NCN 7 Carlisle to Inverness
Introduction
Ricky and I seemed to have had an annual cycle tour for
quite a few years. We didn’t have anything planned for this year but it had to
happen sometime! In the event, we left it quite late, and even then, it got
delayed a little more because of other arrangements that had been made.
We decided to cycle NCN 7 from Carlisle to Inverness and
even though our start date had been delayed several times, we had to wait
another few days to allow some real stormy weather to pass through south west
Scotland before we could set off. The storm did take quite a few trees down and
it must have done some damage to buildings too.
NCN 7 turns out to be a really good route. It is very scenic
and has some challenging climbs. The signage we found to be excellent. I think
we only missed one sign in the 250 miles that we rode. Scotland in September
seems to produce not just stormy weather, but very unreliable weather too. We
had some rain most days and every day had blustery winds.
We found accommodation most nights. Although it was of
variable quality it was good overall. We had one night in Newton Stewart where
it looked as though it could be a night in the bus shelter but our usual policy
of sort it out as you go seemed to work without issue.
The weather forecast was changing and improving by the hour,
so we decided to give it a go. The winds remained quite stiff, and, unfortunately,
they were coming out of the west, the way we were going. NCN 7 again took us
the quiet way out of Annan using cycle paths and B roads towards Powfoot. Here
we were on the seafront and could feel the full force of the wind. Again, the
route took us through pleasant countryside until we came to Caerlaverock
Castle. At this point we had cycled about 15 miles so coffee was called for.
Castle Douglas was soon reached, and we booked into the
Imperial Hotel. I later looked up Trip Advisor reviews and 19% rated the place
as terrible. Being kinder I would say it really needed investment as everything
looked to be from the 1970’s. But all of that said, they served us a good plateful
of mince and tatties that night, so no complaints really.
Despite the hotel rating the breakfast was pretty good and
we were soon off. We had a look at the map of the route and saw that NCN 7 climbed
up and along a ridge to drop back down again but we also noted that there was a
lower level route also on back roads. We opted for the lower route to avoid
using lots of energy early in the day. After ten miles we rode into Kirkcudbright
and stopped for coffee. From Kirkcudbright the road ran by the seashore for a
few miles and we were very impressed with the scenery. The route turned inland for
a while and we were fascinated with some building work at Borgue which appeared
to be converting an old castle into homes.
For the first time we had a navigation error. I realised
that the road layout in front of me was not as the Garmin was indicating. We
had missed an NCN 7 sign (it was hiding behind a bush) that took us off road
and through some woodlands. Here we happened across a group of Dutch chaps who were
wild camping. We then came out onto what looked like a very posh golf course
where there was a bridal party all in VW’s just leaving. As we came up to the final
part of track in woodland we came to our first tree blocking the path, so we
had to take a small detour before dropping down to Gatehouse of Fleet where we
raided the Spar shop for lunch.
After lunch (and sheltering from the rain) we once more
followed NCN 7 to come across a Road Closed sign. Ever the optimist we thought
maybe bikes can get through but a cyclist coming towards us told that the road
was completely blocked by a large fallen tree. He went on to add that maybe we
could take a walk through neighbouring fields to get around it. We decided to
go and look so we cycled a good three miles or more to the offending tree,
agreed the road was well and truly blocked; looked at the fields adjacent and
decided that also looked like a poor idea, and then went back three miles to
start a ten-mile diversion using the A75. Although this road was busy it had no
significant hills, so we could go with some pace. We followed the A75 to
Creetown, stopped for hot chocolate in a garage and then picked up NCN 7 again.
Here we also had our stiffest climb which had a sign announcing it as a 30%
gradient. Happily, it was quite short as it went up from road level to join an
old railway track. In fact, the seven miles into Newton Stewart was very
pleasant, although it did have one or two good hills.
Day 4 Sunday 23rd September 2018
This was a remote and hilly day. Quite challenging in many
ways. After leaving Newton Stewart we were
climbing for two hours along a fairly shallow incline for ten very pleasant
miles to the Glentrool Visitor Centre where we stopped for coffee. We had a
long chat with a couple while we watched birds on a feeder outside the window.
At this point I shared with Ricky that we were about to start a 1,000-foot
climb which took us on a further ten miles of quite remote road.
We came across
a whole line of trees that had blown over towards the summit of the climb. There followed a
very rapid two-mile descent to the next climb of 800 feet; this over three
miles so it was much steeper. At least most of this road had been reconstructed
so we were riding on a good surface which helped us make progress. Again, there
was a long six-mile descent that took us towards Maybole and I think we were
both quite tired by then and would have been happy to stop. In the event,
Maybole had nothing to offer other than a garage with a Spar shop so at least
we could have coffee and some chocolate before pressing on. 
We had talked about the ride into Glasgow perhaps being
urbanised after cycling through beautiful countryside and there had been
discussion about doing this bit by train. In the event, we rode the section and
what a delight it turned out to be.
We had hot chocolate and cake before setting off once more.
As we started the next climb the route proper turned off the road and onto
forest tracks. I could see from the Garmin that the main road seemed to swing
much further out and we opted for the forest trail. The route climbed very
steeply for some time and in the pouring rain we both found it tough going.
Once we started to descend we had to go slowly as the trails were rough. The
gloop produced by grit and rain took away much of our braking ability too. It
took almost three hours to travel the 14 miles to Callander and we were both
soaked through (despite Ricky stopping to change as much as he could mid-way),
as was most of our kit.
Day 1 Thursday 20th September 2018
20.63 miles
Total 24.5 miles
The weather had been pretty bad, especially in the part of
Scotland we were headed towards, so we delayed our start for a couple of days.
We also opted for a later start, so we caught the 10:49 direct train to
Carlisle, but only just. The platform for the train was changed with minutes to
go so we had to get the bikes over the bridge using two lifts to get on board.
I had also bought tickets in advance the day before, so we travelled for about
£15 each. Had we bought tickets on the day this would have gone up by £10. Why this
is so remains a mystery to me.
The train journey was without any event and we arrived in
Carlisle at about 1:30. Ricky had brought a packed lunch for two with him which
we ate on the train, and so we were straight off. I had created a GPS file for
the Garmin with the route, so it didn’t take long to find NCN 7 and away we
went.
I’ve ridden out of Carlisle towards Annan once before and
followed relatively main roads. The joy of following NCN 7 is that it’s
straight on to back roads so we had a very pleasant ride up to Gretna for our
first coffee stop. The weather, although improved on the earlier part of the
week, was still unsettled and rain was forecast so we rode on to Annan through
Eastriggs with all due haste. Rain did manage to get us over the last couple of
miles, but we found a hotel (Corner House Hotel) quickly and that was the day
done.
I managed to solve a mystery at Eastriggs too as I’d noticed
some groundworks on Google that I couldn’t make sense of, and Ricky was
scratching his head when we passed the Devil’s Porridge Museum at Eastriggs. It
turns out that they used to manufacture explosives there in World War One and
they still store the stuff to this day.
We checked the weather forecast for the following day after
trying our best to finish off a kebab each. The forecast was for high winds and
heavy rain, so we turned in thinking maybe we would need to sit tight for a day
and let the storm pass.
Day 2 Friday 21st September
43.7 miles
Total 68.4 miles
The weather forecast was changing and improving by the hour,
so we decided to give it a go. The winds remained quite stiff, and, unfortunately,
they were coming out of the west, the way we were going. NCN 7 again took us
the quiet way out of Annan using cycle paths and B roads towards Powfoot. Here
we were on the seafront and could feel the full force of the wind. Again, the
route took us through pleasant countryside until we came to Caerlaverock
Castle. At this point we had cycled about 15 miles so coffee was called for.
We carried on towards Dumfries and then a silly event, Ricky
managed to get a wasp in his mouth and ended up with a sting. We rode into
Dumfries and Ricky asked a lady where we might find a chemist. She gave us directions,
but we then saw that we were virtually outside of one. Advice was taken,
quickly followed by some medicinal ice cream before we set off again, leaving
Dumfries behind us. We followed the Old Military Road and it got quite lumpy
for the last twelve miles or so into Castle Douglas. We were both feeling a bit
tired when the penny dropped that we hadn’t had any lunch. An immediate halt
was called, and we sat outside a pub in Urr eating cake and chocolate.
Castle Douglas was soon reached, and we booked into the
Imperial Hotel. I later looked up Trip Advisor reviews and 19% rated the place
as terrible. Being kinder I would say it really needed investment as everything
looked to be from the 1970’s. But all of that said, they served us a good plateful
of mince and tatties that night, so no complaints really.
Day 3 Saturday 22nd September 2018
54.3 miles
Total 122.7
Despite the hotel rating the breakfast was pretty good and
we were soon off. We had a look at the map of the route and saw that NCN 7 climbed
up and along a ridge to drop back down again but we also noted that there was a
lower level route also on back roads. We opted for the lower route to avoid
using lots of energy early in the day. After ten miles we rode into Kirkcudbright
and stopped for coffee. From Kirkcudbright the road ran by the seashore for a
few miles and we were very impressed with the scenery. The route turned inland for
a while and we were fascinated with some building work at Borgue which appeared
to be converting an old castle into homes. 
For the first time we had a navigation error. I realised
that the road layout in front of me was not as the Garmin was indicating. We
had missed an NCN 7 sign (it was hiding behind a bush) that took us off road
and through some woodlands. Here we happened across a group of Dutch chaps who were
wild camping. We then came out onto what looked like a very posh golf course
where there was a bridal party all in VW’s just leaving. As we came up to the final
part of track in woodland we came to our first tree blocking the path, so we
had to take a small detour before dropping down to Gatehouse of Fleet where we
raided the Spar shop for lunch. 
After lunch (and sheltering from the rain) we once more
followed NCN 7 to come across a Road Closed sign. Ever the optimist we thought
maybe bikes can get through but a cyclist coming towards us told that the road
was completely blocked by a large fallen tree. He went on to add that maybe we
could take a walk through neighbouring fields to get around it. We decided to
go and look so we cycled a good three miles or more to the offending tree,
agreed the road was well and truly blocked; looked at the fields adjacent and
decided that also looked like a poor idea, and then went back three miles to
start a ten-mile diversion using the A75. Although this road was busy it had no
significant hills, so we could go with some pace. We followed the A75 to
Creetown, stopped for hot chocolate in a garage and then picked up NCN 7 again.
Here we also had our stiffest climb which had a sign announcing it as a 30%
gradient. Happily, it was quite short as it went up from road level to join an
old railway track. In fact, the seven miles into Newton Stewart was very
pleasant, although it did have one or two good hills.
It proved difficult to get anywhere to stay in Newton
Stewart as there was a book fair down the road and the place was full. We
called in at the Youth Hostel and every hotel in town. The staff at the final
hotel were really good and found a room in Creetown, seven miles back down the
road, for us. However, we stumbled across a B&B that had vacancies (Creebridge Lodge) with
some relief as we started to head back towards Creetown.
48.4 miles
Total 171.1
This was a remote and hilly day. Quite challenging in many
ways. After leaving Newton Stewart we were
climbing for two hours along a fairly shallow incline for ten very pleasant
miles to the Glentrool Visitor Centre where we stopped for coffee. We had a
long chat with a couple while we watched birds on a feeder outside the window.
At this point I shared with Ricky that we were about to start a 1,000-foot
climb which took us on a further ten miles of quite remote road. 
We came across
a whole line of trees that had blown over towards the summit of the climb. There followed a
very rapid two-mile descent to the next climb of 800 feet; this over three
miles so it was much steeper. At least most of this road had been reconstructed
so we were riding on a good surface which helped us make progress. Again, there
was a long six-mile descent that took us towards Maybole and I think we were
both quite tired by then and would have been happy to stop. In the event,
Maybole had nothing to offer other than a garage with a Spar shop so at least
we could have coffee and some chocolate before pressing on. 
We went on over two more significant climbs towards Ayr. At
the summit of the second climb there were spectacular panoramic views across the bay towards Ayr, but we
were too tired to appreciate them. Instead we enjoyed the three-mile descent
onto the coast and a steady ride into Ayr. Here we were welcomed by being sand
blasted as the wind picked up sand and blew it across our path. At least it was
good to ride into Ayr at a decent speed, having spent much of the day in low
gears.
We found accommodation at the Abbotsford Hotel and we were
well looked after by the chap running the place.
Day 5 Monday 24th September 2018
54.1 miles
Total 225.2 miles
We had talked about the ride into Glasgow perhaps being
urbanised after cycling through beautiful countryside and there had been
discussion about doing this bit by train. In the event, we rode the section and
what a delight it turned out to be.
After all the climbing riding up to Ayr, today was mainly
flat with no hills to speak off. Again, we were taken down to the seashore
through Prestwick, and then again at Troon. Here we stopped for coffee after
the first ten miles. From Troon we headed to Irvine where we found a footbridge
across the river closed for repair. There was no signed diversion and we
eventually went over a bridge that was within a shopping centre. This meant
walking past a Greggs! It was also here where a Scottish chap tried to help us,
but his accent was so thick I couldn’t make out if he was giving directions or
asking for my bank details.
From Irvine to Kilwinning where we again found a Greggs and this time we stopped for lunch. During the afternoon we came across another dreaded Road Closed sign. This time it was because of major road works but there was a signed diversion for NCN 7 that took us a couple of miles down the route. After Kilwinning, much of the route was on reclaimed railway tracks and was delightful to ride. We passed along loch sides and through parks. There was a good number of people out on bikes too, many of them families as it was the Scottish Long Weekend, we discovered.
From Irvine to Kilwinning where we again found a Greggs and this time we stopped for lunch. During the afternoon we came across another dreaded Road Closed sign. This time it was because of major road works but there was a signed diversion for NCN 7 that took us a couple of miles down the route. After Kilwinning, much of the route was on reclaimed railway tracks and was delightful to ride. We passed along loch sides and through parks. There was a good number of people out on bikes too, many of them families as it was the Scottish Long Weekend, we discovered.
Through the course of the day we also came across several
trees that were still down, mostly obstructing cycle paths. Some we lifted
bikes over; others we limboed under and some we detoured around.
At Johnstone we were 40 miles into the ride and we rode past
a Morrisons so, again, refreshments were called for before we cycled the last
14 miles into Glasgow. Once more, much of the route was through parks and along
quiet residential streets.
The route eventually deposited us on the banks of the
Clyde and, after having a strange conversation at the Premier Inn (they had had
a leak but wouldn’t let us have a look at a room before we paid) we ended up at
The Village (which saved us £20 and it was nicer then the Premier Inn) over the
road. That night the bikes slept with us, but the room was a good size and had
two double beds.
The route eventually deposited us on the banks of the
Clyde and, after having a strange conversation at the Premier Inn (they had had
a leak but wouldn’t let us have a look at a room before we paid) we ended up at
The Village (which saved us £20 and it was nicer then the Premier Inn) over the
road. That night the bikes slept with us, but the room was a good size and had
two double beds.
Day 6 Tuesday 25th September 2018
36.3 miles.
Total 263.7 miles
After a good breakfast we joined the rush hour into Glasgow.
We had decided to miss out the ride along the north bank of the Clyde as we
knew it wasn’t as pleasant as the ride in had been. To avoid this, we caught a
train to Baloch at the bottom of Loch Lomond. Once at Baloch we had a coffee
before we set off. Although we didn’t know it yet, this was going to be quite a
tough day. The ride out of Baloch was climbing but through pleasant
parkland. For the first time, the blustery wind was behind us so we were making
good speed but with the constant threat of rain. We passed through Drymen and
onto the first significant climb of the day. We thought that we had another
closed road to deal with as we found a van in the middle of the road, but it
seemed that a local chap had got fed up of waiting for the council to clear a
fallen tree and had set to work himself. Once over the summit we had a long
straight descent towards Gartmore where we had a short break in a bus shelter before
pressing on to Aberfoyle and the next climb. As we left Gartmore it started to
rain quite heavily, and this remained with us for the rest of the day.
It was only a few miles from Gartmore to Aberfoyle. Ricky
had already donned his waterproofs but I had still to put leggings on. As we
approached Aberfoyle I was a little ahead and I came to a café and waited for
Ricky to join me before I moved. As Ricky arrived I made to move towards the café
and promptly fell off, falling quite heavily on my right side. For some reason
I was a bit stunned and it turned out that I had damaged my ribs, but we still
had 14 miles to go if we were to get to our destination.
We had hot chocolate and cake before setting off once more.
As we started the next climb the route proper turned off the road and onto
forest tracks. I could see from the Garmin that the main road seemed to swing
much further out and we opted for the forest trail. The route climbed very
steeply for some time and in the pouring rain we both found it tough going.
Once we started to descend we had to go slowly as the trails were rough. The
gloop produced by grit and rain took away much of our braking ability too. It
took almost three hours to travel the 14 miles to Callander and we were both
soaked through (despite Ricky stopping to change as much as he could mid-way),
as was most of our kit.
Callander Youth Hostel proved welcoming so we got a room, showered
and dried ourselves off before getting food from the café.
I checked later and the road route from Aberfoyle to Callander
was more or less the same distance and there was very little difference in the
climbing. Maybe we would have fared a little better taking the road? Who knows?
What was clear that although today wasn’t the day to see it, where we were
riding was quite spectacular and Ricky even had a deer run across the path in
front of him.
Day 7 Wednesday 26th September 2018
The rain persisted through the night and into next morning.
The forecast was also predicting further bouts of rain. My ribs were causing me
significant problems, so we decided that, because we were heading into long
sections that were quite remote, it would be sensible to stop. Not without some
reluctance, we hired a van from Sterling and were back in Leeds by the evening.
NCN 7 (2)
In September 2018 Ricky and I rode 265 miles from Carlisle
to Callander using NCN 7. On the final day of that ride from Balloch to
Callander we had very heavy rain and I came off the bike at Aberfoyle. The
consequences of having pretty much all of gear soaked and the pain of a broken
rib gave us the excuse to go home, lick our wounded pride and prepare for the
return. So, here we are again in May 2019. Our kit has dried out, ribs are healed,
and we are ready to roll. This time we have added to our ranks as Chris has
decided to come with us, as did John originally, but John has been seduced by
an invite to see Her Majesty.
This year we decided to make the ride a Scottish Coast to Coast
riding from Ayr to Inverness. This gave us 275 miles of riding and allowed us
the opportunity to ride Ayr to Glasgow once again as it was simply so enjoyable
the first time. What follows is our usual attempt to record some of the flavour
of the ride, although to get the most out of it you need to ride it yourself.
Monday 20th May 2019
Miles 7.57
An early start was planned to collect a hired van to take us
to Ayr via Kendal to pick up Chris. Having cycled several thousands of
miles with Ricky in the course of which
the only repair I can recall is having to refix the boot on my front mudguard,
I was horrified to discover that I had managed to puncture between loading the
bike up and the bottom of the drive.
That was not the best of starts as the bike had to
be unloaded before I could even get to grips with the repair. Soon done, however, and we
were away, the three of us arriving in Ayr in the late afternoon. We had a
gentle meander down the promenade before stopping for a coffee and a chat with the locals, then finally
returning to our hotel.We were adjacent to a trading estate and Halfords did quite
well that night as I got some extra inner tubes and Chris bought extra bottles
as he had forgotten to bring any. In fact, we enjoyed the trip to Halfords so
much we went back next morning for a quick fix on Ricky’s bike where a
difficult to reach mount had come loose.
Tuesday 21st May 2019
Ayr to Glasgow
53.68 miles Total 61.25
We had planned an early depart but had to make do with
coffee and bagels for breakfast as the proper restaurant didn’t open until 9:00. To
compensate for the poor breakfast rations we stopped for lunch in Troon at 10:30! After that we simply enjoyed
the ride along the coast and then by rivers before arriving at Lochwinnoch where
we stopped for afternoon refreshments before enjoying the railway track and
parks through to Glasgow.
The only incident of note was having to follow a partially
signed diversion around Dalry where there were major roadworks. There was at
least one diversion sign missing but we figured out how to rejoin the route at
Kilbirnie without major difficulty. The rest of the ride into Glasgow was, as
before, an absolute delight, taking us through parks and quiet back roads
before finally dropping us on the banks of the Clyde and right outside our
hotel.
We stayed at the Premier Inn at Pacific Quays which is right
on NCN 7. We were right by the Clyde and, after eating, we had a short walk out
along the riverside to enjoy a spectacular sunset. The day had been every bit
as good as it had been in 2018.
Wednesday 22nd May 2019
Glasgow to Callander
51.20 miles Total 112.45
We had travelled from Glasgow to Callander in September
2018, but, this time, we intended to do it differently. First of all, in 2018
we had travelled from Glasgow to Balloch by train to save some miles and time
and, second, I had fallen from the bike and broken a rib at Aberfoyle. Our
intention was not to do this again!
We left the hotel and went straight on to Bells Bridge to
pick up the route, turning left along the north bank of the Clyde. There was an
old coal fired steam tug plodding along with us for a short way. The ride out
of Glasgow was mostly traffic free, much of it being on defunct railway lines
and along canal banks. About the ten mile mark we found ourselves outside Magic
Cycles on the canal side, and they just happened to sell coffee so we stopped
for a while. It amazes me that there always seems to be a cafe at the ten mile mark. On resuming the ride Ricky found that his electric motor kept switching off and he was thinking about returning to Glasgow. Chris and I put on our thinking caps to try and puzzle out what the problem could be. We fiddled around thinking could be this or might be that and hey presto - somehow or other
the fiddling seemed to fix the issue as it worked pretty much perfectly for the rest
of the ride.
We stopped at Balloch for lunch and ate sandwiches by the
park before leaving the flat part of the day behind and starting on the hills.
We had another coffee stop at Drymen before hitting the first big climb that
rises to about 700 feet before taking a long, straight downhill going on to
Gartmore and Aberfoyle. A further coffee stop accompanied by some Scottish
Tablet was had in the factory shop at Aberfoyle whilst we had a think and a chat about
which way to go to Callander. We had two options, follow NCN 7 on steep forest
roads (as in 2018) or follow the A821 around Brig o' Turk to stay on tarmac. We
were running quite late, it being well after 5:30, and we knew that the next
dozen miles were going to be quite demanding either way. In the end, after
talking to some local folk, we realised there was a third option and did neither, taking the A81 which was considerably
shorter. However, even this had a big climb on the final approaches to Callander,
made even more interesting by Chris having a puncture on the final descent.
We stayed at Callander Youth Hostel and we had booked 3 beds
in an 8 bed dorm. As we were the only people in the dorm we were able to make
full use of the facilities!
Thursday 23rd May 2019
Callander to Pitlochry
60.57 miles Total 173.02
We knew this was our longest miles day and the day with most
climbing. There was some discussion as we looked at maps to see if we could
take some miles out and we decided to come off the route onto the road to miss out
a five-mile loop. In the event, the loop appeared to have been taken out
already as it wasn’t on the online Sustrans map (we decided the paper map was an old edition), and hence was not on the route I had prepared for the Garmin.
We left Callander having breakfasted at the local bakers and
started a long gentle climb along reclaimed railway towards Loch Lubnaig. Here
we came across a café in a holiday park after a mere 4 miles, but it was a lovely
spot to stop! After coffee, we carried on tracks looking for the point to rejoin the road to
miss out the loop but as this no longer existed we simply got confused. We did
rejoin the road, however, to drop down into Lochearnhead before riding up and
over the days biggest climb at Glen Ogle. This was a busy main road with quite a bit of traffic, and there
was a blustery wind blowing that made riding difficult in some places. Unfortunately,
we had missed the route back onto NCN 7 that would have taken us over the Glen
Ogle viaduct and away from the traffic. That said, it would have been a stiff
climb up to the track as we could see the zig zag route up the hillside in the
distance.
Having climbed to the top at 1000 feet we went back on to
tracks for the rapid descent back down the hill to Killin and a coffee / lunch
stop. Here Chris noticed that his puncture had returned so he went ahead in the
hope of a bike shop in Kenmore for repairs, while Ricky and I rode the 16 miles or so of constant
up and down between Killin and Kenmore at a more relaxed pace. At Kenmore we found Chris in a car park
fixing the puncture, there being no bike shop. It was one of those lucky
sightings too. Ricky and I were just cycling through thinking Chris had ridden
on and I just spotted him bent over his bike through the trees. As the bike
fixing was going on outside a café, more coffee was consumed before we set off
again on level(ish) roads for the last 15 miles to Pitlochry. 
There was a sting in the tail, however, as the route meandered a bit to take us over an interesting bridge and then the last 5 miles had several short but stiff climbs. Ricky’s batteries had just about emptied themselves; likewise, my legs. Both Ricky and I thought that the constant rising and falling as we rode the 20 miles along the loch side to Kenmore had worn us out. We were all grateful to arrive at the hostel, but even then, we had several flights of stairs to climb to our room. There was a restaurant directly across the street and that was as far as we intended to go that night!
Friday 24th May 2019
Pitlochry to Aviemore
59.69 miles Total 232.71
A good night’s sleep and breakfast in the hostel saw us
ready for another day. We knew this was another 60-mile day, but with less
climbing, although we did go up to 1500 feet at the highest point crossing the
Drumochter Pass.
The ride out of Pitlochry was mostly on quiet roads interspersed with gated forest roads. Possibly, much of the tarmac we rode on was the old A9 which was a constant companion for much of the day. Our first stop of the day was 10 miles into the ride at House of Bruar; a somewhat strange place as it was a large store / café / restaurant in the middle of nowhere but with huge car parks. What’s more, it was pretty busy. I also decided that taking some drugs might help my day as my legs still felt the demands of all the hills. Fortunately, Ricky had a supply of ibuprofen and I'm pleased to say that they did the trick. The next 15 miles after Bruar was steady ascent climbing up to the top of the Drumochter Pass before a long gradual 20-mile descent to Kingussie.
We interrupted the descent with a late lunch at Dalwhinnie where we had fresh sandwiches and Chris indulged himself in an industrial sized piece of carrot cake. At this point we still had about 30 miles to go and it was turned 3:00 PM, but the roads levelled out for us. We debated stopping for a drink in Kingussie but it was 5:00 and we couldn’t find a café open. Added to that, some local ladies demanded to know why we weren’t dressed in lycra and scared us away!
Saturday 25th May 2019
Aviemore to Inverness
42.20 miles Total 274.91
Today we knew was an easy day, fewer miles and less
climbing. So it rained instead!
Chris had spotted a link route out of Aviemore that met up with NCN 7 proper and which saved us having to backtrack. This route took us through woods
and parkland, and we shared the tracks with a Parkrun for quite a distance. We
had the first 8 miles or so in dry conditions but after that we had rain for
the rest of the day. Happily, this wasn’t torrential, and it didn’t spoil the
ride although very few photos were taken, unlike previous days.
We stopped for coffee and cake at Carrbridge. We had a
choice of cafes but one had a CTC sticker on the door, so that was our choice!
After Carrbridge we climbed up to the Schlodt Summit. Here we stood around at
the top of the pass trying to work out the gradient that was expressed by
1:16666 on the adjacent railway line (we gave up). The road kept mostly
descending after the Schlodt summit. We passed through various villages but
there was nothing to be seen, and given that it rained steadily, we kept heads
down and kept moving. We knew from the maps that we passed close to the
Culloden battlefield, so we headed towards that for another late lunch stop before finally
heading into downtown Inverness. The rain seemed to get heavier in the evening so after walking in to town we got a taxi back to the hostel. Chris also found the penalty for drinking coffee and red wine meant getting up for a few wanders during the night. As the facilities for gentlemen was across the other side of the building this kept us all amused!
So there we are. It may have taken two attempts but we did make it from Carlisle to Inverness and cycled over 500 miles in the process. In a round about way, having poor weather and a broken rib in September 2018 did us a favour as the weather in 2019 was ideal for cycling - cool and dry, although it was a tad breezy for much of the time, and the final day proved a bit damp!
So there we are. It may have taken two attempts but we did make it from Carlisle to Inverness and cycled over 500 miles in the process. In a round about way, having poor weather and a broken rib in September 2018 did us a favour as the weather in 2019 was ideal for cycling - cool and dry, although it was a tad breezy for much of the time, and the final day proved a bit damp!
Episode 3
The world stopped in 2020 for Covid, and that included cycle
touring, even though it was great to be out for that halcyon period when few
cars were on the road. The world has
changed quite a lot by 2023. A dear friend, Ricky who features in most of these
cycling exploits, has passed away. Another friend, John, has retired from the
daily grind and is in need of some cycling adventures. What better excuse for
another few days on NCN7?
Rather than a day-by-day account as in previous blogs, this
is an overview of what might rightly be called the Travelodge tour as we
stopped in their hotels every night bar one, The Bruce Hotel, Newton Stewart
being the exception. A slight change in route too. This time I wanted to ride
the Glasgow to Edinburgh canal side route as I had a hankering to visit the Falkirk
Wheel and to see The Kelpies. The route and schedule, therefore, became
Carlisle to Dumfries, then to Newton Stewart, to Ayr, to Glasgow and finally to
Edinburgh, with overnight stops in each place. This was also experimental as on
a previous occasion we had arrived in Carlisle by train and set off immediately
to overnight in Annan, whereas this time the plan was to stay overnight in
Carlisle and have a full day of cycling to Dumfries to follow.
We set off in late April again using the 10:49 Leeds to
Carlisle train. The weather was good and so we got off the train at Langwathby
and cycled 30 miles up to Carlisle using the lower reaches of NCN7 on a not too
warm but delightful spring day. Travelodge number one had limited food but Wetherspoons
proved up to the task of feeding us ready for our first full day. This took us
on to Dumfries in somewhat different weather conditions to my previous expedition
when we had very strong winds to contend with. We had another delightful spring
day to enjoy the coast around Powfoot and found a very nice caravan park with
sea views for an early lunch.
The next day to Newton Stewart was longer than my previous
ride as we had stayed before at Castle Douglas. It was also a wetter day and we
put waterproofs on during the morning. Lunch was at Kirkcudbright before we
rolled on to Gatehouse of Fleet for a coffee stop. The next part of the road
was new to me as we previously had to divert for fallen trees, but the climb
over the top to Creetown was quite atmospheric in the mist and the rain,
although the descent down was a bit hairy in places. Our overnight in Newton
Stewart gave us some different entertainment as we had visitors to our room at
about 1.30 in the morning!
Newton Stewart to Ayr is quite challenging and remote. The rain had cleared to leave us with another fine spring day and we set off, “over the mountain”, as our host at the hotel had described it. His description was not far wrong as we climbed over 4,000 feet in the day, the last two shorter but nonetheless hard climbs leading John to say that the day had been one of the hardest he had experienced on a bike. By contrast, the ride up to Glasgow is without any significant climbs being mostly coastal in the beginning and repurposed railway towards the end. The most challenging part of the day was finding Travelodge number 4 as our devices were all giving different directions, but find it we did, even if in a roundabout manner.
Our final full day took us under the Clyde using the cycle tunnel
for starters then onto NCN7 to its junction with NCN754 where we turned to head
east towards Edinburgh. Apart from one navigational error (which resulted in a
4 mile diversion) we were without incident, enjoying flat canal side cycling
for mile after mile. The Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies duly visited we
continued along the truly picturesque Union Canal towards Edinburgh, going
through tunnels and over aqueducts to cover 77 miles. It was a great day to
finish on, although we did mange a 24 mile ride the next day, visiting the
Forth Bridge, before we collected our
hire van for the return to Leeds.
All in all we cycled about 350 miles over 7 days; a steady
rate to enjoy the scenery and all that goes with it.
Strava links below
Carlisle
Carlisle to Dumfries
Dumfries to Newton Stewart
Newton Stewart to Ayr
Ayr to Glasgow
Glasgow to Edinburgh
