Britain's Best: Drives to the Hills

© Dan Bailey

For those of us living miles from the mountains time spent in transit is part of every hillwalking weekend. Travel might mean hassle and expense, but it can also be inspiring. No matter how familiar you are with the road, on the best hill drives your anticipation will always begin to build as the lowlands fall away. Around every bend your excitement grows along with the scenery outside. These classic journeys work a psychological magic, switching your head from normal life at point A to a feeling of liberation at point B. We're not necessarily talking action-packed Top Gear auditions: the drives we're after here are the roads with maximum scenic impact, the ones that most loudly announce when you've arrived in the hills.

Inspired by a similar thread on UKC, here's a run-through of some of our favourite drives (for those who prefer public transport, we'll cover train journeys another time):

A5 to Ogwen

Shropshire offers a first hint of hilliness, but it's when you breach the Welsh border that things really look up. Wind through Llangollen beneath Clywd's dramatic little limestone range - it's always slow and there's usually a caravan. Then it's on through green sheep-cropped hills to enter the National Park in the steep wooded valleys around Betws y Coed. There's a sense of imminent arrival now, with glimpses of No match for crag id:"Moel Siabod" drawing you on. Leave the trees at Capel Curig and you've reached the really good stuff. And then the castellated bulk of Tryfan looms ahead like a giant milestone, and you're clearly, unequivocally, here.

photo
Tryfan
© Tim Gardner

West from Capel Curig

Hang a left at Capel instead of going straight on (as above) and you're in for just as much of a treat. Beyond the twin lakes of Llynnau Mymbyr the A4086 runs through the wide grassy bowl of the Nantygwryd, with the humpback of No match for crag id:"Moel Siabod" on one side and the Glyderau to the other. Through the windscreen the whole of the Snowdon horseshoe is arrayed ahead, a sight to get the blood pumping. From here there are no bad options. Whether you swing left at the Pen y Gwyrd into the wooded loveliness of Nantwynant, stop short at Pen y Pass for a Snowdon classic, or carry on down into the dramatic trough of the Llanberis Pass, some of the best walking days in Wales are now just a car park away.

Snowdon and Capel Curig  © Joss
Snowdon and Capel Curig
© Joss, Jul 2012

A82 over Rannoch Moor into Glen Coe

From Tyndrum onwards the scenic build-up steadily increases. First the giant grassy cone of Beinn Dorain, then the climb onto Rannoch Moor and that layby with the outlook back to the ramparts of the Bridge of Orchy Range. A busker skirling away on the pipes is a fixture as permanent as the road signs here, and since nothing says 'highlands' quite like his tuneless drawl it only adds to the anticipation. It's off then across the desolation of the moor, with the Black Mount reflecting bulkily in the roadside lochs - a picture imprinted on the brain from a thousand calendars. On the long straight towards Glen Coe Buachaille Etive Mor muscles suddenly into view, a deafening crescendo of rock scenery. Though you should be watching for jaywalking deer, it's hard to keep your eyes on the driving by now. And it's not over yet: there's still the downhill into the glen, where the road squeezes between the craggy chaos of Aonach Eagach and the shapely Three Sisters. If any valley road can rival summits for sheer visual impact, this is it.

The Buachaille from the A82  © Dan Bailey
The Buachaille from the A82
© Dan Bailey

A66 Penrith to Keswick

As you cross the National Park boundary the Lakeland fells begin to rise out of the Eden Valley's pastures, and Blencathra's Sharp Edge is seen in sickle-like profile ahead. For scrambling fans it's a compelling sight, and a line you can trace from bottom to top without even having to leave the car seat. If you somehow manage not to get hooked in by the lure of Blencathra - it is hard to resist - you've got that amazing opening view over Keswick and the Newlands fells to look forward to. And then, in contrast to the fast road, perhaps it'll be the woodland wiggles of Borrowdale, an almost impossibly picturesque final destination and the jumping-off point for an array of classic hillwalks.

Blencathra from the A66 - windscreen views don't get much more enticing   © Dan Bailey
Blencathra from the A66 - windscreen views don't get much more enticing
© Dan Bailey

Inverness to Torridon

Here's a journey with a bit of everything, and a real sense of progression from semi-suburban lowlands to the wildest west coast. Dual carriageway gives way to the forest bends around Contin and Garve; then the bleak emptiness of Strath Bran, where it's hard not to speed. Just when you're beginning to wonder when the worthwhile scenery starts you punch through the pass above Kinlochewe and Loch Maree bursts into view. Whichever road you pick now - the single track of Glen Torridon, dwarfed below the looming bulk of Liathach and Beinn Eighe, or the loch-side route past the fluted mass of Slioch - there's no doubting you've reached a destination worth the journey.

Slioch and the road to Kinlochewe  © TorridonRed
Slioch and the road to Kinlochewe
© TorridonRed, Apr 2012

Wasdale Head

For most of us it's a long drive round to Wasdale, whichever way you come, but the final 20 minutes make up for the rest. Pass into the National Park and follow windy back lanes through a quintessentially Lakeland landscape of woods and fields. The only thing ahead now is Wasdale, hemmed in below the highest fells in England. Nearly done with its journey, the little road potters scenically along the shore of Wastwater with The Screes crumbling across the lake and that famous view of Great Gable and the upturned boat of Yewbarrow in profile dead ahead. At Wasdale Head the road peters out. This might be the end of the line but your day has only just begun, and the best is yet to come.

Wasdale valley in evening light.  © CrushUnit
Wasdale valley in evening light.
© CrushUnit, Apr 2015

Way out west to Kinloch Hourn

It's neither an easy drive nor fast, but nothing says 'wild' quite like the gear-crunching, undercarriage-scraping grind out to Kinloch Hourn. At the turn-off from the A87 a sign proclaims 22 miles, but the distance soon becomes moot - you're looking at an hour of rough singletrack, with sharp bends, steep humps and sudden dips all the way. The passing scenery does not get more middle of nowhere - first forests and Loch Garry, then the wind-ripped expanse of Loch Quoich and the jagged skyline of Knoydart's Rough Bounds. Pass below the steep flanks of Gleouraich and No match for crag id:"Sgurr a'Mhaoraich", then hold on tight for some serious wiggling and the improbable drop to the dead end at the head of Loch Hourn, the most fjord-like of Scotland's sea lochs. The drive has promised great things, and the mountains at the end of it deliver in spades.

The peaks of Knoydart's Rough Bounds from the Loch Quoich road  © Dan Bailey
The peaks of Knoydart's Rough Bounds from the Loch Quoich road
© Dan Bailey



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