This thread got my thinking cap on again. Via Glasgow & the Great Glen
LE > Exeter
> Tewkesbury
> Liverpool (Queens Tunnel after 7pm)
> Carlisle
> Garelochhead
> Drumnadrochit
> JOG
All less than 210km.
Ridden 1440km
Shortest 1430km
Difference 10km - 42minutes lost.
https://ridewithgps.com/collections/1785245?privacy_code=9nsgwwJ2cji8zO6m
Looks good, Will. Like the Sub-Mersey option.
Here's an end-to-end option list I worked on ages ago:
The main choke points on an end-to-end are: N/S of Bodmin Moor, Bridgwater, crossing the Mersey/MSC (Widnes or Warrington or Queen's Tunnel), Preston and Carlisle. That's England.
Let's assume you are talking about Scotland and take it from the PoV of LEJOG.
Three main ways to get up to the Clyde/Forth line:
A. NW to Ardrossan and ferries to Kintyre via Isle of Arran.
B. // M74 to Glasgow (or pass east of the city)
C. N to Edinburgh (using south-going LEL route recommended)
A1. If A you're going 'West Coast' via Oban, Fort William, Great Glen
A11. to Dingwall (via Inverness or Beauly)
A12. 'West coast' to Durness via Ullapool (Note consider going from Oban via Mull , Ardnamurchan and Skye if heading for there)
B1. If B you could cut NE through Dunblane and Crieff to the A9 (to Inverness)
B2. Go north via Killin to the A9 (to Inverness)
B3. Head NW/NNW/N to the A82 (Loch Lomond) to Fort William
B4. Option of the Gourock/Dunoon ferry and 'west coast' via Connel or back to the A82 to Fort William
C1. If C, you're logically heading for Perth, the A9 and Inverness
C2. Tho' maybe via Braemar for some scenery (and to stay off the A9).
After the Moray/Cromarty Firths, three options:
a. Long tour round the west coast via Durness (see A12 above) and east to JoG
b. A9 up the east coast with 'cut north' options at Helmsdale or Latheron to go via Thurso
c. N thro' Lairg and Altnaharra to Bettyhill (and then east to JoG), either via Tongue or Strathnaver
My 2015 route was this one:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/8592623Main preference for me was not to ride long distances on the A9 (the lot of the 'East Coast' warrior), or the A82: had to do some from Corran ferry to Ft William and from the Commando Memorial (Spean Bridge) to Drumnadrochit but dived off all I could on parallel roads/towpaths (eg from Banavie and from Bridge of Oich to Ft Augustus).
Then ferry to Burwall, Orkney, and a night ferry Kirkwall to Aberdeen.