The Great Glen Way

I'm thinking of cycling The Great Glen Way around Easter time (early April).

It looks like an incredible way to experience the mountains of Scotland by bike without climbing up them, although it might be nice to do a small amount of that too either by bike or on foot. The path follows the Caledonian Canal so is almost dead flat but the surface is apparently a bit rough, being mostly towpaths and woodland tracks. Planning to do it on my tourer which I reckon has the most appropriate tires and racks (also got a front rack which could be used) over about a week.

The distance is only about 80 miles, and I'm aiming for a relaxed pace with quite a few stops at pubs and other interesting spots so could take a day, possibly 2 to go from coast to coast (Inverness/Fort William). By doing it in a week and staying in B&B's or whatever along the way I can decide which days to ride and which to do other things, depending on the weather. It being the Highlands, I'm expecting regular drenchings. I'd like to do the return journey as well, so maybe 4 days riding and 2 or 3 'rest' days. If doing both directions it might be best to start and finish in Inverness.

Anyone done this route or anything similar before? Having not been on a cycling holiday before, I'd be grateful for any tips

If you know me and might be interested in coming along that would be great, especially if you have a car to get us there!

Some more info here and here

I have family that live near here and it looks an astounding place to go, what kind of tyres would be needed do you reckon?

Well, the website says this...

Currently, cyclists use the original Great Glen Way itself with great success. However, the surface is not really suitable for road tyres. We have cyclists regularly completing the route on mountain bike or robust hybrid. It is fairly direct, and south of Fort Augustus there are few hills

and judging by what I saw in this programme you could probably get away with just fat touring tyres on a road bike. The bigger the better I reckon, cos you'll avoid pinch flats

I've cycled this - I'm just on the way out at the moment, but I'll post some more details later on. As far as I remember there are sections that are pretty much single track and will be a bit of a struggle on anything other than a MTB - though would depend a bit on how muddy it is. But the majority is on very easy towpath and would be no problem.
I'm sure I had a proper map somewhere that included some specific cycle instructions - I'll have a look when I get home again.

That would be really helpful, thanks. I take it you did it on an MTB then?

I've walked the first two days from Inverness south and think the tracks along the side of loch Ness might be a bit rough for a touring bike. Maybe better on a mountain bike with racks.

I'd planned to do Crianlarich to Fort William week before last but incredibly shit weather and my riding partner dropping out last minute meant I didn't bother..

But would be up for this potentially..will keep tabs on this thread!

How were planning to get up to Scotland? The only train prices I could find were astronomic and flying, although much cheaper if you go with something like EasyJet, risks your bike getting busted in the hold, so car seems most sensible

with a railcard... £23......
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/London/INV/211112/1115/dep

That would be really helpful, thanks. I take it you did it on an MTB then?

Yes, did it on MTBs with racks, camped most nights, though we were so soaked at Fort Augustus that we got a b&B for the night.

On looking at my photos again there are quite a few sections that wouldn't be much fun without a MTB. The other thing is that a lot of the A roads round there tend to be pretty horrible to cycle on - very fast moving traffic and not that wide.

I'd forgotten that I ended up shearing a disc brake rotor off halfway, so we did the last part on the quiet road to the East of Loch Ness. Which is really nice, but definitely not flat.

Some photos here, though a lot of them are the from after the Great Glen way - I think we caught a train to Plockton from Inverness, then cycled over to Skye and from there caught a ferry back to Mallaig and from there back to Fort William. Something like that might be more fun than doing Great Glen both ways.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adownie/sets/72157607148578021/with/2834157834/

It is a beautiful part of the world. I have always vaguely meant to go back and do the whole of the Great Glen way as a 2 day MTB bike trip, travelling very light. The ideal would be to get the sleeper train to Fort William, then the return leg from Inverness, but it's really hard to get cheap deals on the sleeper these days.

One alternative idea (which I haven't done) - the section of route 78 http://www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/national-cycle-network/route-numbering-system/route-78
around Tarbet, Crinan Canal, Loch Awe, etc would be pretty amazing to do and is mostly on quiet roads. I was near there last week and regretted not having a road bike with me. Though it also rained relentlessly...

Your photos look amazing! I don't have a MTB and not looking to buy one specially so the original plan is looking like a non-starter which is a shame. If the rough path is the majority of the route then I'll give it up.

That other route would be much more suited to a proper road bike, which I'd prefer to use really. Just had a look on Google streetview and the incredible landscape. Maybe I'll look into doing a tour from Fort William round Loch Shiel and down to Oban, then round Loch Lomond, and back to fort William to get the train back...

I think it really is one of the most beautiful bits of the world - if it wasn't for the weather and midges it'd be over-run with tourists...

I wouldn't be totally put off Great Glen way, I reckon with suitable tyres you could do quite a lot of it - you'd just have to be prepared to get off and push occasionally. But route 78 would probably be more fun on a road bike (though there are quite a few hills - Crinan canal aside).
I've got a load of photos of that area from last week - will post a few on here when I get time to upload some.

I would maybe think about aiming down towards Tarbert/Campbelltown rather than heading across to Loch Lomond - the roads get a lot busier that way (and you'd probably have to head over 'Rest and be Thankful' which is quite a climb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A83_road).

You might be able to do something clever with ferries to get you back towards Fort William.
http://www.calmac.co.uk/destinations/route-map.htm
You could get ferries between Oban> Mull> Ardnamurchan peninsula and then back from there. But that's possibly getting over complicated... I think I'm just coming up with fantasy cycle routes for myself now.

Don't rule out using local trains to get you round some of the busier roads if necessary (for example personally I wouldn't want to cycle between Arisaig and Fort William on the A road).

I should really do some work... http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/ will probably have some journals of cycling round that area by people with more experience than me.

its bandit country .....dont do it !

seriously looks good wont be too many midgies in april , usually may june july .