Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 27 on 09/06/2006.

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Take the low road

In the first instalment of a two-part feature, Paul Kirkwood pedals his way across Perthshire

As Kathmandu is to Nepal so Pitlochry is to Perthshire. For yak hair read tweed. Both towns are multi-national base camps for expeditions and mine was to take me 40 miles due west by bike to the fringe of Rannoch Moor, one of Britain’s last great wildernesses.

My route followed the southern shores of Lochs Faskally, Tummel and Rannoch on the outward leg and the northern shores on the return. Being largely loch-side there are only a few hills – a rarity in Scotland – and, with essentially just one road out and one back, navigation isn’t an issue either. Getting to the start point, Pitlochry, is also easy as the town has a direct rail link with Edinburgh, eastern England and London.

Day one began gently by traversing a funny little suspended footbridge over the river and passing Pitlochry’s Festival Theatre.

Acouple of turns later and I put away the map and headed down to the pines and the water, features that would become very familiar. A sign read ‘Road unsuitable for coaches and HGVs’. Ah, great, I thought: just perfect for cyclists, then.

Loch Tummel is so close, narrow and choppy I could have been travelling up an estuary by speed boat. Where the road left the lochside the snowcapped peak of Schiehallion – the county’s Everest – loomed ahead. Its name translates from Gaelic as “Fairy Mountain of the Caledonians.” Hardly appropriate for such a macho mountain.

Schiehallion would be a companion for most of the ride but I had no plans to scale it; a two-mile push up its f.....

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By Paul Kirkwood

Section : Scottish Cycling

Page number : 58