Why this ride
A one-way ride of 148 km, Glasgow to Fort William - roughly 2 h 03 in the saddle. The stops in between: Loch Lomond and Rannoch Moor. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
A82 Glencoe and Great Glen: Glasgow to Glencoe
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 148 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 03
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Glasgow → Loch Lomond
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 89 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 53 km
A82 Glencoe and Great Glen
For about 22 km this is A82 Glencoe and Great Glen, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 22 km
- Named road
- A82 Glencoe and Great Glen
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Glasgow
Glasgow starts the A82 journey, and it is a city that deserves a look before you leave. The Clyde, which built the city's wealth through shipbuilding, runs through the south, and the cathedral and Necropolis, a Victorian cemetery on a hill, lie to the east.
Read the complete Glasgow write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Glasgow is where the day begins. Next is Loch Lomond.
2. Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area, and its character changes sharply from south to north. In the south, around Balloch and Luss, it is wide and dotted with wooded islands; to the north it narrows into a long, steep-sided, Highland fjord overlooked by Ben Lomond. The loch lies inside the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, Scotland's first, created in 2002. Helensburgh, Balloch and Garelochhead are the nearest towns.
Read the complete Loch Lomond write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Loch Lomond comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rannoch Moor.
3. Rannoch Moor
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.
Read the complete Rannoch Moor write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Rannoch Moor. Next is Glencoe.
4. Glencoe
Glencoe wears its history heavily, and it is hard to ride into the glen without feeling it. In February 1692 soldiers who had been billeted with the MacDonald clan for nearly two weeks turned on their hosts in the early hours and killed nearly forty of them, on orders issued in the name of the crown. The massacre has been argued over ever since, but the glen carries the memory, and the monument and the visitor centre at the lower end are worth a quiet few minutes.
Read the complete Glencoe write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Glencoe closes the day.
Leg by leg
Glasgow to Loch Lomond
Glasgow → Loch Lomond is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Loch Lomond to Rannoch Moor
Loch Lomond → Rannoch Moor is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Rannoch Moor to Glencoe
Rannoch Moor → Glencoe is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.