Bikepacking in the Scottish Highlands

The Highland Trail 550 is Britain's benchmark bikepacking route and one of the hardest in Europe: a self-supported off-road loop of around 550 miles through the wildest parts of the Scottish Highlands, from Tyndrum out to the far northwest and back.

It is not a smooth gravel tour — it links rough estate tracks, technical singletrack, boggy moor and long sections of hike-a-bike where you shoulder the loaded bike across pathless ground — and you carry everything, sleeping in bothies, the occasional bunkhouse, or a bivvy under the stars.

The reward is the Highlands at their rawest: empty glens, remote lochs, big weather, and a sense of self-reliance that has made the route a rite of passage.

Ridden as a race each May or taken at your own pace, it distils everything demanding and magnificent about wild riding in Scotland into one committing line.

Around 550 miles of rough, self-supported riding on estate tracks, technical singletrack, moorland and long hike-a-bike sections where you push or carry the loaded bike. This is genuinely hard, remote riding: boggy ground, river crossings, big daily distances, and stretches with no resupply or shelter for hours.

You sleep in bothies, bunkhouses or a bivvy, and you carry all your kit and much of your food. Highland weather is the constant — midges in summer, rain and wind any time — and self-reliance is the whole nature of it.

Expect to be tired, wet and a long way from help, in some of Britain's finest wild country.

Ride it between May and September, when daylight is long and the bothies and shops are most useful; the annual group 'grand depart' leaves Tyndrum in late May, but the route is there to ride solo any time.

This is advanced-to-expert bikepacking — come with off-road fitness, mechanical self-sufficiency and navigation skills, on a capable hardtail or rigid mountain bike with bikepacking bags. Carry bivvy kit, spares, water treatment and enough food for the remote stretches.

Plan resupply around the few villages, respect bothy etiquette and access rules, and check weather and river levels. Build up on shorter overnighters before committing to the full loop.