Alan and I have have just spent four days cycling the Pictish Trail from Inverness to Edinburgh. It was such a good trip. We took the sleeper train up on the Friday evening. The train was delayed leaving Euston which meant that we got into Inverness about 90 minutes late which gave us a bit of a late start but it did mean that we were refunded the entire cost of our trip up to Inverness so the trip started off really well!
Day One, we cycled 53 miles from Inverness to our wild camping spot at Loch Dallas. It was a great warm up ride for the hillier days ahead, most of it along forest trails.
One of the highlights of the trip was the wildcamp at Loch Dallas. It was an amazing spot miles from anywhere and just off our route. No one had been down there for ages and it was a really peaceful spot where all you could hear were the birds mainly the Willow warbler, and fish jumping for insects.
Day Two: Loch Dallas to Aboyne. This was a fantastic, a pretty challenging day, cycling 68 miles with over 5000ft of ascent across the Cairngorms to Aboyne.
Day Three: Aboyne to Dundee. After having a well earned day off in Aboyne we headed along The Fungle road and across to the coast before heading down to Dundee.
The Fungle Road follows a natural north/south route through the hills and is one of the historic passes through the Grampians that have been used by travellers for thousands of years. It was quite a climb, but well worth it!
Day Four: Dundee down to Queensferry. Before we headed over the Tay Bridge we stopped for a look at the V & A Museum Building. Designed by Kengo Kuma whose design was inspired by the eastern cliffs of Scotland.
We had to get a crack on for the final couple of hours as we were staying at Als relatives, Allan and Kath, who had kindly agreed to put us up for a night at there gorgeous house in North Queensferry.
An evening view of the Forth Bridge which I took as we cycled into Edinburgh to get the sleeper. It was a lovely ride in along the banks of the Forth before heading into the city. The perfect end to a great trip.
