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gravel rides loch lomond & the trossachs. markus stitz. vertebrate publishing paperback 122pp illus. £15.95

thewashingmachinepost is very probably the ancestral home of the gravel denier, where the practice of re-purposing cyclocross bikes as gravel bikes (yes, specialized, i'm looking at you) is given short shrift. this misplaced notion was inadvertently (i hope) given a recent boost by pinarello, which simply replaced the flat bars on one of their mountain bikes with drop bars, appended the word gravel to the shop label, and hey presto, confusion reigns and cycling suffers.

that said, i have nothing whatsoever against those who have opted to follow the gravel path (so to speak); more bums on saddles is always going to be a good thing. but, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we've had 'cross bikes for nigh on a century, and there really was no need to literally reinvent the wheel. yet, while the majority of us are possessed of sufficient intellect to allow the following of any nearby roadway, tracking down suitable gravel routes might not be quite so simple a task.

it has been said that opposites attract, the proof of the pudding being the inestimable markus stitz, a man for whom i have the greatest admiration for the singular way in which he has not only carved out a velocipedinal career for himself, but the effort he has put in to popularise the gravel meme. that the two of us are good friends, despite my gravel agnosticism surely points to the affability of cycling as a means of getting folks together.

i interviewed markus last year when he featured in the 2025 islay book festival. though locally we still refer to it as 'the machrie', the present owners have undertaken an uphill struggle to have us refer to it as 'another place'. some folks just never learn. however, it was in that very hotel, having failed to have their cinema projector show his off-piste videos, that we and an impressive audience shifted to the next room, where markus connected his laptop to the wall-mounted tv and carried on regardless.

let's just say that it's one thing to ride gravel routes, but another altogether to film them and author several books of newfound gravel.

though the title of this particular compact and bijou volume highlights loch lomond and the trossachs, the subtitle alludes also to argyll in which resides the island of islay. sufficiently impressed with the island, "it welcomed me so warmly after my lap of the world in 2016, it felt fitting to include it in a gravel guidebook featuring argyll." it accompanies several other rides in argyll, including one on the isle of mull, one near dunoon and another at port appin, near dunoon.

the sixteen included routes, ranging from 23km to a mammoth 177km, are prefaced by comprehensive advice on how to interpret the book's contents. "the routes are carefully selected to provide a wide mix of terrain for wherever you are on your cycling journey." markus has separated them into easy, straightforward and challenging, before pointing out the ins and outs of responsible access and legalities, deer stalking, wild camping as well as important factors such as the bike, what to wear and how much kit you might need and several other aspects of riding off road that you probably hadn't thought of.

each ride is accompanied by step-by-step directions, the route overlaid on an ordnance survey map, ride profile, length, map references and other necessary bits and bobs. as well as his writing and video skills, markus is no mean photographer, so each ride is better than well illustrated. each is also downloadable as a gpx file that can be uploaded to your bar-mounted gps device of choice.

loch lomond, the trossachs and argyll & bute offer some of the finest scenery and cycling in scotland. what are you waiting for?

gravel rides loch lomond the trossachs

thursday 29 january 2026