Tour # 1.
Aberdeen - Banchory - Alford - Aberdeen
120 km.
Approx. total hill climb: 300 meters.
Highest point: Corse Hill 200 meters above sea level.
Traffic: Moderate
Fun rating: *****

How to get to Aberdeen: Train from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and London. Plane from everywhere. Ferry from Shetland and Norway.
This is a nice early season tour with moderate climbs and OK landscape. This cycle trip main character is the slow, but quite hard climbs from Banchory over to Alford and back to Aberdeen again. This tour can therefore be a different experience for a well trained cyclist than for myself when I was quite rusty when I did this trip in April 2001. Anyway, this is a tour I highly recommend.

Aberdeen is thankfully full of nice cycle roads out of the town in the direction of the main ring road. Take the scenic and quite flat A 93 to Banchory. The traffic is moderate. When reaching Banchory (shops), take the road (A 980) up a small, steep hill towards Alford. The road are quite hilly up and down to a crossroad after 2 km. In the crossroad, take the road towards Alford. The road goes into a moderate climb. This climb continues through Torphins and over the hill to Lumphanan (shops). The road goes very steep up from this village up to the Corse Hill. From this mountain top (excellent view), the road goes steep down into a valley and down this valley to Alford (shops and museums). If you think the road down to Aberdeen are a piece of cake, you will now get a nasty surprise. The road goes up a sharp climb three kilometers after Alford. Then it goes down again in a short descent. The road towards Aberdeen are a blend of flat and moderate climb up towards Westhill. The sting of the tale is a short climb up the hill overlooking Aberdeen and the North Sea. The view is stunning. The descent down to Aberdeen is long and moderate. Be aware of the traffic and enjoy the stunning views along this descent towards Aberdeen. You deserve it.