Rannoch Moor is a landscape that makes people go quiet. After the wooded shores of Loch Lomond and the winding glens, the A82 climbs onto an enormous, bare plateau of peat bog, scattered boulders and black pools, with the mountains standing back at the edges like spectators. It is among the wildest places in Britain, a bowl of wilderness about fifty square miles in extent, and the road crosses it on a raised causeway.
The moor was the centre of the last great ice sheet to cover Scotland, which melted about eleven thousand years ago, leaving behind a scatter of lochans, erratic boulders and bogs. The ground is soft and unpredictable, and the old drovers' track was a hard walk. When the railway came in the 1890s, engineers had to float the line on a mattress of brushwood and earth, which is still there. The area has a strange beauty, with colours that change by the hour, from rust to purple to silver.
The ride here is open and exposed. The road runs long and fairly straight with rises and dips, and the wind can be fierce, with little shelter. Weather is the main factor: rain, cloud and even snow can arrive in any month, and in winter the road can be closed or hazardous. In good weather the views are vast, and in bad weather the moor can feel hostile. There are deer on the road, particularly at dusk, so keep your speed down.
Nature is peculiar. The vegetation is heather, bog cotton and sphagnum moss, and the air smells of peat. Red deer wander the moor, and golden eagles and merlins hunt over it. In summer, midges are a plague in still weather, so carry repellent. Close by, the white slopes of Glencoe's ski area show through in winter.
There are no towns on the moor, and the nearest places for supplies are at Bridge of Orchy to the south and Glencoe and Fort William to the north. Dress warmly, whatever the forecast, and ride on in daylight.