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Highest asphalt in The Kingdom

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  1. gembo
    Member

    Took hill out of aberdour this morning up to Fordell/coaledge. Then round to the gas flare then up another hill towards radio mast and Kirkaldy. Is this the highest ashphalt in fife.

    We got a bit lost and split from the other half of the gang on a 270 degree turn at Auchtertool. Then lovely descent down to Burntisland. Lovely snatched glimpse of the beach. Stopped for coffee at the very busy sands cafe, aberdour. Feck yer boardwalk at silverknowes, that cafe is Bondi beach on the Forth (actually more like Coogee along from Bondi). Mobbed with normals and cyclists.

    For sheer blasted Scottish Presbyterianism, Auchtertool Kirk top of the brae, master of all it surveys, was my highlight.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  2. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I know just what you mean: Hills of Fife aren't just a laundry company. Here's the view on that road to Auchtertool:

    Posted 6 years ago #

  3. paddyirish
    Member

    That is a lovely bit of road. Auchertool, back of the Binn area.

    Highest I know of is Pirrin Den which takes you to East Lomond car park. Cleish Hill pretty high too. Think they are both over 300m and Pirrin Den is a beast of a climb, one of the steepest in the Lowlands.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  4. gembo
    Member

    @cyclingmollie thanks for photo, that little lochan featured prettily then there was a voodoo chole slight return moment when we went past stenhouse trout fishery and I wondered if we had doubled back but I think similar not the same?

    @paddyirish, yes we could see Lomond hill som was thinking probably a car park that way.

    I will fail to mention pirrin den to the fietsclub

    Possibly the mad feckin drivers of Fife did not take the extra hour in bed but got up early as 9 a.m. Through Inverkeithing should not have been that busy.

    Did get quite disorientated up in them that hills as when we did finally come back towards the forth we had a view which I was expecting to be west but was in fact The bass rock.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  5. dessert rat
    Member

    Did a Sportif thing a few years back that took us through Wanlockhead, which may or may not the highest village in Scotland - Ordnance Surveys ongoing to settle the dispute.

    Suspect there will be higher tarmac somewhere, that was high enough.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  6. gembo
    Member

    Wanlockhead has highest pub in UK and the asphalt that goes out of there up to the radar station or whatever it is on Green Lowther hill is the highest paved road in UK. I was only wondering about The Kingdom of Fife today. The Kingdom Johnny Cash's ancestors used to own (see the street in Strathmiglo called Cash Feus)

    Posted 6 years ago #

  7. Snowy
    Member

    Yep, the climb to the radar golf ball on Lowther Hill is a good one. Not a through road, though, so should we count it? If you hang around at the top, your coffee stays hot for ages.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  8. paddyirish
    Member

    Wiki suggests that the Cairnwell is as high as it goes in Scotland.

    I had the feeling the highest tarmac in the UK is somewhere in the Pennines- up a one way road somewhere like Cross Fell.

    And indeed, this site suggests that Wiki hasn't got it right...

    Posted 6 years ago #

  9. gembo
    Member

    @snowy, correct you have to go back down same way you went up.

    I retract all asphalt allegations (we have a lovely Irish man cycles with us who takes exception to Tarmac as it is a British proprietary brand). Two of the highest paved public roads are dead ends, 28 are passes. Green Lowther is Maybe not a public road? Summit is 732 metres. Golf ball not on summit. Golf ball is maybe highest golf ball. The ski club on green lowther have a website looking at green lowther and nine other golf balls you can ski or snowboard near. Man this is complex. Durisdeer where the mad marble mausoleum at back of modest kirk also gets a mention as one of the unpassable passes goes from there to wanlockhead.

    The pub though in wanlockhead is the highest, it did close so you had to go to the British legion for highest drawn pint of beer. Also for a while sold fruit juices as was some sort of retreat but think back now as a hotel.

    These things are all quite relative. I once cycled to the highest market town in England, which is in Cumbria. Strangely I cycled downhill to it from Northumberland.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  10. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The highest public road in the land is of course the Màm Choire Ghearraig. No tar macadam to be seen, but no bicyclist should miss it. Punishing for man and machine alike.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  11. gembo
    Member

    Corrieyairack Pass 770metres. Quite well paved in places by General Wade.

    How high does the track go on Ben Nevis?

    When does a track become a path?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  12. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Quite well paved in places by General Wade.

    The 'stone paving' is actually the foundations. All the gravel be gone. Still a public road it seems, even if not maintained. We all have the right to drive a flock of geese over it or something.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  13. crowriver
    Member

    "The Kingdom Johnny Cash's ancestors used to own"

    Bill Cash's ancestors more likely?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  14. gembo
    Member

    @crowriver, maybe but Roseanne Cash (Johnny's daughter) has visited The Kingdom several times.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  15. cb
    Member

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Widget

    Posted 6 years ago #

  16. gembo
    Member

    @cb, he made his wee boy learn that wee cooper of Fife torture.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  17. DaveC
    Member

    I think the wiki link above is only public roads. The Wanlochhead road is a private road, access to the mast.

    I have ridden the Cairnwell a few times, didn't know it was the highest public road. Funny as a Sportive Company which organises rides claims their ride over Bealach na Bà is the highest (public) road.

    I rode over to Germany in September and reached Losheimergraben at 680 and then later the same day Signal de Bontrange at very near 700m. Not the heighest in Europe by any stretch but my heighest point cycled to.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  18. fimm
    Member

    The Bealach na Ba has surely good claim to be the longest climb, given that you start from sea level?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  19. amir
    Member

    According to Veloviewer, I have done one HC (in Tuscany), no cat 1 climbs, quite a few cat 2s, and loads of cat 3s and below. The Scottish cat 2s include:
    Glenshee
    Cairn O' Mount
    Mennock Pass

    But I've never done the Bealach na Ba on a bike.

    There's loads on nice Cat 3s locally.

    I enjoyed the HC (though underestimated the temperature drop). Of recent climbs, I am most proud of the Snow Roads sequence of climbs in high temps and also a cat 3 which I used to show my OH how good it would be if she got an e bike.

    I'd be tempted to do more of these long climbs, but don't really like the descents.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  20. jonty
    Member

    "I'd be tempted to do more of these long climbs, but don't really like the descents."

    There's a lot of things about 'sport' cycling that are hard to explain to non-cycley people but, for me, I think this concept is one of the hardest!

    Posted 6 years ago #

  21. gembo
    Member

    Nice descents could be a thread - Did one from Above Burntisland down to Burntisland. Clear site lines, one car overtook. Descent of Red Stone Rig is fave as straight, no roads bisecting, little in way of raj tractor drivers. Leyden Road from A70 down to Kirknewton, not bad buyt some farmers and dog walkers.

    Also the one that is the famous climb in West Lothain, name eluding me at moment, near linlithgow goes up to Ochiltree falso summit etc, is actually good descent.

    West Binny Hill descent out that way also good (contains one golf club though)

    Posted 6 years ago #

  22. wingpig
    Member

    "There's a lot of things about 'sport' cycling that are hard to explain to non-cycley people but, for me, I think this concept is one of the hardest!"

    Is this that non-'sports cyclist' people would assume that a 'sports cyclist' person would like the opportunity to cash back in their gravitational potential, and/or not getting that even 'sports cyclist' people get frightened about going downhill too fast, or that 'sports cyclist' people might not like going downhill as they're not exerting themselves into the appropriate cardiovascular zone when freewheeling, or that they're more likely to get cold rushing downhill and don't have enough pockets in their special clothes to store more clothes?

    (Assuming you mean the branch of sports cycling concerned with having really light bicycles, not those who have really heavy bicycles with lots of suspension built specifically for going down hills, albeit not particularly on smooth roads?)

    Posted 6 years ago #

  23. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I've climbed the Cairnwell from sea-level - I think you're half way up at Braemar.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  24. cb
    Member

    I am suddenly reminded about the great Esplanade to Leith freewheel which I don't think ever happened sadly.

    Also mentioned (and the idea born) here.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  25. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    What we need is a Kerbal Space programme for bikes.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  26. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    and don't have enough pockets in their special clothes to store more clothes

    Unvarnished. Pleasing.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  27. jonty
    Member

    @wingpig: perhaps I should have put 'for me' a bit earlier in the sentence. I'm referring to people who don't get that when I talk about a 'good climb' I am in fact talking about enjoying the climb (or, perhaps, completing the climb) and am not really thinking about the downhill bit (or perhaps there's a bit of dread.)

    It's probably a bit of an exaggeration, and I'm very aware that's far from universal - but it does surprise people.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  28. LivM
    Member

    @gembo re: tarmac/asphalt etc. My aunt who's a roads engineer uses "Blacktop" for generic description.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  29. amir
    Member

    and don't have enough pockets in their special clothes to store more clothes

    I might point out that some humans who dress as sports cyclists are merely utility cyclists, using their bikes to transport themselves to wonderful places beyond the city limits. The sports clothing is just a personal choice that works for them. (and you can get an enormous amount in some pockets)

    Posted 6 years ago #

  30. paulmilne
    Member

    Sorry, but the descent is what makes the climb worth doing - for me that is.

    Posted 6 years ago #

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