgable on the topic.

Nice write up and photos, thanks for sharing.

You’re welcome I enjoy reading trip reports shared by others so just doing my bit :thumby:

Cracking pics sir
Great to ride with you all again for 3 days
Much enjoyed

Likewise Johnny it was great to catch up :thumby:
 
Day 4;
I went for a pre breakfast stroll, there was some morning mist but it soon began to clear

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Fed and watered we paid our bill and packed the bikes once more and set off back down the single track road from Achilitbuie pausing occasionally to take a few pics

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Strathkanaird :bow

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We stopped again at Loch a' Chroisg :bow

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We followed the A935 down to Gorstan then took A832 towards Kinlochewe, we made a fuel and coffee stop and took the road around the peninsula to Fearnmore then on to Applecross or Bealach Na Ba, the weather gods were again shining on us, traffic was light and the views.....let the pictures do the talking :bow

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What a great ride, our plan was to see some of Sky (as much as time permitted) we had pre booked the Cal Mac ferry from Armadale to Mallaig so we were clock watching a little, however we found the time make a detour off route and stop at Eilean Donan Castle :okay

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We crossed onto Skye via the bridge and scooted down to Armadale for the ferry, man that's a fast road :augie
With not a lot of time to spare before our scheduled departure we arrived at Armadale and boarded the ferry bound for Mallaig, Mallaig-.........now there's a story :rolleyes:

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Well, you were certainly luckier than we were with the weather!
our trip seemed similar in routing to ours, although we had to pack it into small number of days.
What spectacular scenery there was...albeit through howling wind and therefore horizontal rain, mostly!
well worth another visit with more time for sight seeing
thanks for sharing
 
Well, you were certainly luckier than we were with the weather!
our trip seemed similar in routing to ours, although we had to pack it into small number of days.
What spectacular scenery there was...albeit through howling wind and therefore horizontal rain, mostly!
well worth another visit with more time for sight seeing
thanks for sharing

Yes indeed we were lucky with the weather, we did have two hours torrential rain on the way to Balmoral and on to our next hotel, I hung my kit on the back of the wardrobe door and propped up the hair dryer and pointed it at the door for about 2 hours to dry my kit, I haven't had much use for one of those for many years :rolllaugh
 
We've talked about touring Scotland many times our little group and I but always seemed to head over the channel to Europe or latterly across to Ireland ( 3 years in succession) for a mini break, this year we were short of options so Scotland won.
Day 1 Friday 9th July ;
To Lockerbie, chosen as a as good a place as any to begin the tour properly and fairly equidistant between the 4 of us travelling from the South, Dave from North London, Oscar from Newbury and Sean and I met and set off from Cardiff, Johnny was setting off from Leeds area and would meet us at the hotel, at around 330 miles we made good progress and were at the hotel early afternoon having visited the memorial site on the way.

Sean and I stopped at a services for a refuel and a coffee
IMG_4865-XL.jpg


Nearing the Hotel, soft luggage and a tank bag-travelling light, sort of......
IMG_4866-XL.jpg


We visited the monument to the lost, very sobering :bow
IMG_4867-XL.jpg


And enjoyed a meal, a few drinks and some banter at the hotel.
480B35C7-2CE8-4C3C-BC1C-DF7AAF1DA0D9-X3.jpg


We stayed the Sure Hotel Best Western Lockerbie rooms were good, service was good as was the food, lots to recommend it but don't ask if they were "biker friendly" as I don't know what that means :nenau

Day 2;
Dave wanted to see the Falkirk wheel I wanted to see The Kelpies and the Forth Bridge, we were then headed to the Cairngorms as I had seen Johnny mention it on here recently and thought it worth a look.

IMG_4875-XL.jpg


IMG_4878-XL.jpg


Visit completed we rode the short distance to our next attraction The Kelpies, as we arrived a large group of patch club bikes were waved through the entrance, we tagged on with them, it later transpired that they had paid collectively and probably paid for us to park too :D As it was very busy and very hot we took a few pics and departed.

IMG_4879-XL.jpg


After a coffee stop, Starbucks of course, we all rode into the car park standing on the pegs-Not! :comfort We motored on to South Queensferry and were treated to a great view of "The Bridge"

IMG_4885-XL.jpg


IMG_4887-XL.jpg


IMG_4889-XL.jpg


That's a box well and truly ticked for me :thumby:

We ate at the biker cafe nearby and whilst they were running out of options for food they served us with a very passable ham salad roll and only accepted what little cash/change I had in my pocket, great service biker mates :bow

Onwards and upwards we pressed on up the ski area at Glenshee where another coffee stop was in order.

IMG_4891-XL.jpg


The route looked very inviting :green gri

IMG_4893-XL.jpg


The weather gods had been looking after us but it began to rain as we neared Balmoral, we stopped for a pic as one of us in particular is a fan of Her Maj and the fam
IMG_4894-XL.jpg


IMG_4895-XL.jpg


I swapped gloves to the wet weather versions we all zipped up and pressed on to the hotel at Tarland in biblical rain :tears

We stayed at the Commercial hotel, bikes were stored around the back out of sight, the rooms were clean and comfortable and the food and ale were top notch, recommended :bow

Day 3; We had a leisurely breakfast and waited for the rain to abate, which it didn't so we set off around 9.30 for what should be a day of around 180 miles we headed into the Cairngorms and went via Strathdon where we stopped for a pic or two the rain had now stopped :thumby:

IMG_4900-XL.jpg


IMG_4901-XL.jpg


IMG_4903-XL.jpg


IMG_4905-XL.jpg


We were soon back on the road and what a road it was.........

IMG_4908-XL.jpg


We made a detour towards Loch Ness (as one does) the rain had returned but Nessie remained elusive.

IMG_4909-X2.jpg


IMG_4910-XL.jpg


Somehow we had lost Johnny temporarily so stopped here to wait and take in the view, probably the A837 between Lairg and Ledmore :cool:

IMG_4912-XL.jpg


We soon regrouped and pressed on to Ullapool where some of us ate

IMG_4914-XL.jpg


We bade farewell to Johnny who was staying nearby unable to get a room at our place The Summer Isles Hotel, we pressed on, the roads were great and largely free of traffic apart from the odd dawdling motorhome, the views became ever more spectacular so we stopped for a pic or two

IMG_4915-XL.jpg


IMG_4916-XL.jpg


We turned off the main road (I use the term loosely) and started along a single track road with passing places the 10 or so miles to our hotel for the night, we had been advised this would take around 45 mins and so it turned out !

IMG_4917-XL.jpg


What a beautiful and peaceful place this is, although I imagine it loses some of it's charm in the winter :eek:

IMG_4918-XL.jpg


Pretty soon we were checked in and showered and went in search of refreshments :thumby:

IMG_4921-XL.jpg


It was around the time of our 3rd pint that a member of staff announced that the hotel wouldn't be showing the Euros final tonight as they didn't have a tv.......oh how I laughed :rolllaugh I don't care a jot about football but poor Sean was distraught ! Luckily for him he has a mate with an i pad and I set it up at the dinner table and cheered the Italians the whole game :augie

At about 22.45 I went outside to take a pic of the late sunset :bow

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To be continued..........

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Great write up & brilliant pics. Did the same route & another similar one a few years back. The views you’ve shown us are fantastic, one of my fav places to explore. Thanks for sharing ……


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yes indeed we were lucky with the weather, we did have two hours torrential rain on the way to Balmoral and on to our next hotel, I hung my kit on the back of the wardrobe door and propped up the hair dryer and pointed it at the door for about 2 hours to dry my kit, I haven't had much use for one of those for many years :rolllaugh

re hairdryer, i'm sure not needing it has its advantages meaning you have more space in the boxes:beerjug:
great photo quality as well, guess it wasnt your iphone!!
our hotel choices were driven by what was open (last september) and we did struggle a bit with meal choices some evenings
 
Great write up & brilliant pics. Did the same route & another similar one a few years back. The views you’ve shown us are fantastic, one of my fav places to explore. Thanks for sharing ……
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you and you're welcome :thumby:

re hairdryer, i'm sure not needing it has its advantages meaning you have more space in the boxes:beerjug:
great photo quality as well, guess it wasnt your iphone!!
our hotel choices were driven by what was open (last september) and we did struggle a bit with meal choices some evenings

No boxes on this bike, soft luggage is the way for me, for the time being at least.
Yes I did take a camera but didn't use it once :rolleyes: I used my iphone 12 mini for all the pics :thumby:
 
Steve, you would have passed my door heading south from Mallaig, next time call in for a coffee :rob

P.S. Give me a shout when you get tired of the Duke :D
 
Steve, you would have passed my door heading south from Mallaig, next time call in for a coffee :rob

P.S. Give me a shout when you get tired of the Duke :D

Gordon it crossed my mind but only after we had passed Fort William :blast We were running a tight schedule that day as we had a ferry crossing booked and Bealach ne Ba had taken more time than we anticipated- too many fantastic photo ops, I’ll be back I’m sure of it what a wonderful place.
I thought of you whilst completing the first day’s ride to Lockerbie, you on the 1150 Adv as you headed west on the M4 and I chased you to turn you around :D
Do you still have it?
I’ll keep you in mind when it’s time to change but I have no idea what I would change it for it’s a bloody good bike :coold
 
Day 4;
I went for a pre breakfast stroll, there was some morning mist but it soon began to clear

IMG_4925-XL.jpg


Fed and watered we paid our bill and packed the bikes once more and set off back down the single track road from Achilitbuie pausing occasionally to take a few pics

IMG_4927-X3.jpg


IMG_4929-XL.jpg


IMG_4930-XL.jpg


Strathkanaird :bow

IMG_4931-X2.jpg


We stopped again at Loch a' Chroisg :bow

IMG_4932-XL.jpg


We followed the A935 down to Gorstan then took A832 towards Kinlochewe, we made a fuel and coffee stop and took the road around the peninsula to Fearnmore then on to Applecross or Bealach Na Ba, the weather gods were again shining on us, traffic was light and the views.....let the pictures do the talking :bow

IMG_4935-X2.jpg


IMG_4937-XL.jpg


IMG_4939-X2.jpg


IMG_4941-XL.jpg


IMG_4942-XL.jpg


What a great ride, our plan was to see some of Sky (as much as time permitted) we had pre booked the Cal Mac ferry from Armadale to Mallaig so we were clock watching a little, however we found the time make a detour off route and stop at Eilean Donan Castle :okay

IMG_4944-XL.jpg


IMG_4947-XL.jpg


We crossed onto Skye via the bridge and scooted down to Armadale for the ferry, man that's a fast road :augie
With not a lot of time to spare before our scheduled departure we arrived at Armadale and boarded the ferry bound for Mallaig, Mallaig-.........now there's a story :rolleyes:

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IMG_4953-XL.jpg


IMG_4955-XL.jpg

If the first building shown was your accommodation I don’t imagine the bill was too high!?:blast:aidan
 
Day 5;
It's going to be hard to beat day 4's riding but first a little about our stop over in Mallaig :blast
Day 4 had been a long day in the saddle, it was late in the afternoon and it was hot while we attempted check in with a seemingly indifferent member of the hotel staff (West Highland hotel) we were not asked if we wanted to book a table for evening dinner, the upshot of this was that we couldn't get a table at either the other restaurant in the town or either of the pubs as they stopped service at 8.30 leaving only 1 option for Sean's birthday meal....the co-op, pasta salad and yoghurt desserts all round at the picnic table followed, that night we all asked for a refund for the breakfast we had paid for and decided to take our chances and find breakfast somewhere on the route the next day :p

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To the ride, the A830 was fast and flowing our first stop was at Glenfinnan viaduct, we stopped briefly for a (fairly poor) pic and moved on

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we took the A86 on the south side of the loch ending up at Ardgour where we boarded the ferry for the short crossing to Corran

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We then rode through spectacular Glen Coe where we decided to take another detour off route to find the infamous Skyfall Aston Martin picture location, which it turns out is Glen Etive, we were in the right place but whether we got the pic at the right location is doubtful, it's a long way down a poorly made single track road with passing places, doubtless there are experts on here who can point out the error of our ways :nenau

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And to prove we tried really hard to find this location we went all the way to the end, so had to turn around and come back, it's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back :D

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Having used a lot of time the pace picked up when we rejoined the A82 to the Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum then onto the A85 towards Inverlochy

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then on to Inverary for a much needed coffee stop :bow

You probably have to be a certain age to recall the TV series this old Clyde puffer featured in, she is moored at Inverary seemingly being given some TLC

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We pressed on, one last boat ride from Hunters Quay to Gourock, the ferry was busy and we waited to board and then we were away, we were treated to the site of the Waverley crossing our path

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It had been another great day in the saddle, we had a hotel booked in Prestwick which would enable us to sample some of the roads in the Galloway Forest Park and the lesser known road routes in Scotland the South West Coast 300
Goodnight viewers I'll wrap this up tomorrow :beerjug:
 


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