CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Fort William it runs 479 km to Fort William; allow about 6 h 37 of riding. On the way it passes The Forth Bridge, Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, back through Old and New Towns of Edinburgh and back through The Forth Bridge. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 16 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort William is where the day begins. Next is The Forth Bridge.
When the Forth Bridge opened in 1890, it was the longest cantilever bridge in the world, and it still looks like nothing else: three enormous diamond-shaped steel towers, joined by long arms, striding across the Firth of Forth to carry the railway between Edinburgh and Fife. Its engineers, Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, designed it after the collapse of the Tay Bridge in 1879 had shaken public faith in iron and steel, and they overbuilt deliberately, with great tubes of steel that made the structure look as strong as it was. The bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 2015.
Read the complete The Forth Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Forth Bridge comes up 51 km in. Next is The Forth Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Forth Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least 140 km in you reach The Forth Bridge. Next is Old and New Towns of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is built on the remains of a volcano. The Castle sits on a plug of hard rock, and the ridge that slopes eastwards from it, the Royal Mile, carries the medieval Old Town on its back, a tall, dense, soot-dark jumble of closes and tenements that went up because the city was shut inside walls and could only grow upwards. In 1767 the council ran a competition for a plan to build a New Town on the open ground to the north, and the winning design by a young architect named James Craig gave the city a grid of Georgian terraces, squares and gardens. The contrast between the two halves, medieval and classical, is the reason UNESCO listed the combined area in 1995.
Read the complete Old and New Towns of Edinburgh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old and New Towns of Edinburgh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh sits at 205 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old and New Towns of Edinburgh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old and New Towns of Edinburgh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old and New Towns of Edinburgh comes up 256 km in. Next is back through The Forth Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Forth Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
308 km in you reach back through The Forth Bridge. Next is back through The Forth Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Forth Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Forth Bridge, late in the day. Next is Fort William.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort William write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 479 km.
Fort William → The Forth Bridge is 189 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Forth Bridge → Old and New Towns of Edinburgh is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old and New Towns of Edinburgh → back through The Forth Bridge is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Forth Bridge → Fort William is 189 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.