Motorcycle Touring Scotland - Giant's Country - Glencoe

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Giant's Country - Glencoe

341 Miles

The A82 through Glen Coe is one of the classic cinematic highland journeys, taking you through a dramatic volcanic landscape blanketed in lush green colours in the summer and a dusting of snow in the winter. While the map we are providing doesn't go all the way to the southern end, if you are driving up from the central belt or from rest of the UK then using the A82 as a detour up to the North would be an excellent way to take advantage of this route. Travelling up along the West coast is a fair bit slower but more than made up for by the more interesting roads and the abundance of scenic views. 

An encounter with a group of Japanese students at Eilean Donan left us feeling very Kawaii

We start up at the Glen Docherty viewpoint looking down towards Loch Maree before heading down the A896 from Kinlochewe down to Torridon. This part of the journey is single track road with some awe inspiring views. If you get up early you can get the road to yourself and avoid the campervans for some excellent riding. Eilean Donan will be your first coffee stop, if its summer time bring something to wipe your visor down as the amount of beasties around on the way down will be phenomenal. 

The A87 is full of sweeping bends and some of the best tarmac in Scotland

Continuing on, the A87 is another fantastic road full of fast sweeping bends (the tarmac here is excellent). You can stop for the marked view of Loch Garry where it looks oddly like the map of Scotland before riding on to the beautiful Spean Bridge (a mainstay of a few of our runs and always a good spot for lunch). South of Spean Bridge traffic always increases 10 fold so bear this in mind, especially in the heat of summer. Getting through Fort William can be a real slog if it is ice cream weather but is worth it to get into Glen Coe for spectacular views. A word of warning is that Glen Coe is a lot more accessible than many areas in the highlands and on a pleasant day it is often jam packed. The views are exceptional but if you are looking for uninterrupted riding as a priority this may be one to avoid during peak times.

Glen Coe, beautiful but busy!