Cairngorm Tour

In July 2005 I completed this trip with my friend Tarry. The route is almost identical to that featured in Issue 19 of Singletrack magazine, with the exception that we couldn't get in Feshiebridge Hostel so we stayed in Kingussie. We also took an ill advised short cut from Abernethy Forest to Dorback Lodge and accidently took the longer, higher, tougher path over Culardich.

We carried a light change of clothes for the evenings with us in small rucksacks along with waterproofs and spares. We stayed at the Laird's Bothy in Kingussie and the SYHA hostel in Braemar. We chose Blair Atholl as a start point as we could both access it by train from out respective homes of Aberdeen and Inverness.

The photos are courtesy of Paul who did a similar route in September 2006 in a much more heroic 2 days.

Day 1 Blair Atholl to Kingussie (55km)

The singletrack around Loch an Duin

After a 10km warm up on the old A9 (now National Cycle Route 7) as far as Dalnacardoch Lodge (GR NN723703) where we turned North over the Gaick. A good quality track lead all the way to Loch an Duin. However around the loch the testing singletrack became unrideable due to the squally headwind that was funnelled by the adjacent steepsided Corbets. Slowly we made our way forwards between squalls and showers of spray from the loch. Once on more open ground and on the other side of the valley the wind was considerably less.

I am not sure what was most surprising about the potentially treacherous squalls; their severity on an otherwise pleasant day or the fact that after Gaick Lodge whilst still heading north we had a tailwind. Being experienced enough cyclists not to complain about a bit of wind assistance, we made good use of our fortune and the ever improving track (it ended up being tarmaced) and sped up Glen Tromie to Drumguish. From here we had a kilometres of road to Kingussie. We had made such good time that we even had time to look around the ruined Ruthven Barracks.

Day 2 Kingussie to Braemar (101km)

I think this is the track we should've been on

The main drawback with staying at Kingussie rather than Feshiebridge was that we had an additional 12km of road cycling at the start of a very long day. From Feshiebridge we entered the superb mountain biking and cross country ski trails through to Loch Morlich. In particular the path around Loch Gamhna was a real highlight of the trip.

After a cup of tea at Loch Morlich we climbed past Glenmore Lodge and Ryvoan Bothy (GR NJ006115) before enjoying the fast and rocky run down to the Forest Lodge in Abernethy Forest. From here we decided to try and find the footpath that leads through to Dorback Lodge rather that take the more straight forward, longer road route via Nethy Bridge. All was going very well until in the middle of a very boggy, heathery field the path disappeared and we were left with 2km of exhausting, shoving of the bikes.

We had not long been back in the saddle, on the track across to Glen Brown, when my chain snapped in spectacular fashion. The plates on either side of a link splayed out "like a whore's legs", as Tarry put it. A quick and good repair was made and we were soon descending the fast track to the main road into Tomintoul and a late lunch.

The day already had the feel of an epic and we still had 40km and the trip's biggest climb left. Another blissful tailwind and more tarmaced estate roads sped us up Glen Avon to Inchory. From here the climbing began. First stop was Loch Builg and more excellent singletrack. After the bridge over the river Gairn (GR NJ190021) we inexplicably missed the landrover track that runs to the West of the summit of Culardoch and ended up skirting to the East of the hill on the very grassy, tough footpath. Luckily for us the paths re-united in due course and all that was left was a very fast descent to Invercauld House and a short spin into Braemar.

Day 3 Braemar to Blair Atholl (45km)

Glen Tilt - not much room for error

A fitting final day started with some easy road miles to the Linn of Dee and then an equally speedy landrover track to ruined bridge over the Geldie Burn (GR NO005868). From here we turned south past the ruined Bynack Lodge and into Glen Tilt. The massively challenging, off camber, narrow, rocky singletrack at the head of the glen was a good test of skills but ultimately proved less cycleable than we had hoped. However once past the suspension bridge at the Falls of Tarf (GR NN983797) it was all downhill and downwind back to Blair Atholl.

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