Scotland Coast to Coast
Road Tour (14 Days)
August 2005

Written by: Martha Neville, USA (Ride Participant - tandem bike)

This was a great ride in the wilds of Scotland run by Wildcat Adventures.

Scotland is a country of rolling green hills with dark streams percolating through veiled woods, expansive carpets of amazingly purple heather, and a wealth of pride and history reflected by a vast array of castles and monuments throughout the land. And don't forget the sheep! Any pause along the routes was always punctuated by the bleating -and sometimes the presence- of sheep and the occasional highland cow. The weather can be as stormy as Scotland's history and sometimes tested us cyclists with wind and rain, but we had our fair share of sunshine as well.

All of us arrived in Edinburgh with opportunities to tour and experience this most historical city in Scotland. The old town, the royal mile, and the castle were chock full of amazing history and information. Then we were transported to the east coast with a stop at Glencoe where we learned something about its bloody history. The following day we hopped a ferry to the beautiful Isle of Skye.

All of us learned a new meaning for the word "undulating" as John Fulton (Wildcat's managing director and our chief guide) described the hills on Skye. One hill had a 22% grade! Fortunately, this was the exception. As we were to learn throughout the ride, Scotland has a lot of substantial hills. In fact, we rode within view of Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain at 4,406 feet.

John and his team did an excellent job of starting with the easier and shorter rides before leading us into more challenging terrain.

Our guides also rode with us as a group on several occasions which was most helpful in the larger and busier towns -especially riding on the left side of the roads!

After Skye, we pedaled from Morar along the coast to Glen Finnan and Bonnie Prince Charlie's monument and then on to Fort William. Incidentally, Prince Charlie's name comes from the Gaelic "Tcharlach" which turned into the English "Charlie". The town of Kingussie was approached by way of the Caledonian canal, the Commando monument (quite interesting, this Scottish elite fighting group from World War II is where the term "commando" originated), and sweeping views of the Loch until a tea stop at Laggan where a friendly shopkeeper told us about local hero Andrew Carnegie.

Accommodations along the route included B & B's in old and interesting houses -some of which were reputed to be haunted!

We had some beautiful riding in the rolling hills past the Ruthven Barracks (where redcoats attempted to quell the Highlanders). Much of our routes also took us along old carriage-ways bounded by ancient stone fences and glimpses of local wildlife including nesting osprey at the Loch Garten Bird Reserve, kestrels, Osprey (or falcons?) -with hoods sitting on their perches and trained to help in the hunt), pheasants, grouse, and Scottish red deer. Grantown-on-Spey provided a base for tours to Crawdor Castle, Fort George, Ballindaloch Castle and spectacular sweeps of purple heather and isolated hills in Cairngorm National Park.

Now we were in Whisky Country and had a fine tour and whisky sampling at Glen Livet distillery. Nearby in Tomintoul (the second highest town in Scotland) there was an opportunity to try whiskey ice cream -quite smooth indeed! Moving on to Ballater, we had a serious climb over Lecht Pass. Perhaps even more challenging than the climb was the intense wind at the pass where some of our cyclists actually walked downhill to avoid being blown off the mountain!

Now that John and his crew had us in reasonable shape, we were ready for some good climbs in the last days of the tour. We were rewarded with extraordinary views and a variety of terrain for our efforts on this part of the ride which John rightfully declared to be some of the finest cycling in Scotland. After the rain and the climbing, a great Scottish food to try was REAL mince pie filled with meat and potatoes.

At the last evening we had a wonderful final dinner together with many rousing good stories and John in his kilt and sporan. We ended with a group ride to Montrose and the boiling North Sea. It was a bit too windy and cool to stick your toe into the sea, however!

We thoroughly enjoyed all parts of this ride and the people who rode with us. It was a grand adventure! In fact, some of us liked it so much that we continued riding and had more opportunities to experience the friendly people and rugged sweeping landscapes of Scotland.

Written by: Martha Neville (Ride Participant - tandem bike)