Kilmartin - Oban via Loch Awe - advice please

[Gary Cummins]

I'll be doing a tour next year via this route, travelling along the north side of the Loch before swinging west back to Oban, anybody know if there are food stops along here please? I have ridden the coast route several times and know all the rest stops there. I know the inland route is remote and has plenty of loggin trucks along it but I'd appreciate any advice on pubs and general stores. I've seen a pub along this route on streetview...any thoughts. Thank you.
Gary

 

[Kirstie]

Yes there is a cafe at Dalavich, half way along the north side of loch awe. It's proper old school, run by an elderly couple who are very friendly. The place is a shrine to all things Tunnocks! i've attached a pic of their tunnocks collection - you can see the old couple in the background. The place is crammed with tat, it's very entertaining. Enjoy the route - it's pretty brutal!

 

[ColinJ]

I'm interested in reading advice on this too. I have family in the area and thought about taking a road bike up with me next time rather my MTB and a circuit of Loch Awe was one of the rides I had in mind.

I aim to ride out from Connel on the A85 - early one summer morning to try and beat the traffic - then head south on the south side of the loch on the A819. I'd be turning off at Cladich on the B840 and taking that down to Ford, where I'd turn and head north on Gary's route.

Why 'brutal' Kirstie? The north side route didn't look too bad when I plotted it in Memory Map. There were only a handful of 100m climbs. Mind you, there did seem to be an awful lot of little 10m undulations which could be strength-sapping ...

Ooh - I've just used StreetView on the north side road - I like the look of that!

Other things of interest at Loch Awe:

• If you arrive by bicycle at the Cruachan visitor centre for the Loch Awe pumped storage power station, you can get free entry! I've never visited the station, but it's something I really want to do. There are guided tours in which a minibus takes visitors up inside the mountain. Engineers hollowed out a huge underground cavern to house the turbines in the heart of Ben Cruachan. Apparently, you could fit the Houses of Parliament inside it! Water is pumped from the loch to a reservoir up the mountain using surplus off-peak electricity capacity, and the process is run in reverse during the day.
• There is a steep access road for the reservoir, behind the visitor centre. Local cycling clubs use it for an annual hill climb event. I reckon that road would be a great challenge and would offer superb views across the loch?

 

[Paladin - York]

Hi GC.

I did this route in reverse the other year and I attach photos of the Kilchrennan Inn (GR038229) & the cafe at Dalavich (968128). this was part of my Newtonmore to Ayr route. If it's of any interest I did a web log, mostly photos with some comments chucked in.
http://psychlopetualmotion.blogspot.com/2011/12/newtonmore-to-ayr-via-fort-william-isle.html

Dalavich Cafe - below.

 

[Gary Cummins]

Thank you all. The info on the cafe is very helpful, I knew there was a shop there but a cafe is great. I have rung both hotels en route but they currently do not do lunches on weekdays hence my query.
Colin, I reckon a road bike will be fine on this route, I have had friends do this route on a variety of machines in the past (none of them mentioned the cafe when I asked them this question!!!). Kirsty, to repeat Colin's question why do you call it brutal, is it brutal by west coast standards? Thank you all again. Very helpful info.

 

[Kirstie]

OK maybe brutal is an overstatement but it was hard. It is typical west coast riding in that there's hardly any flat, lots of up and down (you know the type of road where you have a short steep climb, you can't recover enough on the descent and as soon as you're at the bottom there's another short steep climb) and a few 1 in 5s. It's not as evil as it is further north, though, but it is comparable, presumably because the underlying geology is similar. I did it at the end of a long day on a folding bike with panniers so perhaps I'm biased...

 

[snorri]

Mmmm Tunnocks caramel wafers.

 

[Gary Cummins]

Thank you all for the useful comments, very helpful, tour notes will include this fuel stop advice. Cheerio and happy Hogmanay to all.

Gary