5 of the Best Cycle Tours in Scotland
Discover Scotland in the best way possible - using two wheels!
If you've been inspired to give bike touring a go this summer, here are five great multi-day routes in Scotland for you to try out.
For some, bike touring can be as simple as cycling with everything you’ll need for a few days, stopping when you want and pitching a tent or climbing into a bivi bag. Meanwhile, other people prefer to plan their route, set a daily mileage and know where they will stay each night. If this is your kind of cycle touring you’ll love these recommended cycle routes!
Start/Finish: Inverness | Full Details: NC500
Billed as Scotland’s answer to America’s Route 66, the North Coast 500 (NC500) extends more than 500 miles in the North-West of Scotland. First created for drivers, the route has become popular for cyclists.
Most will take at least week to ride it, although you could push your limits and cycle the loop in a long weekend. The circular route, which includes plenty of ups and downs, can be completed clockwise or anti-clockwise and meanders through the counties of Caithness, Sutherland and Ross-shire.
Start/Finish: CalMac ferry terminal, Ardrossan | Full Details: Five Ferries Cylce
Cycling Scotland’s West coast islands is a popular 70-mile route, offering two to three days of pleasant touring and is referred to as the Five Ferries.
The route visits two islands, Bute and Arran, and two peninsulas, Cowal and Kintyre, making use of free bike carriage on CalMac ferries in between. There are many varieties of the route so you can adapt to suit your fitness and aspirations.
Start: Annan | Finish: Forth Bridge
The Scottish Coast to Coast (C2C) is one of the newest long-distance cycle routes and travels 125 miles through the wonderful rolling countryside of southern Scotland. You could enjoy two or three days of cycle touring on the route, which starts in the town of Annan on the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway and heads through three valleys, the Annan, Tweed and Esk, and via the rolling Southern Uplands and Moorfoot Hills.
The tour finishes on the Forth of Firth, North of Edinburgh, and beneath the Forth Bridge, one of the great wonders of the engineering world.
Start: SECC, Glasgow | Finish: Ness Bridge, Inverness | Full Details: Sustrans
The 214-mile route follows the National Cycle Network (NCN) Route 7 and travels through both of Scotland’s national parks: Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and the Cairngorms. It also passes six lochs, multiple castles and travels the Glen Ogle viaduct.
There are some long climbs, especially the ascent of the Drumochter Pass to the highest point of the route (460m) and the ride will take three to six days to complete depending on your fitness and how many sites you plan to visit en route. You could add another 214 miles to this by cycling from Carlisle to Glasgow - see Lochs & Glens South.
Start: Castlebay, Isle of Barra | Finish: Butt of Lewis | Full Details: The Hebridean Way
Another great Scottish island cycling adventure, this newly waymarked route travels 185 miles on the beautiful Western Isles (or Outer Hebrides).
The diverse and wildly beautiful chain of islands is sparsely populated and has quiet roads that make for great cycling. The route passes through 10 islands linked by either causeways or ferries and explores fabulous countryside, rugged hills, skirting along the dazzling Atlantic coastline. The cycling route is also National Cycle Route 780.
Head North if you want to enjoy a push from the prevailing South-Westerly wind. If you know the wind will be heading in the opposite direction I suggest you cycle South.
