Touring
Away from the “competitive” side of biking there are lots of excellent routes, some published, others worked out from maps or even just made up as you ride along.
Not really by design but most here are in Scotland. The Scottish Rights of Way Society maintain records of the ancient rights of way but generally you can assume that there’s but a single track or path in any one glen - why waste effort maintaining two to do one job? In addition to the SRoWS routes there are other marked tracks but the Ordnance Survey tend to use a black dashed line for pretty much everything from an estate track to something that isn’t visible on the ground.
As a result you do need to do a bit of research to ensure that you aren’t setting yourself up for several hours of “hike-a-bike”.
Glen Uaig
A little known through glen that links up with parts of the outbound HT550 towards Contin and then parts of that ITT’s return route from Achnasellach through Glen Ling and Glen Affric to provide a varied and interesting route with little technical riding.
Glen Kinglass and Loch Etive
Heading west from Victoria Bridge, seemingly into nowhere, I’d eyed the gap of Glen Kinglass for some time. It is taken by a route in the Scottish Wild Trails MTB guidebook but that cuts south to connect with the railway at Taynuilt. I was more interested in the track along the eastern shores of Loch Etive. I knew of one person who’d ridden it and it didn’t come with a bookful of recommendations. Then again I wasn’t warned off it. There was also online talk of the “McMoab” slabs in Glen Kinglass.
Ben Alder
Ben Alder is one of the more remote Munros and these days mountain bikes are often used to speed up the approach along the estate vehicle tracks. However we had grander ideas about a longer circuit taking in a track alongside Loch Ericht that I only knew of one person having done.
King Alfred’s Way
One of our rare excursions south. The route was put together in 2019 by Cycling UK
Tour of the Cotswolds
Another excursion south. A bit longer than King Alfred’s Way at 400km this was another area we didn’t really know.