A82 Glencoe and Great Glen: Rannoch Moor to Loch Ness

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   Rannoch Moor is where the day begins. Next is Glencoe.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort William.

3. 3. Fort William

   Fort William is a working town with a mountain behind it, and the mountain is Ben Nevis. At 1,345 metres, it is the highest summit in the British Isles, and from the streets of the town you may or may not see it, depending on the cloud, which hides the top for most of the year. The town itself is not beautiful, a long, practical line of shops, hotels and outdoor stores along the shore of Loch Linnhe, but it sits in an extraordinary landscape of lochs, glens and peaks, and it is a good base for exploring the western Highlands.

   Read the complete Fort William write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort William. Next is Loch Ness.

4. 4. Loch Ness

   There is nothing more mythical in Scotland than the great dark stretch of water at the end of this ride, and nothing quite so crowded in summer. Loch Ness fills the Great Glen, the geological fault line that slices Scotland in two from Fort William to Inverness, and it runs for about thirty-six kilometres. It is deep, cold and peaty brown, and holds more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales put together.

   Read the complete Loch Ness write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Loch Ness closes the day.