Bike trip down Glen Etive, Scottish Highlands in mixed weather

February 11, 2020

(Above image is a capture of resident Red Deer outside hotel.)

This morning, from my base in Glencoe, Scottish Highlands, I embarked on a 28 mile round trip along a single-track road through the stunning Glen Etive scenery which culminated on the banks of Loch Etive, a sea loch which is, effectively, a fjiord.

Weather today proved very challenging. Firtly, I was cycling direct into gusting, almost gale force winds from the west in conjunction with which came waves of storms which including rain, snow, sleet and hail.I lost my headgear twice due to the winds.However, the road conditions were O.K. and temperature hovered around freezing but did not result in much wind chill.

On the upside, the scenery was raw, rugged and magnificent with the River Etive amd its tributaries in full spate, the mountains had a good cover of snow and the surface of Loch Etive was very rough.

Long and winding road through Glen Etive

Overall, the opportunities for landscape photography were very good. taking into account the weather.

James Bond fans may recognise some of the landscaspes because this was where parts of Skyfall was filmed.

Whilst I was writing this blog there was a bit of excitement when a Coastguard helicopter landed (on a dedicated helipad) just a couple of hundred yards from the hotel. At the time the weather was atrocious with minimal visibilty. The hotel staff had no idea what prompted the landing and speculated is may relate to mountain climbers in distress.

Video clip of Glen Etive landscape

My trusty steed