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Cycle loop from Lanark68.74km
914m ascent
4 hours 20 minutes
Although we had initially thought to have a return to some Donalds (Malky figured he couldn’t spend all this time in Glasgow and not finish bagging them
) but the weather wasn’t looking good enough to be bothered driving anywhere. So we hopped on the train to Lanark with the bikes and a plan
The road out of Lanark wasn’t as busy as we’d thought it might be, and we made good progress past the “State Hospital” and out towards Elsrickle.
Tinto was poking out from under some cloud
And as we dropped out of Elsrickle and towards Candy Mill we could see our first hill – Broomy Law – ahead, with a big radio mast on the summit
We had to drop onto the main road just for a few metres which wasn’t the most fun but before long we were off and onto a farm track – with my sparkly new bike I was able to off road a little which Malky was very excited about…
Broomy Law
2.42km
145m ascent
40 minutes
At the farm we dumped the bikes and decided to continue on foot – would be good to give the legs a wee stretch for a while
Looking ahead to Broomy Law
It was a steep climb and we beasted it uphill far faster than we should have done
Although our summit was out of the clag, sadly not much else was, so the view weren’t exactly much to write home about. It seemed we made the right decision to stay down low
Summit of Broomy Law
Malky has a big radio mast sticking out of his head
We had some sandwiches before heading back down to the bikes. A few kilometres along the main road we turned off onto the smaller road to Skirling where we had to cross an actual ford
We actually both got off and crossed the footbridge as the cobbles looked really slippery but Malky decided to wash his bike and I thought he might be going to fall in
Near Skirling we passed into the Borders – so a borders raid it is then
We continued towards Broughton where we did a fair amount of wiggling around in order to stay off main roads and came back around to the easy side of our next hill – Goseland hill.
We cycled up the track to Gosland Farm where we were greeted by barking dogs and some very hungry ponies who took a liking to Malky’s pannier and my bike so we chucked them over a fence out of reach
Goseland Hill
1.47km
152m ascent
30 minutes
We spotted a faint path straight up the hillside which we followed – it was super steep but it certainly got us up quickly
And the views weren’t too shabby either!
Soon the gradient eased and a few minutes of plodding through some heather later we were at the summit of Goseland Hill
We were back into the clag up here so the views weren’t so spectacular here either
We dropped back down to the bikes – we had thought it was going to be far worse coming back down the steep grass but we got down with no problems, rescued the bikes and headed off. Malky decided that we should carry on along the track back to the road. I was sceptical but too tired to bother arguing as we cycled and then pushed our bikes through mud and gorse bushes…
Why do I listen to this idiot?!
Off-roading
From here there was a big hill followed by more little hills than I’d be warned about
We got the lights on before hitting the main road back into Lanark where we had time to grab a cup of tea in Morrisons before jumping on the early train back home
