Rannoch Moor is not a place you ride through so much as a place that lets you pass. The A82 crosses it on a slim shelf of tarmac, with no trees, no walls and no village for tens of kilometres, only peat, pools, boulders and the dark mass of the Black Mount along the western edge. Some forty-odd square miles of bog and lochan sit on a plateau about three hundred metres up, left behind by ice that once lay here a mile thick.
The road itself is open and rolling, good for a relaxed pace but not for racing. The surface can be patched, the bends are gentle and the views are huge, and because there are no trees the wind has a free run at you. In a westerly gale a loaded bike can feel like a sail. The weather can change in minutes, and a day that starts in sunshine can end with horizontal rain, so a waterproof layer should live in the top box. In clear, still light, especially in the evening in late summer, the pools turn into mirrors and the whole moor glows.
A railway was built across the moor in the 1890s, floated on a raft of tree roots, brushwood and thousands of tonnes of earth because the peat swallowed ordinary foundations. The West Highland Line still runs this way, with a lonely station at Rannoch that has become a minor cult destination among walkers. The old drove roads and the West Highland Way also cross the moor, and you will often see walkers with huge packs trudging beside the A82.
Practical points matter here. Cafes are few, and in the colder months can be closed, so carry water and something to eat. Midges are a summer plague in still, damp weather, so leave the helmet visor shut when you stop. In winter, ice and snow can close or slow the road quickly, and the A82 across the moor is one of the first to feel it.