The A87 in Scotland

Lord Snooty

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Rode it last week, two or three times, and it has to be up there with the best roads I have ridden. The weather was fantastic during my week in Scotland and the A87 is easily as good as any mountain road I have ridden in Europe. The scenery is magnificent and the bends just keep flowing on well maintained tarmac. Recommended! :thumby:
 
Next time, peel off at Shiel Bridge and take the road to Glenelg. There are terrific views from the top of the ridge and on the other side, you can take the wee ferry to Skye.

 
Be aware of the wild goats at the lower end of Glen Shiel though they are less of a problem in the summer.

A good road, worth Pete's suggestion of the wee ferry, makes a nice loop or way to Skye.
 
The 816 is another good road, some proper tight quick turns, doesn't have the scenery the 87 provides either though.
 
The A816 is a cracking road, but I agree it doesn't have the spectacular scenery of the A87. It is more technical though and we arrived in Oban on a VFR Club weekend with one rider missing. We thought he'd turned off, but he'd lost it on a corner and slid down an embankment out of view of the road. Luckily he was still able to phone for assistance :eek:
 
... we arrived in Oban on a VFR Club weekend with one rider missing. We thought he'd turned off, but he'd lost it on a corner and slid down an embankment out of view of the road. Luckily he was still able to phone for assistance :eek:

I don't think I was on that one. Was that MJS on his blue and white R1150 GS...?
 
Not as good as the A816

We missed that one, We did do the A819 on the way back home; rather than do the obvious route via Glencoe on the A82 down to Loch Lomond which is the route we used going north we took the A828 to OBan then the A85 SE then the A819 S for a coffee stop at Inverary, Then the A83 and the A814 which is very undulating, narrow and technical, then the A817 to pick up the A82 at the southern end of Loch Lomond and then Erskine Bridge, M8. M74 and the misery of the M6 until we got bored and came off south of Liverpool and rode down through Cheshire on the A49 to Shrewsbury and then Bridgnorth, Kidderminster and Redditch.
 
We came back on the bikes a few years ago from Skye towards Aviemore, single track road, I might have been pushing on a bit :augie slowed down as you do entering a small village, looked in my mirror to find two police bikes 3ft behind me, blue lights going. They ignored me and shot straight past me, a few miles further down the road there they were having a stern discussion with a German camper van driver, and one waving traffic past. I stopped and commented that I thought I was pushing on, so they must have been going some, a policeman with a glowing red face, said aye well…. But if i carry on the road widens out in a few miles and I can have a good run there :beerjug:
 
I did the A83 from Tyndrum (the green welly) to Oban last week (and back) cracking road :thumb
 
We did have a 160 mile detour on our first day in Scotland. We were just 4 miles south of Fort William and our digs on the A82 when we came to a grinding halt behid a queue of traffic, not too far past the Corran Ferry. We slowly worked our way past the cars over the double white lines until we eventually got to the front. A lady had come out of her house and told us that there had been a fatal accident not too far ahead, apparently an overtaking car had hit a biker head on. The road would now be closed for at least 8 hours while an investigation team, that had to come from Glasgow, did their job. The time was not long past 4pm so decision time. We could return to the Corran Ferry and cross and take a loop around the Loch into FW but by the time we got back the queue for the ferry was now at least 4 hours (we heard next day that they ran the ferry all night to clear the backlog). Our only other option was to go back towards Crianlarich, head East through Killin, Kenmore and Aberfeldy and then take the A9 north before cutting West again and coming into FW from the top, a distance of 160 miles. Off we went. We treated it as part of the holiday, it was a lovely evening, the roads were fairly clear and the scenery was fantastic. We eventually arrived at our digs at 9.20pm.

Our thoughts were with the biker who had died and his family who would be receiving the awful, life shattering news which would affect them for the rest of their lives. All we had suffered was a few hours inconvenience and had a 400 mile day.
 
Interestingly enough we were in Strontian at the same time haven taken the Corran Ferry to go round and back in to Fort William so missed all this. I then subsequently left to return home around 7 via Spean Bridge but those I was with later seen an Audi on the back of a truck around 10PM and various police cars going through FW.
 


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