The Badger Divide

Having owned an old hardtail for a few years, I knew I loved going out on trails, but I wasn’t so sure about becoming a ‘hardcore’ mountain biker like a lot of my friends – for me, it was all about doing longer off road rides. My housemate at the time did a lot of gravel biking, and he left out his copy of ‘Dividing the Badger’, which showed the journey of a group of friends riding – you guessed it… the Badger Divide.

The Badger Divide is a 210 mile gravel route linking the city of Inverness to Glasgow created by off road cyclist Stu Allan. It’s about 90% off road and can get pretty remote at times, but the frequency of small towns and villages doesn’t make resupplying an issue. The trail flows between forest roads, gravel trails and chunky mountain passes, with some quiet roads linking up the route in between. Starting from Inverness, the first 100 miles is certainly the ‘chunkier’ type of gravel, and this gradually becomes pristine gravel as the route goes on. 

And so, the search for a second-hand gravel bike began. Within a few months, I was fortunate to purchase a Bombtrack Beyond from a local rider. She had taken Bee (the name of my bike) on a bike trip spanning the length of South America, so I knew it would be perfect for the trails I had in mind. 

The opportunity to explore the Badger Divide finally came about the following summer in August 2023, and we planned to complete the route over four days. Alongside Zach, who rides a Bombtrack Hook EXT-C, I headed up to Inverness over a bank holiday weekend. We took the train from the Lake District to Glasgow on Friday after work, stayed overnight, and caught a 7 a.m. train to Inverness. Our journey began around midday after stocking up on lunch at Morrisons (featuring some fantastic vegan sausage rolls).

Day one: Inverness to Blackburn of Corrieyairack.

We set out from Inverness, heading south along the River Ness. Our journey took an unexpected turn as we navigated through a new housing estate, our first challenge of the day! After manoeuvring our way around the development, we joined the Great Glen Way towards Craig Leach. The rain had begun to fall steadily, and I couldn’t help but wish for better waterproofs. Despite the weather, the Great Glen Way treated us to some pleasant single and doubletrack trails and roads. Descending into Drumnadrochit, we faced some trickier terrain, made more challenging by the rain and the weight of our fully loaded gravel bikes.

The soggy conditions made for tougher going than anticipated, and as we reached Drumnadrochit, I started to question if I had taken on more than I could handle. We stopped at a charming tea shop, only to discover they had stopped serving hot food for the day, and there were no cakes I could eat (dairy-free). Nevertheless, my spirits were lifted when we stumbled upon some vegan KitKats at the nearby coop – my highlight of the first day (besides the beautiful scenery). 

Leaving Drumnadrochit behind, we pedaled onto some doubletrack gravel, climbing over the summits of Meall na Sroine and Creag nan Eun. Thankfully, the rain began to ease off as we approached Invermoriston where the route also became gentler. 

We were very excited to reach Fort Augustus, where we could find the Chinese restaurant we had spotted on Google Maps. With our bellies full and with darkness setting, we opted to push on up the renowned Corrieyairack Pass, stopping at the bothy halfway up the climb. It was late, and with the bothy already bustling on this bank holiday Saturday night, we decided to pitch our tent outside – pleased with our first day!

Day two: Blackburn of Corrieyairack to Corrour

As expected, the tent had attracted a storm of midges, so getting up and out was a hurried and largely unpleasant affair.

We kicked off the day with the remaining ascent over the Pass of Corrieyairack, following General Wade’s old military roads. Surprisingly, the GPX route we were following didn’t account for all the switchbacks, which meant the elevation wasn’t as steep as feared, and the track was way more rideable than expected, sparing us from any hike-a-biking!

I was however, quite unprepared for the decent where piles of big, chossy rocks turned the track into chunky gravel. The weight of my bike, twinned with cable disc breaks and a distinct lack of cycling ability in this terrain resulted in me having two falls  🫣 (undignifying, but thankfully completely injury free). Zach on the other hand, cruised down the decent, enjoying the concentration required. 

We had a little detour into Laggan for a much needed cafe stop for brunch, coffee and cake. Following this I fell asleep whilst riding my bike on the road! We re-joined onto the route and hit the shore of Loch Laagan which was the start of a delightful stretch of gravel, taking us onto the eastern shore of Lochan na h-Earba – beautiful! The short beach stretch was walked, but we didn’t mind as it gave us more time to take in the views. 

We met some of the locals (highland cows), and then rode through the Corrour Estate to Corrour Station – the most remote railway station in the UK! We stopped here for a lovely dinner and relaxed next to the fire. Getting out after our cosy dinner was difficult, but once we were going we had a speedy few hours riding in the cloud before setting up camp along the side of the path. 

Badger Divide day 3: Corrour to Glen Ample. 

The day began with an enjoyable stretch of bridleway leading us to Loch Rannoch. There was a fair but fun climb from here, followed by a descent into Glen Lyon. We found the post office tea shop, where we had a feast of soup and paninis, almost leaving us too full to cycle!

We then followed a tarmac road for a while, leading us out of Glen Lyon on a steady but steep climb. I recently discovered that my gravel bike’s seat had seized up, rendering it immovable and slightly too short, and after over 200km of riding, my knees were really starting to feel it. 

Thankfully, descents tend to make everything feel better, and the tarmac ride down into Glen Lochay was lovely. When we reached Killin, we found a Co-op to replenish our food supplies, including more vegan chocolate. We had decided not to stop off for dinner, it was a bit too early in Killin, and we wanted to make sure we got enough distance in so we could have an easy last day. 

Out of Killin, the route took us up a technical, steep single track… which runs alongside a wide gravel track – we stuck to the single track, but at the top of the hill, my chain broke. Fortunately, we (Zach) managed to remove the broken chain link for a quick fix.

We hit 100km of riding and decided to make camp just off the path, and cook our dehydrated meals to eat in bed. Once in the tent, we realised just how many ticks there were in the spot, but knew that there wasn’t much we could do about it until we arrived home the next night. 

Badger Divide day 4: Glen Ample to Glasgow

We set off early from Glen Ample, aware that we needed ‘ample’ time to reach Glasgow and catch a train back to the Lakes. We still had 80km to cover, and while we were fairly certain it wouldn’t be as ‘off-road’ as some of the routes in the previous days, we weren’t sure how long it would take us. We wanted to allow enough time to deal with any potential mechanical issues.

About 20 minutes into our journey, our trail transitioned into a delightful gravel descent followed by a brief road stretch. We found ourselves on a cycle route, tracing the south side of Loch Venachar, and it was absolutely stunning. The weather was sunny, the best we’d experienced on the trip so far. This stretch into Aberfoyle became my favourite part of the trip, with pristine gravel paths winding through a forest, passing a fair few bodies of water.

We arrived in Aberfoyle at 10 am, just as the cafes were beginning to open. We had already covered 30km and had only 50km left to reach Glasgow, so we made bike reservations for a train at 16:00.

From there, we encountered fire tracks, cycle paths, and roads leading to Milngavie. It was great to see so many people starting out on the West Highland Way, which brought back memories of my trip two years ago.

We reached the finish of the Badger Divide at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum around 14:30. Although I was looking forward a shower and a real bed, I couldn’t help but feel sad about heading home. Spending the day on the gravel bikes, stopping at cafes, and setting up camp whenever we felt tired, was a fantastic way to spend the bank holiday weekend.