mountain biking

The Badger Divide: Glasgow to Inverness by Bike

The 338km off-road route from Kelvingrove to Inverness Castle — the real distance and climbing, the 100 miles with no shops, and how it relates to An Turas Mor and the HT550.

OutdoorSCOT 6 September 2026 11 min read

Quick Summary

210 miles / 338km with 5,300m of climbing, Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow to Inverness Castle — Cycling UK's published figures
Four or five days is the version worth riding. Three is possible and is a race against your own trip
After Killin there are few amenities for 100 miles — the resupply plan is the plan
It is the short version of a longer idea — An Turas Mor runs the same corridor on to Cape Wrath, and forms the Scottish half of the Great North Trail

The Badger Divide is the route that made bikepacking normal in Scotland. It is long enough to feel like a proper undertaking, short enough to fit a long weekend, and it starts and finishes at two railway towns, so nobody needs a car or a lift. That combination is rarer than it sounds.

Quick Answer: The Badger Divide is a 210-mile (338km) off-road route from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow to Inverness Castle, with 5,300m of climbing. It runs via Aberfoyle, the Trossachs, Killin, Corrour, Loch Ossian, Laggan, the Corrieyairack Pass, Fort Augustus and the shore of Loch Ness. Most riders take four or five days. A gravel bike on wide tyres is enough; the surfaces range from tarmac cycle path to loose rock.

The numbers, and which ones to trust

Cycling UK publishes the route as 210 miles / 338km with 5,300m (17,400ft) of climbing. You will find 321km, 330km and 340km quoted in other write-ups, with ascent figures from 5,300m to 5,500m.

That spread is not sloppiness, and it is worth understanding before you plan around any single number. Riders take slightly different lines through the same corridor — a forest track avoided here, a road section taken there — and GPS units systematically disagree over rough, steep ground. Plan on 338km and expect your own computer to read a few kilometres either side of it. What does not vary between sources is the shape of the thing: about five and a bit thousand metres of climbing over three to five days, most of it off tarmac.

Where it actually goes

North from Kelvingrove, out of Glasgow on cycle path, then Aberfoyle, the Trossachs past Loch Venachar, up the Glen Ample valley and into Killin. That is the first day for most people, and it is the civilised part.

Then it changes. The route crosses Corrour Estate under the shoulder of the Grampians, passes Loch Ossian and Corrour Station, runs on by Lochan na h-Earba to Laggan, then climbs the Corrieyairack Pass — the old military road over to Fort Augustus — before running the length of Loch Ness and down the River Ness to the castle.

The Corrieyairack Pass is the technical crux rather than the highest or hardest climb. It is General Wade's 18th-century military road, and Cycling UK's account is blunt about its condition: loose rock, with the old cobbles mostly eroded. Expect to push some of it in either direction, and expect the descent to be slower than the map suggests.

Try it yourself

Our free Loch Ossian

The route passes it at roughly the halfway point, and on a still evening it is the best swim on the whole line.

No sign-up required.

How it fits with the other Scottish long-distance routes

This is the part most guides skip, and it is the thing that makes the Badger Divide easier to understand: the named Scottish bikepacking routes are a family, not four unrelated options.

Route	Distance	Climbing	Ends
Badger Divide	338km / 210 mi	5,300m	Glasgow → Inverness
An Turas Mor	~562km / ~354 mi	not published as a single figure	Glasgow → Cape Wrath
Great North Trail	1,287km / 800 mi	not stated	Peak District → Cape Wrath or John o' Groats
Highland Trail 550	885km / 550 mi	16,002m	Tyndrum, figure-of-eight

Three of those four nest inside each other. Cycling UK describes the Badger Divide as using An Turas Mor as its basis, and An Turas Mor as forming the Scottish half of Cycling UK's own Great North Trail. So the Badger Divide is the short, popular version of a longer idea — same corridor out of Glasgow, stopping at Inverness instead of carrying on to a lighthouse.

The Highland Trail 550 is the odd one out and should not be treated as the next rung on the ladder. It is a self-supported time-trial route conceived by Alan Goldsmith, a figure-of-eight from Tyndrum village hall, 885km with 16,002m of climbing — three times the Badger Divide's ascent over two and a half times the distance. Bikepacking.com rates its difficulty 9 out of 10 and notes that everyone, including strong riders, should expect extended hike-a-bike. Racers finish in four to eight days; the touring version is presented as eleven to fourteen.

Which direction

Cycling UK's write-up runs south to north, Glasgow to Inverness, and that is how most people ride it and how the name is usually read. There are two practical arguments for it beyond convention: the prevailing wind in Scotland is south-westerly, so more days than not it is behind you; and finishing at Inverness Castle with the Highland main line at the bottom of the hill is a better end than starting there.

Riding it northbound also means the hardest, emptiest section arrives on day two or three, when you have your legs but have not yet run down your food.

Getting there and getting home

Both ends are on the rail network, which is the quiet reason this route works better than its distance suggests: you can do the whole thing without a car at either end. Glasgow and Inverness are both served directly, and bike reservations on the Highland main line are compulsory and limited — book them when you book the trip, not the week before.

Corrour is the escape hatch. It sits directly on the route at roughly the midpoint and is a request stop on the West Highland Line, which means a rider who has had enough at the hardest point of the trip can get out without a road. There is no road to Corrour at all. Very few Scottish routes have a bail-out that good, and it is worth knowing it is there.

Wild camping, bothies and where to sleep

The route is rideable with no bookings at all, because Scotland's statutory access rights cover wild camping on most unenclosed land — see our guide to the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and the wild camping rules in practice. The exception to know about is the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs camping management zones near the start.

If you would rather have a roof for the middle night, the bothy network covers parts of the corridor, and the Loch Ossian hostel sits beside the loch at the halfway point. Neither is a booking system you can rely on: bothies are first-come and unstaffed, and a full bothy on a wet night is a tent you should have brought anyway.

The honest take

The Honest Take

The Badger Divide is not a wilderness expedition and it is not a beginner's route, and most of the writing about it picks one of those two stories. It is a fit rider's long weekend with one genuinely remote day in the middle.

The middle day is the reason to go. The Corrour to Fort Augustus section — Loch Ossian, the empty ground to Laggan, then the old military road over the Corrieyairack — is as close as Scotland gets to riding through nothing, and it is a strange feeling to be that far from a shop on a bike you rode out of Glasgow.

Skip it if: you have not done a loaded overnight before (do a weekend from the beginner routes first — the jump from a 45-mile overnighter to a 100-mile foodless section is bigger than the mileage suggests), or you are trying to fit it into three days because someone on the internet did. Three days turns the best part of the route into a section you get through.

And do not treat the HT550 as the natural next step. It is three times the climbing and a different sport.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the Badger Divide?

Cycling UK publishes it as 210 miles / 338km with 5,300m (17,400ft) of climbing, running from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow to Inverness Castle. You will see 321km, 330km and 340km quoted elsewhere, because riders log slightly different lines through the same corridor and GPS units disagree over rough ground. Treat 338km as the planning figure and expect your own computer to read a few kilometres either side of it.

How many days does the Badger Divide take?

Three days is a hard trip, four or five is the enjoyable one. The Cycling UK write-up is by a rider who did it in three days and still recommends four or five to get anything out of the landscape. Averaging 70km a day on loaded rough ground with 5,300m of climbing is more work than the same distance on tarmac.

Do you need a mountain bike for the Badger Divide?

No — a gravel bike on wide tyres handles most of it, and plenty of people ride it that way. The surfaces run from compacted gravel and tarmac cycle path to rocky byway, and the Corrieyairack Pass in particular is loose rock where the old military cobbles have eroded. If your gravel bike takes 45mm or more and you are happy pushing occasionally, you are fine. If not, a hardtail is the easier day.

Where do you resupply on the Badger Divide?

Front-load it. Cycling UK's own account says that after Killin there are few amenities for the next 100 miles — that stretch crosses Corrour, Loch Ossian and the Corrieyairack to Fort Augustus, which is largely estate and forest track with no shops on it. Carry food out of Killin and treat Fort Augustus as the next reliable restock.

Is the Badger Divide the same as An Turas Mor?

No, but they are related. An Turas Mor is the longer Glasgow to Cape Wrath route, and Cycling UK describes the Badger Divide as using it as its basis; An Turas Mor in turn forms the Scottish half of Cycling UK's Great North Trail. The Badger Divide is the short, popular version — same corridor out of Glasgow, stopping at Inverness rather than carrying on to the north coast.

Can you wild camp along the Badger Divide?

Yes. Scotland's statutory access rights cover wild camping on most unenclosed land, which is a large part of why this route works as a multi-day trip with no bookings. The Loch Lomond and the Trossachs camping management zones are the exception to know about, and the usual responsibilities apply everywhere else.

The final third of the Badger Divide shares ground with two routes we cover in their own right — the Great Glen Gravel Route and the Loch Ness South Shore forest route — and the walking line through the same corridor is the Great Glen Way. If you want the Trossachs end without the commitment, the beginner bikepacking routes start there.

Sources

Weekender: The Badger Divide — Cycling UK, distance, ascent, start and finish, waypoints, surfaces and the resupply gap
Great North Trail — Cycling UK, trail distance and end points
Highland Trail 550 — Bikepacking.com, distance, elevation gain, start point and difficulty rating
Scottish Outdoor Access Code — NatureScot, statutory access rights and responsibilities

Tagsbikepackingbadger dividegravelmountain bikingscotlandwild camping