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Carrbridge To Inverness

Sun, 08/10/2006 - 14:34 — CmdrGravy

Route Facts: 30 miles, 2 miles traffic free
Profile: A long climb to Slochd summit and then a succession of downhills into Inverness

Route

Sustrans offer another recommended off-road route from Carrbridge to Slochd and this is the route which I took. The route begins with a short ride down a B road before turning off onto a gravel path which heads upwards through a small wood and onwards through heather clad moorland.

You cross the Dulnain river over the ancient Sluggan bridge and face some very steep ( but short lived ) climbs up a very loose gravel surface. I found some of these hills to be simply too much for my luggage laden bike and had no choice but to get off and push.

The route continues on a rutted gravel surface up a long shallow incline, past a farmhouse and through a forest before re-joining the official on road route a few miles short of Slochd summit. The route to the summit is on an abandoned A road next to the railway line so the surface is excellent up to the summit and then re-joins the main road for a long swooping descent over the Findhorn into Tomatin.

From Tomatin there are long stretches on a combination of A and B roads but we found them to very quiet and enjoyed the nice change from loose gravel. The road undulates nicely past Moy up to Daviot where you turn off onto a smaller B road which runs along the top of the valley, above the River Nairn. You then cross over the River Nairn next to the Clava Cairns and after a short climb out the other side continue along a B road past the site of the Culloden battlefield and down a long, steep hill into Culloden it's self.

Culloden seems to be a suburb of Inverness and we just followed the large A road, which has a cycle path next to it, all the way into Inverness. It's not especially scenic but it is nice and flat and you get over it quickly.

Roadside Attractions

Sluggan bridge was once a major thoroughfare which looks slightly incongruous now stuck in the middle of the field with only a muddy track leading to it and a few sheep clustered around it. It was built by General Wade after the first jacobite rebellion and is an impressively steep archway towering over the river Dulnain.

{{flickr_m:217185163}}Clava CairnsThe Clava Cairns, next to the River Nairn are a bronze age burial site containing 3 or 4 cairns of which some are surrounded by standing stones. The complex is situated in a lovely wooded glade and is an excellent place to spend some time in before reaching Inverness.

Culloden Battlefield is a short detour from the main route where you can learn all about the final defeat of the second jacobite rebellion in 1745.

Inverness has many attractions but the main one we wanted to try was dolphin spotting in the Moray firth. Dolphins are supposedly a common visitor to the Firth and although we didn't spot any most of the tours claim high success rates.

Where to Stay

Inverness has an awful lot of hotels, guesthouses, hostels and B&Bs. Unfortunately during the tourist season it also has an awful lot of visitors. We hadn't anticipated this and trying to find any accomodation in the afternoon for that night was tough and we had to settle for a hotel room far above our normal budget. Most of the towns in the nearby vicinity have similar problems and we also had trouble getting accomodation anywhere down Loch Ness and the Caledonian canal even booking a few days in advance. This was a weekend though and things probably calm down during the weekdays.

Where to Eat

The first stop off point en-route is the pub in Tomatin which claims to do full breakfasts but when we arrived changed their mind and only offer expensive 3 course meals and no snacks at all.

Most of the villages you pass through are hardly big enough to justify the name so the next place we saw where we could any snacks was a campsite a few miles past Moy which has a small shop attached to it. From there into Culloden its self there is no where to stop for drinks or food and once you're in Culloden you may as well head into Inverness which has all the normal options of a medium sized city.

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