Brenhden DrBink

[SteveR]

30/03/16
I rode round and bagged a photo before doing the 20 miles to Stokesay.



The route between the two on the A489 was excellent fun and I pulled up to the fortified manor house very pleased I’d made the effort.

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If you had carried on another 1/2 mile past the castle down the lane, there is a wonderful steep, rocky climb that brings you out on the high ground looking over at the Long Mynd and Clee Hills and down towards Malvern... Next time

[Daz Brecon]

Great ride and pictures

[Brenhden]

Castle 12
Farleigh Hungerford.
Satnav stopped working on the way so it took frikken ages to find...

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[boboneleg]

How can it be hard to find, it's on a main road :laugh: (thumbs)

You should have gone in Brenhden, there are some cool dudes down in the dungeon :unsure:

[boboneleg]

Have you done Nunney Castle yet, it's not that far from you and free to get in (thumbs)

[Brenhden]

Over reliance on tech Bob. Should have sorted a map.

It was closed too

[Brenhden]

ABR 2016 Castle Challenge Scotland

02/09/16 - Miles 197.

After a 20hour 600mile journey to Glasgow the day before I had a bit of a lay in, haggis and potato scone for breakfast and started unpacking the bike ready to set off for lunch time. I'm lucky enough that I work for a company with a secure compound in Uddingston.

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I'd drained the tank back in somerset so the first job was to find fuel. But on the way to the petrol station I stumbled across Bothwell Castle .

Castle 13

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That done and fuel found, I took some layers off as it was so warm and hit the M8 to Edinburgh. My Satnav had totally failed to work so I was so pleased I'd marked up a small road atlas. I skirted round to the A7 and down to Chrichton Castle Just off the B6372:

Castle 14

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Next up I took the A6093 and the B1347 to North Berwick past a WW2 air strip and enjoyed some chips in town before taking the A198 to Tantallon Castle. The road was short but really cool.

Castle 15

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The A198 was so good I went back that way and was rewarded the other side of town with great views of the coast line, riding through golf clubs and general riding joy. The joy soon went away when I got to Edinburgh though as the traffic from the A1 all the way round to the A90 was gridlock. A lot of filtering later and I was on the Forth Road Bridge with a sun over the water, it was gorgeous and golden. Next I took the tourist route along the coast to kirkaldy and along to St Andrews to look for digs for the night. Once there I realised how posh it was as the cheapest B&B was £240 a night!

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Back on the road and feeling tired I crossed the amazing Firth of Tay bridge just before sunset and was well chuffed to see a new suspension bridge being built, I love big civil projects
Pooped I rolled into Broughty Ferry and found a bar with rooms called The Fort and wandered the town, found another castle!

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Ate a pizza and drank some local beer and hit the hay.

[Brenhden]

03/09/16 - Miles 208

Slept like a log in my lovely room and was ready for action a 0800 after a grim breakfast of lorne sausage that was only saved by the excellent company of a SuperGran like old lady in a mauve macintosh that chatted away about castles and the Queen Mum who was born in the next one.

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I hit the road and got completely lost in the one way system of Dundee (this is where Satnavs are useful), once free of that I was off up the A928 through pine forrest which is my absolute favorite and up to Glamis (pronounced Glaims) It was too early to be open But I could just see it through the gate house. Its a proper fairytale jobbie!

Castle 16

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Onwards to Montrose and along the stunning A92 coastal road and it wasn't long until I arrived at Dunnottar Castle Prehaps the most impressive of all I've seen:

Castle 17

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After a wander round I spotted these little fellows on the path and wished I had a proper camera.

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After a good long chat with the helpful carpark dude and a lovely cup of tea. I was excited as the proper fun started and my route took me into the Cairngorms. Up the A957 and onto the A93 and life was sweet (and very warm). I stopped for lunch next to a gang of classic itallian bikers at Ballater and finally figured out how to inflate a rear tire at a petrol station! :

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and headed out of town on the A939 which is epic, one of the best roads I have ridden, its got hump bridges, mountain tops, even a ski resort! It was so hot I started looking for somewhere to go for a swim but the lakes I found were all browny yellow and boggy. I guess it makes good Scotch but not great swimming. A quick childish photo stop here:

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and I turned onto the short cut just past Redburn and through nadgery forrest came out at Cawdor Castle:

Castle 18

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This one is a really lovely place and was full of German tourists. That done I struck out for Loch Ness and after passing the battle of Culloden and getting lost in Inverness I was on the road to Drumnadrochit the A82. I stopped at a The Glenn B&B which was really nice. I ate in the bar at the Loch Ness Inn and was sound asleep by 21:30 after a few more local ales and a local wee dram.

[Brenhden]

04/09/16 - 217 miles
Awake a 0400 I didn't hang around for breakfast but grabbed some cereal and walked the bike out down the road so its bark didn't wake anyone up. It was only a few miles to Urquhart but it was very closed so I bagged a photo and moved on.

Castle 19

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Loch Ness

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It was another really warm morning and I took the A887 into Glen Moriston. I spotted Loch Cluanie and couldn't resist. I parked the bike up and scrambled down its little beach, stripped up and dived in. It was so warm I couldn't believe it! After splashing around a bit I got out and was immediately swarmed with midges. the were all over my body like in a horror movie. I hopped around and at that moment my lovely other half gave me a call and we chatted on loud speaker as I danced about slapping the wee beasties off me. I got my balaclava on first then my undies but I was still wet and covered in sand...
20 minutes later and I was back on the bike heading for Glen Shiel and I could not believe the beauty of the place. The best was yet to come though. Round a corner and there was Eilean Donan. I'd been so focussed on the ten Castles in the challenge I hadn't considered what else I might see:

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So lucky to be there on such a still day. After that I rode along the coast on the A87 to Sky, the whole thing was completely glorious and I was smiling like crazy as I crossed the bridge. Skye is a magical place and riding across it was brilliant. The trip to Dunvegan was great and I had a nice panini in a cafe en route.

Castle 20

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Now I was at the furthest point of the trip it was time to head back to Glasgow, which didn't feel great as I could quite happily carry on forever. Heading back across Skye I took the A851 to the ferry port at Armadale, the countryside along there is much like Skyfall in the movie. At the port and I managed to get on the next ferry so was on my way across the flat calm sea at 1630.

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The A830 on the other side was stunning but after all I had already seen it was wasted on me. I pulled into Fort William and found a cheap room at Craig Nevis Guesthouse which is a really run down place like the boarding houses my mates used to live in when we were young. I wandered the town and found a great bar called The Grog and Gruel and had some more local beer and 10yo Ben Nevis Scotch.

[Brenhden]

05/09/16 186 miles.
Last day and there was a bit of drizzle about and it was a bit cooler. I had a cracking breakfast cooked and served by more SuperGrans and I rode out of town on the A82 and the A86 along Loch Laggan which is a great road. Down to the Dalwhinnie distillery to get a present and onto the boring A9 and grabbed Blair Castle which was not easy to get a photo of:

Castle 21

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Onward on the excellent B847 and B846 through more forests but you could tell you weren't in the highlands any more as it started too look more like England. A quick stop at Castle Menzies:

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And on to an excellent but expensive lunch in the Habitat cafe in Aberfeldy and I took the A822 south and eventually found the last Castle, Doune:

Castle 22

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This place was ace. Terry Jones Narrates the walking tour as it's where they filmed Monty Python's Holy Grail. It was so cool seeing where it happened! The archway on the right is where they sang the Camelot Song

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Job done I headed back to Glasgow extremely please I made this happen.


Thanks for sorting the challenge out Fordy
Thanks to Peirre and Mike54 for advice on bike tie downs.
Apologies to RandG for not calling, I totally forgot.
Thanks to and thanks -Ralph-, RandG, Sprintster and everyone else who gave me route advice. It really made a big difference.