The best driving and motorcycle roads in Scotland — honestly described

The most famous driving road in Scotland, and the one with the biggest gap between its reputation and the experience. It climbs from sea level at the head of Loch Kishorn to a summit a little over 620 metres through a glacial headwall, finishing in a stack of tight hairpins with gradients that reach roughly one in five. The view back down the corrie from the top is the best from any road in Britain.

Now the honest part. It is single track with passing places for its entire length. The signs at the bottom warn that it is not advised for learner drivers, very large vehicles or caravans, and they are not being cautious — the hairpins are tight enough that a long vehicle cannot make them without reversing, and there is nowhere to turn round once committed. Motorhomes do attempt it every summer and the result is a queue that goes nowhere.

Driven early on a weekday it is extraordinary. Driven mid-afternoon in August it is a slow procession with a lot of reversing. Either way this is a spectacle to be taken at low speed, not a road to be driven quickly, and in cloud the top is simply a wet grey wall.

The other way in and out of Applecross, and the better half of the day. An unclassified single-track road that follows the coast north and then east around the peninsula, with Raasay and the Skye hills across the water for most of it and almost no gradient to speak of.

It is slower than the mileage suggests because you will stop, and because it is single track with blind crests. But it turns the Bealach from an out-and-back into a proper circuit, and it is the stretch most people remember afterwards.

A proper two-lane trunk road across one of the emptiest places in Britain, then down through the most photographed glen in the country. The climb out of Tyndrum onto Rannoch Moor is fast and open with sightlines in miles; the descent into Glen Coe under Buachaille Etive Mòr and the Three Sisters is the postcard.

Set expectations: this is the main road to Fort William and the west, so it carries lorries, coaches and everyone's holiday. Safe overtaking opportunities are fewer than the long straights suggest, and the lay-bys in the glen fill with people photographing it. It is a scenery road first and a driving road second — but as scenery roads go it has no equal.

Further south the A82 along Loch Lomond between Tarbet and Crianlarich is narrow, slow and hemmed in by rock and water. Budget for it rather than enjoying it.

The best fast road in the Highlands. From Invergarry it runs along Loch Garry and Loch Cluanie, climbs gently onto the watershed and then drops through Glen Shiel under the Five Sisters of Kintail in a long sequence of wide, well-sighted, flowing bends. The road is well engineered, the surface is good, and the mountains stay in frame the whole way.

The Skye Bridge is toll-free and the road continues as the A87 to Portree. Be clear about what you are joining, though: Skye in summer is one of the busiest places in Scotland, parking at the well-known spots is contested, and much of the island beyond the main road is single track with heavy traffic. The bridge is the start of the queue, not the end of it. Spring and autumn are a different island.

The summit at the Cairnwell, around 670 metres, is the highest point on any main road in Britain. From Spittal of Glenshee the road climbs past the old Devil's Elbow — a double hairpin that was bypassed decades ago and can still be seen beside the modern alignment — onto open moor with the ski centre at the top, then runs down Glen Clunie to Braemar.

It is wide, well surfaced and open, with the kind of long sightlines that make it fast without feeling frantic. Snow gates at either end close it when the weather demands, and in winter it carries ski traffic. Beyond Braemar the A93 along the Dee to Ballater is quieter, more wooded and more rhythmic — the underrated half.

The steep one. From Cock Bridge the A939 climbs almost immediately at gradients signed around one in five to a summit near 640 metres beside the Lecht ski centre, then rolls across high moorland to Tomintoul. It is one of the roads most often first to close in Britain when snow arrives, which tells you most of what you need to know about its exposure.

It is two-way but not generous, and the climb is a test of a car's gearing rather than its chassis. Approach it from Ballater and the A939 over Gairnshiel to Cock Bridge is a good warm-up: narrow, undulating and empty.

Short, wooded and relentless. The Duke's Pass climbs out of Aberfoyle through forest in a continuous sequence of tight bends and gradient changes, crests, and drops to Loch Achray on the far side. There is barely a straight on it, and the trees mean you read it corner by corner rather than from a distance.

It is low-speed but technically absorbing, and it is a proper driving road rather than a view. The catch is traffic: it is the way to Loch Katrine and the Trossachs' visitor spots, so weekends are busy and cyclists use it heavily. Early morning, midweek, it is one of the best short roads in the country.

An old military road over the eastern Grampians that nobody outside the north-east seems to know about. From Fettercairn it climbs steeply to a summit around 455 metres, with a tight hairpin on the way up and a view from the cairn that takes in the whole Howe of the Mearns to the sea. The descent north runs through Glen Dye and its forest to Strachan.

It is a B-road and feels like one: narrow in places, with a surface that varies and a few crests that arrive quickly. Snow gates mark both ends and it closes regularly in winter. In good weather it is quiet, satisfying and over too soon.

The NC500 is a marketing route rather than a road, and much of its 500 miles is ordinary. The section worth singling out is the far north-west: the A836 west from Bettyhill through Tongue, round Loch Eriboll on the A838 to Durness, then south on the A838 and A894 past Loch Assynt to the Kylesku Bridge. It alternates between single track and newer two-lane stretches across some of the emptiest moorland in Europe, with the Sutherland hills standing on their own in the middle of it.

The B869 loop through Drumbeg, west of the A894, is the extreme version — single track, extremely steep in places, and best treated as a slow scenic detour rather than a road to make time on.

The honest note is that the route's popularity is now its defining feature. Summer brings a steady stream of motorhomes and hire cars onto roads that were never built for them, and the single-track etiquette below is routinely ignored by people who have never met it before. Go in May, June or September if you can.