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Unhurried – Our new film celebrates the experience of bikepacking Scotland coast to coast on the John Muir Way

In our latest film Unhurried’ Bikepacking Scotland founder and filmmaker Markus Stitz documents his trip on the John Muir Way, one of Scotland’s Great Trails. The film reveals a unique coast to coast journey through Scotland’s varied landscapes, history and heritage, during which Markus reflects on one of the great advantages of travelling by bike: being able to slow down and connect more fully with your surroundings.

Unhurried is now available to watch on YouTube.

The John Muir Way links Helensburgh in the west with Dunbar, the birthplace of John Muir, in the east. Using a combination of the waymarked walking and cycling routes, we have produced a recommended bikepacking version, which you can download as GPX on our website here. The route passes through Scotland’s first national park, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs, and provides a journey of contrasts and the chance to connect with nature, taking advantage of the green spaces that link coasts, villages, towns and the capital city, Edinburgh.

What to pack on your first bikepacking adventure? Find out more.

We have already developed a number of long-distance cycling routes through Bikepacking Scotland, including the Wild About Argyll Trail and the Go East Lothian Trail, which both use sections of the John Muir Way. The new film has been created in cooperation with the Green Action Trust, a charity focused on environmental and regeneration outcomes for Scotland, which manages the route.

A short teaser to start planning your next adventure.

Here are some of our highlights from the route, which is also fabulous for day trips and microadventures.

Our latest gravel bikepacking route launches with Drovers, a film about the ancient drove roads in Scotland

Filmed on the ‘Drovers Trail’, our latest 331-km-long gravel bikepacking route spanning almost the entirety of Highland Perthshire, ‘Drovers’ tells the story of the ancient drove roads, an important part of Scottish history, which inspired Scotland’s greatest writers like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. The new video from round the world singlespeed cyclist, film-maker and Bikepacking Scotland founder Markus Stitz follows him on his adventure along the route, retracing the footsteps of the cattle drovers on their journey from the Cairngorms through the Tay Valley to Crieff, which became Scotland’s most important cattle market at the end of the 17th century.

The project was led and administered by Highland Perthshire Cycling, a charity set up to promote, encourage and enable more cycling in Highland Perthshire for both locals and visitors, and delivered by us, Bikepacking Scotland. It received a grant of £9,835 from Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER Programme 2014-2020: The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas, match funded with £15,000 from the SSE Griffin and Calliachar Community Fund.

The Drovers Trail seen from Ben Chonzie

The new gravel bikepacking route is part of eleven different itineraries, which are now available to download for free at www.perthshiregravel.com. The lengths of the individual routes range from 12 km to 120 km, starting in the Highland Perthshire towns and villages of Dunkeld, Pitlochry, Blair Atholl, Aberfeldy, and Comrie, as well as the remote Rannoch Station. Eight of the eleven routes are easily accessible by Scotrail and Caledonian Sleeper train services.

Glenturret Distillery

The different routes are designed as day journeys for different ages and abilities, but can also be combined or shortened by using quiet roads or cycle paths. They are graded as easy, straightforward, challenging or expert. The different criteria for the grading and detailed route descriptions with pictures are available on the website. While the routes have been designed for  bikes with tyres 35 mm and wider, they will also appeal to mountain bikers and make great day trips for touring cyclists. 

Launch of the project in November 2019 in Dunkeld

Markus comments: “Designing the various routes made me aware of not only the rich history of Highland Perthshire and the Tay Valley, but also of the huge variety of landscapes that can be found across the area. I sought to use the story of the cattle drovers to draw parallels with the adventurous spirit of bikepacking nowadays, while showcasing the immense beauty of the area, not just for cyclists. I hope the new film and the route network will encourage more people to explore the area and will also give locals new ideas to experience their immediate surroundings.” 

Bikepacking Scotland works with Highland Perthshire Cycling at a new Gravel Trails Project across Highland Perthshire

We are delighted to work with Highland Perthshire Cycling, who have secured a grant of £9,835 from Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER Programme 2014-2020: The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas, match funded with £15,000 from the SSE Griffin and Calliachar Community Fund.

Starting in November 2019 and running until September 2020, the Perthshire Gravel Trails Project will deliver a network of gravel routes passing through the Highland Perthshire towns of Dunkeld, Pitlochry, Blair Atholl and Aberfeldy. The trails will be suitable for riders of different abilities and will be complemented and connected by a long-distance bikepacking route.

Community consultations and an online survey will form the first phase of the project. The consultations will be held on 10 December at 7pm in Dunkeld, on 11 December at 7pm in Pitlochry and on the 17 December at 3pm in Comrie and 7pm in Aberfeldy. More information about the community consultations can be found at www.perthshiregravel.com/community, where local businesses, interested groups and individuals can also sign up to an email newsletter about the project. The online survey is available at www.perthshiregravel.com/survey

The project will be led by Highland Perthshire Cycling Trustee Mike Stead, with the assistance of Project Manager Kat Brown. The routes will be designed and promoted by Bikepacking Scotland, follwing in the tyre tracks of the Wild About Argyll Trail, Dunoon Dirt Dash and Capital Trail.

Mike Stead commented: ‘Highland Perthshire is criss-crossed with many estate roads and forestry trails of varying quality and length. Some are only suited for mountain bikes, whilst others are suited for gravel or all-road bikes with fat tyres, which are the sort of bike increasingly used for long-distance multi-day cycling. Worldwide the trend is for people to use wider-tyred gravel bikes for cycle touring, as they open up the possibility to use unpaved roads and paths, to get closer to nature and away from motorised traffic. This project will increase visitor and resident participation in off-road cycling opportunities, it will increase local business income through accommodation, food and other visitor spend, and finally it will increase awareness of Highland Perthshire as a holiday destination.’

More information about the project can be found at www.perthshiregravel.com and Highland Perthshire Cycling’s Facebook page @HighlandPerthshireCycling and on our social channels.

The Go East Lothian Trail – a new 63km route that will make you smile!

Good news, we have just added another route to our offer of bikepacking routes in Scotland. This time we created something that is short, suitable if you are trying to get into bikepacking, fun to take your family on and also short enough to get around the route with one charge on an e-bike. The Go East Lothian Trail was developed with funding from East Lothian Council, and the video below will make you want to ride it! Find out more about the route here.

We are at this years Braemar Mountain Festival in very good company!

 

We are thrilled to be running a bikepacking workshop and a guided ride at this year’s Braemar Mountain Festival in the beautiful Cairngorms from Thursday 1 March to Sunday 4 March. And we are event more thrilled that adventure cycling is one of the major focuses of the event in its second year, with a great selection of more guided rides, skills sessions, talks, workshops and film screenings on offer.

Continue reading “We are at this years Braemar Mountain Festival in very good company!”

Wild About Argyll in German and travel feature in Bike Adventure

We are happy to announce that our latest video Wild About Argyll is now also available in German. You can watch the video below, the original English version is available here as well. Thanks to everyone for watching, we are really looking forward to see your pictures and video once you have ridden the Wild About Argyll Trail yourself. Add us on Twitter and Instagram and tag us or use #waat to share your memories!  The route can be found here.

And for everyone in the DACH region, the next issue of Bike Adventure will include a long feature on cycling in Scotland and the Wild About Argyll Trail, find out more on their Facebook Page.

The Reiver Raid – Singlespeed

We like sports grounds, for camping

After the wonderful feedback to our first video of the Reiver Raid, which has now been watched almost 3,500 times on YouTube, this new video is a follow up to give you more of an idea what the route is like. Filmed and edited on an iPhone, it is the first of two videos to describe the route in more detail. We have now ridden the full loop at least twice, made changes, and made more changes, and we are pretty confident that the final route will be one thing – fun! This is why we changed the musical theme a bit from our first video while sending Markus with his Surly Ogre around the course, with one gear.

Continue reading “The Reiver Raid – Singlespeed”

The Reiver Raid – Our first short film is now online to watch!

Reiver Raid Filming

The Reiver Raid is a new bikepacking route in the Ale Water Valley in the Scottish Borders, which has been developed by round the world singlespeed bikepacker and Capital Trail founder Markus Stitz. Since his return from the epic 34,000km singlespeed trip last September, Markus has focussed on setting up Bikepacking Scotland with the aim to develop new bikepacking routes in Scotland.

Continue reading “The Reiver Raid – Our first short film is now online to watch!”