Route out – Redford to Greystone to Carrot Hill. For route map click here.
Route back – Carrot Hill to Inverarity to Whigstreet to West Hills to Redford. For route map click here.
- Weather – sunny and warm with a light breeze.
- Distance travelled – 22.04 miles
- Riding time – 1 hour 55 minutes
- Maximum speed – 28.8 mph
- Average speed – 11.5 mph
We were up north visiting Granny and Granda last weekend and since the weather was really nice, Dad and I decided to go for a cycle in the Angus countryside. I had spotted an intriguingly named place called Carrot Hill on the map and since it was only around 10 miles from Granny’s house we decided to head for there. To look for carrots obviously…
We left Granny’s house in the village of Redford after lunch and headed along the B961 for a few hundred yards, past the primary school, before turning left to go down the single track “Slade” road. This is really just a farm road and soon we reached the farm where there were mountains of grain piled up next to the road. After the farm, the road turned into a bumpy track for a while but after passing the disused Carmyllie Quarries, we were back on tarmac again on another very quiet road which headed slightly uphill past lots of potato and wheat fields to a high point near Drummygar where we got a nice view over to the hills in the north west (and also found some brambles to eat…).
The roads around here are all quiet and in quite good condition so it was a smooth cycle up to Mains of Carmyllie farm where we stopped to enjoy the views over the Angus countryside. From there it was steeply downhill to Greystone but at the bottom of the hill we had to slow down to avoid some tractors that were parked in the middle of the road. Next we turned left onto the B9128 for a short way before turning right onto the B9127. You get some great views of the Grampiam Mountains far in the distance along this road so we stopped for a photo or 2. Eventually we came to a crossroads and had to check the ancient map that we’d “stolen” from Granda to make sure we went the right way. The right way was actually left onto the B978. This road is a bit busier than the others we were on today because it’s one of the back roads from Forfar to Dundee. One of the cars that overtook us tooted its horn – it was Granny’s car! I thought I knew where they were going…
The B978 goes steeply downhill and then back uphill again for a couple of miles. At the top, we got a good view over to the sea about 10 miles away near Dundee. It seemed to take ages but eventually we turned right onto a quiet narrow, straight road and we could see Carrot Hill in the distance. I couldn’t see any carrots though. At the end of the road we turned right and soon came to the parking area where – surprise surprise – we saw Granny and Granda and Auntie Janis, Mum and Isla. They had come to meet us and were all wearing their Rowan’s Recommended Riding Routes t-shirts too. Well, apart from Mum that is. As a punishment, we made her take a photo of us all at the amazing viewpoint overlooking the Grampian Mountains. It’s one of the most scenic places we’ve ever been to on our bikes I think. The visibility was so good that we could even see Lochnagar, one of the highest mountains in Scotland, around 40 miles away. After the photo, we walked part of the way up Carrot Hill but found no carrots at all – only wild blueberries, and lots of them. I filled my face of course, to give me energy for the journey back…
The next section was extremely fast downhill and was great fun. However, even though it is a quiet road, there are quite a few sharp corners so we had to be careful not to go too fast. It was still the fastest part of the route though. We then cycled through a couple of miles of nice countryside until we came to the village of Inverarity. Here, we turned right onto the B9127 which took us gradually uphill to a small place Whigstreet. Just before we reached the village we finally did find some carrots – growing in a field! At the crossroads in Whigstreet, we turned left onto another narrow road which went slightly uphill for a bit and then though some woods. After a mile or we turned right onto a completely straight and flat road which took us quickly to the B9128 once more, close to a place called Craichie. We didn’t go there though but turned right to head back to Redford. This road is a lot more uphill than it looks but the view from the top across the hills to Forfar is really quite nice. After that, it was mostly downhill (apart from an easy uphill section at West Hills) on yet another single track road the last mile or 2 back to Granny’s House.
Cycling in Angus is really enjoyable. It’s not as hilly as Midlothian or The Borders and there’s an incredible number of quiet country roads to choose from. The scenery is also amazing. I think we’ll be coming back later on to do a Grand Tour of Angus so stay tuned for that…
Rowan's Recommended Riding Routes 