Hi all, me & afew mates are riding from birmingham thru the lake district & then up to scotland, we will b&b when the weathers not looking good & camping when is Tropical, ive been told Kendal is a nice place to stay & also go via Rhino Pass in the Lakes & we looking to go to Oban then Glen Coe & Fort William & if we have time we will have a quick look for Nessy in scotland, any advice as to where to stay or places to go near to where we are going, we will only be touring roads so no green lanes as i might be on my sports bike, thanx

Kendal is good and you will have plenty of B&B choice but its an admin and shopping town rather than a tourist destination. You might be better heading further into the Lake District. Try Ambleside, Grasmere, Hawkshead, Coniston or Keswick.

You cant see it all in one trip but From Ambleside take the road to Langdale, over the pass at the end of Langdale and take a right to head up Wrynose Pass. This links to Hardknott pass and takes you to East side of the Lake District. You then either need to do a clockwise journey round the lake district - good on sport bikes or head anti- clockwise towards Broughton in Furness. The cafe on the square is biker friendly and does some quirky B&B. Good pun opposite if you like real ale. From B inF head towards Coniston ( good fast road) and back to Ambleside. Head north from there either up "the struggle" to join Kirkstone Pass at the top or take the long way round and the whole of Kirkstone. Head north to Glenridding, Patterdale, Pooley Bridge to Penrith. There's a campsite in Pooley Bridge lots of bikers I know use.

Lake District to Oban will take you most of a day. It depends on how much time you have but a visit to Dumfries and Galloway is worth it. Try the Galloway Activity Centre for camping with options of bunk house or chalets if weather is crap. Roads around D&G are some of the best. Try to A712 from Crocketford to Newton Stewart and I dare you not to smile the whole way.

To reach Oban its either through Glasgow or a ferry from Gourock to the Cowal peninsular then theres a few options to get to Oban. The B836 is worth a detour. There's only a couple of campsites in Oban, loads of B&b or there's a couple of travellers hostels.

Travelling on from Oban to Fort William there's only really one route. I would not bother with Fort William but carry on North to Isle of Skye, Gairloch, or Ullapool. Once up there just keep heading North and West and you won't go far wrong for stunning roads.

If you have not been before Scotland is surprisingly big, with relatively few roads that may not go directly where you want to go. These roads are however easy to travel on outside the big towns, being well maintained and are mostly excellent with little traffic. On single track roads most cars will pull over to let you past and you can maintain good average speeds.

Have a great trip. I love it up there.


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You were told wrong. It's a poo hole with the worlds worst one way system.. it's awful even when you know where you want to go!

My advice - don't enter Kendal under any circumstances


I'll agree with that, lived up this way all my life, and still finding new little road and lanes

It's also full of pikeys and scrotes, expensive and very very busy. There are loads of decent sites around, Brotherswater (on Kirkstone Pass) is a good one ( http://www.sykeside.co.uk/ ) and you have a choice of camp or bunkhouse if it crappy weather (and you have to expect crappy weather in the Lakes). The pub is good too.

Or;

http://www.gillheadfarm.co.uk/

http://www.burns-farm.co.uk/

http://www.dalebottomfarm.co.uk/

or just look for the camping signs - they are everywhere!

Ambleside and Windermere are very busy.

It's called the Queens Road, and yes, it's very good. If any of you have done BikeSafe, you will recognise some of the road from the BikeSafe videos.


Once you are clear of Glasgow, you really can't go wrong. One thing to note, the M74 extension is now complete and not on many maps or GPS's, so if you are planning to take the M8 through Glasgow (en route to Lock Lomond) don't, stay on the M74 and it now drops you on the west side of Glasgow nearer to the Erskin Bridge.

When are you going ???

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top advice for the lakes:- got to Hawkeshead, campsite is almost in the village, several top pubs but the Queens Head is the toppest of them all drink as much Freddericks as you can stagger across the road to you tent and sleep it off

I of course have never done such an irresponsible thing ever!!!!

Be very careful when using the new stretch of the M74, it is very heavily policed by traffic cops and for some strange reason they have made it a 50mph zone.

On a brighter note, if you use it, it now misses out the Kingston Bridge which crosses over the river Clyde in the city centre and avoids the inevitable traffic congestion.

Thanks for that, I'll be over that way on Sunday.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.