The best motorcycle roads in the UK

The best motorcycle roads in the UK are in the Scottish Highlands, the Lake District and mid Wales. My top three are the Applecross road over Bealach na Ba, the Snow Roads through the Cairngorms and the Elan Valley mountain road in Wales. All twelve below have a free GPX file you can open in the tour planner or load onto a sat nav.

These are my picks as a Touring HQ rider. I have weighted them for touring on a loaded bike, so a road that is great on a sports bike for ten minutes and then turns into a car park scores lower than a long, quiet road with good surfaces and fuel when you need it.

The 12 best UK motorcycle roads, ranked

Every route page has the full line on a map, the fuel stations along it, the longest gap between them and a GPX download. If you want single roads rather than loops, our great roads list ranks them by how much they bend.

1. Applecross and Bealach na Ba, the best road in the UK on a clear day

Bealach na Ba climbs from sea level at Tornapress to 626 m in about six miles, with hairpins near the top that are steeper than 1 in 5. The road sign at the bottom warns learner drivers and large vehicles off it, and it means it. At the top, on a clear day, you look straight across to Skye.

The catch is the weather. I have sat at the bottom in low cloud and turned round, because there is no point riding a single-track pass you cannot see. Pick a clear morning if you can, then carry on round the Applecross coast road to Shieldaig and back through Glen Torridon, which is a great road in its own right.

Fill up in Lochcarron before you start. The Bealach na Ba pass page has the fuel on each side.

2. The Snow Roads, fast and open through the Cairngorms

The Snow Roads route runs the A93 and A939 between Blairgowrie and Grantown-on-Spey. It crosses the Cairnwell Pass at 670 m, the highest main road in the UK, then the Lecht. These are proper two-lane roads with long sightlines, so you can ride them at a steady pace on a loaded bike without the stop-start of single track.

Both roads close in heavy snow, so outside summer check the Traffic Scotland updates before you set out.

3. The Elan Valley, the best road in Wales for a loaded bike

The mountain road from Rhayader past the Elan reservoirs and over to Abergwesyn is quiet, open and wide enough to enjoy without the hairpins that make other Welsh passes hard work with luggage. I would put it ahead of anything in North Wales simply because there is so little traffic on it, even on a summer weekend.

Fill up in Rhayader before you go up. There is no fuel on the mountain road itself.

4. The North Coast 500, if you have four days or more

The NC500 is 514 miles from Inverness and back round the top of Scotland. The west and north coasts are the best of it. The east coast back down to Inverness is mostly the A9, which is fine but not why you came.

Fuel is sparse between Ullapool and Thurso. I came close to running dry on the north coast because I passed a pump thinking there would be another soon, and there was not. Fill up every time you see one.

Much of the west and north is single track with passing places. In July and August it is busy with camper vans. May, June and September are better.

5. Glencoe and Rannoch Moor, the big scenery on easy roads

The A82 over Rannoch Moor and down through Glencoe is a wide, well surfaced trunk road, so it suits a big touring bike. The loop goes on through Loch Lomond and the Rest and Be Thankful. It is busy in summer, but it is the easiest way to see the West Highlands from a bike.

6. The Yorkshire Dales high roads from Hawes

Buttertubs, Tan Hill, Arkengarthdale, Coverdale and Fleet Moss make a 68 mile loop of narrow moorland roads with cattle grids and sheep on the verge. Buttertubs has a steep drop on one side. Park Rash in Coverdale is very steep with a tight bend at the bottom, so take it slowly loaded. Fuel is in Hawes, Reeth and Leyburn, and there is none on the high roads.

7. The Lake District passes, early or not at all

Hardknott has gradients up to 1 in 3 with hairpins, and Wrynose, Honister and Newlands are steep and single track too. They are some of the most dramatic roads in England, and in summer they fill with cars and cyclists by mid morning.

I rode them on a summer Sunday starting from Ambleside before 8am and was over Hardknott before the traffic built up. Leave it later and you will spend the day behind a hire car in first gear. Avoid Hardknott in the wet, and think twice about it on a fully loaded tourer or with a nervous pillion.

8. Black Mountain Pass and the Gospel Pass

The A4069 over the Black Mountain is the Welsh road most riders have heard of, and it has the crash record to match, so ride it with that in mind. The Gospel Pass at 550 m is the highest road in Wales and single track, with walkers, ponies and oncoming cars at blind bends. The route links both in a figure of eight from Brecon.

9. Eryri and the Horseshoe Pass

The Horseshoe Pass on the A542 has a cafe at the top that is popular with riders and gets plenty of police attention. The loop carries on along the A5 to Betws-y-Coed and through the Llanberis Pass, which is narrow with walkers and parked cars near Pen-y-Pass.

10. Kielder and Hadrian's Wall

Northumberland is the least crowded riding in England. The roads round Kielder are quiet forest roads, and the B6318 Military Road along Hadrian's Wall is a rolling, straight-ish road with dips that hide oncoming traffic. Good for a day off the main routes north.

11. The Causeway Coastal Route

The A2 along the Antrim coast is a coast road with the sea on one side and cliffs on the other, and the loop runs inland through the glens. It is the one on this list that needs a ferry from Great Britain. Our crossings page lists the sailings to Belfast and Larne that take bikes.

12. The Peak District, good roads with a catch

The Cat and Fiddle, Snake Pass and Winnats are within an hour of millions of people, which is why they make the list and why they are bottom of it. The A537 Cat and Fiddle has average speed cameras along its length and a long crash history. Honestly, I think it is overrated now. Snake Pass closes in snow and after landslips, and Winnats is narrow, steep and crowded at weekends. Go midweek.

Linking UK roads into a tour

The Highlands routes join up into a week: the NC500 with Applecross as a detour, then down through the Cairngorms on the Snow Roads and home past Glencoe. In England and Wales, the Dales, the Lakes and Northumberland sit close enough for a long weekend, and the three Welsh routes make a good four days.

To see where each day ends, open any route in the Touring HQ planner with your miles a day. Our guide on how to plan a motorcycle tour covers the rest of the planning, and if you want to go further afield, see the best motorcycle tours in Europe. The Isle of Man is not part of the UK, so it is not ranked here, but the Mountain Course route is worth a look. Every UK route is on the Scotland, England and Wales pages with its GPX.