Argyll and Bute.

[ctznsmith]

Has anyone spent any time on the mainland bit of Argyll and Bute?

How civilised is it?

I'm going to be spending some time cycling through it (on road) from the bottom south of Campbeltown up to Fort William. Wondering if I need to take the cooking gear or can just rely on shops/pubs en route.

[Dyffers]

I work in the Arrochar / Inveraray area on a regular basis.

In places like Tarbert, Inveraray, Ballachulish you get good size Spar-type shops and a pub or pubss. In Cambeltown, Lochgilphead, Oban and Fort William you get supermarkets and lots of pubs. In between, you'll get pubs with random opening hours, the occasional village shop with some interesting pasties (I've used a shop in Connel, north of Oban once, hidden away off the road in the village) and lots of peaty water to drink at the side of the road.

[deft punk]

Assuming you're roughly sticking to NCN78 it's no bad. There are bits where there's nothing for ages between Campbeltown & Oban, but you'll no starve & as Dyffers says there's no shortage of water.

Also worth noting, if you go over the Corran ferry way to avoid the dodgy road section, that the tearoom at Camusnagaul village hall is no longer in action so if you miss the C.gaul-FW boat and need to wait you'll be glad of a wee stove & mug unless you carry on up the road and go round the long way.

How civilised is it?

Typical rural Scotland. Strange opening times, the cooncils write any old number for the mileage on their signs, traffic jams mostly involve sheep and/or toffee coos, people are mostly stupidly friendly & hospitable, but you'll still almost certainly meet at least one amusingly hostile/abrupt oddball

[ianfitz]

Typical rural Scotland. Strange opening times, the cooncils write any old number for the mileage on their signs, traffic jams mostly involve sheep and/or toffee coos, people are mostly stupidly friendly & hospitable, but you'll still almost certainly meet at least one amusingly hostile/abrupt oddball

that's a superb summary of pretty much every trip I've ever done in Scotland!

[ctznsmith]

Thanks all.

Assuming you're roughly sticking to NCN78 it's no bad.

I shall be rigidly sticking to NCN78 as I'm surveying it!

[fatbikephil]

Scotroutes of this manor did it in one hit the other week and blogged about it - there is a thread on the 'Your Adventures' bit. With a bit of map reading you can do a nice off road variant as well doing bits of the Kintyre way and some other obvious tracks.

[ScotRoutes]

Out of Campbelltown there's not much until you get to Lochgilphead.

I did create a wee check sheet for my spin along that had some food options on it - might be of some use to you.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Things to check out:

Unclear start point in Campbeltown. I thought it should be clearly signposted from the ferry terminal

Could do with more repeater signs on the long sections between junctions (maybe there are loads but they're not reflective so I missed them).

Couple of dubious markers around the Crinan Canal (FYI, I took the road option into Ardrishaig, not the forest track. If you're not planning to do both then assume the road option is fine)

The new off-road section approaching Kilmartin is missing a left arrow where it leaves the road (NR829980) and the sign at the end of the track where it meets the quarry road (NR831992) can't be seen without stopping and looking round a signpost (not convinced the quarry track is ideal, but hey ho).

The bridge at the crossing of the A82 at NN025629 needs some attention. The shared use footpath narrows at the bridge and is very loose and gravelly just when you want to be braking to make a turn across the road.


The rest of it was all pretty much OK.

[ctznsmith]

Very useful Scotroutes.

Reckon if I always have a day or so of cold food as a backup I should be fine.