The long distance cardinally challenged adventure cyclist has to be ready to react in the face of the unexpected and the inconvenient. I took a train from Hathersage at 7.32am on Tuesday believing I would be cycling in Scotland before noon, but fate had other ideas. I was well on the way, a few miles short of a Penrith in Cumbria, when the train came to a sudden halt. We were told that there was a break in the track ahead of us and it would be inspected by Network Rail. This led to a lengthy delay while the track was fixed. We spent that time back at Oxenholme station, near Kendal, while the whole of the West Coast line was suspended for over three hours. Luckily there was a small cafe on the platform and I met Adrian, a really interesting Frenchman living in Glasgow, to help pass the time. In the end I reached my hotel in Glasgow, without cycling until I got there, at about 6pm. So now I had about a 70 mile gap to make up later in the month. But I also had a bnb reserved in Inveraray for tonight, so there was no going back. Besides, the weather forecast was good and the best scenery lay to the NW.
After a night in Glasgow and a morning meeting on a Zoom call in my hotel broom, I was only just underway before noon. I chose that over an early start, with a mid-morning stop somewhere, knowing it might have a knock on effect and make the day challenging to fit into the available daylight. But my maths said it could work.
The day was bright but cool and I rode out along the Clyde to a brand new pedestrian bridge across from Partick to Govan, connecting two of Scottish football’s better known grounds. I picked my way through unfamiliar but not too busy streets and found myself confronted by Renfrew Town House, which is a Trumpton like feast for the eyes.
Then, a few miles on, I arrived in Paisley. This is a place that was once very important and now struggles. It has an ancient abbey in the centre, next to which stands a highly impressive town hall with tall clock tower. From here rises the pedestrianised main shopping street, which rises up a gentle hill to be framed at the top end by another church of intricate beauty and substantial size, with a hollow crown-topped central tower of red sandstone. It would all be rather magnificent but for the almost complete lack of proper shops. WH Smith have hung on for now, but M&S have gone. There is a very big Poundland and not much else. It makes for sad viewing. There are not too many units that are entirely bereft of businesses, but it’s no shopping Mecca. At the top end is a big museum that – like two years ago – is still in the throes of a major redevelopment. At least Paisley has something to come and see. It’s abbey is a gem. It was founded in the twelfth century and is as impressive a church interior as I have seen in mainland Scotland.
Whatever other woes Paisley might face, it can’t be criticised for its bike paths. NCR 75 leads away from the centre and takes the form of a broad, smoothly surfaced rail trail for almost twenty miles in the direction of Gourock. It was a pleasure to ride all the way. You couldn’t see a great deal, but it offered a traffic free way to bypass all of the towns on the south side of the Clyde as far as Greenock. This is a good thing on more levels than one.
Greenock, where my path descended steeply to the waterfront, was a proper big town with very impressive civic buildings, including the old Customs House. Behind, on the small area of flat land, was a tall, slender tower that I took to be the town hall, although it could have been a church. These were two of several large stone edifices that gave the place a sense of grandeur and history. It is also a modern container port, and there are tall red cranes dominating the skyline as you look out across the water. But the best thing all of these places have in common here is their views over the Firth of Clyde to the mountains. You can easily forgive some of the other things when you have that.
In my usual fashion, I arrived in Gourock five minutes before the Calmac passenger ferry to Dunoon was due to depart. Seamless. Or it would have been. But, we had barely pulled away from the jetty when a loud fire alarm went off and we had to return and get off again. Luckily I knew from previous visits – notably last year in my quest to reach Dull – that there is a second ferry (for vehicles) a couple of miles along the coast that also, seamlessly, was due to leave five minutes after I got there. I took that ferry over and arrived in bright sunshine on the north side of the Clyde, on the shores of beautiful Holy Loch, at 5pm. I was still 38 miles short of my destination at Inveraray on the northern side of Loch Fyne. As predicted, it would be tight. I felt rested after the sunny ferry journey and it was going to be a lovely, light evening; but even so, I faced a long, mostly flat, empty ride.
I did it in two and a half hours and was rather pleased with myself, not least because it meant that I could still get a proper meal in Inveraray, where I knew from 2022 that options would be limited. It was a truly beautiful cycle and a pretty flat one, too. You can’t beat the combination of mountains and water, and this ride had lots of both to look at. I have never followed this route before and I was much impressed. You start by following the banks off the substantial inland loch of Loch Eck, before reaching the shores of the vast Loch Fyne, a long finger of seawater, and making what feels like an endless circuit around its upper reaches. You could clearly see Inveraray from a tantalising mile or so across the water, but I didn’t reach it for another twenty miles. By then, the light was beginning to fade, despite the calm, clear sky.
I will say, however, that it has been worth the wait and the extra effort. I have had a lovely evening in the George Hotel, who not only serve excellent food; but also have a Whisky bar that includes 500 different malts. I sat at the bar, befriended the barman, and had the time off my life! Well, someone has to. It went a long way to making up for yesterday’s frustrations.
