West is best, east is a feast

West Scotland is a riding delight, but what about the other side…?

Most touring experts will probably say the best place to ride for scenery and roads in Scotland is the West Coast – the area around Loch Ness, right up to the top in the Highlands, or the roads running through the Cairngorms National Park. Basically, the places everyone else heads for and there is a reason for that.

However, the region that rarely gets a mention in stories such as these is the east side of the country, particularly the area around Aberdeen. This is probably because it lacks the headline tourist attractions of the West and it also has a reputation for being, well, a bit dull compared with much of the rest of Scotland’s grandeur. And this is true – the non-cairngorms side of Aberdeenshire hasn’t got a Glen Coe or a Bealach na Ba, and yet it’s here you’ll find fantastic riding roads that are comparatively free of the motorhomes and caravans that plague the rest of Scotland, during peak season.

Take the A97 running from the village of Dinnet on the eastern side of the Cairngorms in the Dee valley, north across country for 60-odd miles up to Banff on the northern Aberdeenshire with HGVS, but for much of its length it’s more like a quality B-road, twisting and turning through a variety of beautiful landscapes – you get long straight runs through pine plantations and alongside marshy pools and lakes, a twisty section tracking the River Don as it winds through flower meadows and twisty bends between steep hillsides or through tunnels of broad-leaved beech trees. And there are plenty of pretty villages on this route with ruined castles and ancient earthworks, perfect for pulling over, grabbing a coffee from a cafe, with cake, and mulling over the region’s history.

If you go this way you will also notice that the A97 has brilliant place names scattered about it: Towie, Bogniebrae, Yonder Bognie, Upper Fattahead and Boghead. Hopefully they all do their own fridge magnets too.

And that’s just one road, head down any of the A and Bs that meander from the north coast between Nairn and Fraserburgh down into the Cairngorms, and they’re almost all memorable riding, and all this without the cut and thrust of more popular areas of this fantastic country. ‘Roads less travelled’ as they all to

‘If you go this way you will notice the A97 has brilliant place names scattered about it: Upper Fattahead, Boghead…’