Gravel Rides Cairngorms & Perthshire is published by Vertebrate Publishing in their Adventure Books collection. The book aims to showcase “15 of the best gravel bike rides across the Cairngorms National Park and south into Perthshire and the Angus Glens”.
The book is researched, ridden and written by Bikepacking Scotland’s Markus Stitz and can be bought from AdventureBooks.com.
The rides vary in distance from 14km to 77km and cover a range of terrain, from easy-going disused railway lines on the Deeside Way and Dava Way, to mountain passes, such as the iconic Burma Road, and remote glens, such as Little Glen Shee.

The routes all feature an introduction and a panel of useful, at-a-glance information. There are step-by-step instructions and an extract of a 1:50,000 OS Map with the route marked on. You can also make use of downloadable GPX files for the GPS routes. In addition, the book includes inspiring photos.

My thoughts: Gravel Rides Cairngorms & Perthshire
The books are a little larger than pocket-sized and this makes them handy for packing in a bag, such as for a holiday to a new area. However, the small format means the writing and photos are quite small.
Also, I am not sure how many people carry these sorts of books around with them. I think it is more likely that people browse the book and then chose their route and follow a GPX file. Because of this, I would prefer a larger format book with bigger photos and larger text because I like to be inspired to explore new places while at home and then set off with a GPX file added to a phone app or watch.


Then again, the smaller format is attractive in terms of price. These days, £15.95 is quite cheap for an adventure or outdoors book. The maps in the book are an adequate size and that makes them useful for planning. I think I would take a photo of the description in the book, then download the GPX route file, and head off on my bike.
Perhaps there will be more books in this size format and it will become part of an attractive collection, such as with the Pocket Mountains books.
I have been planning to do more cycling and I like Perthshire so this is a good book for providing motivation to explore. I like that there is a section of easy routes, another of straightforward routes and a section of challenging routes, so you can take your pick. There looks to be a good variety of routes and choices for different levels of cyclists.
Markus is well-known as a keen and experienced gravel rider, which means his books are usually well research and well-written. I would have liked a larger-sized book to browse but hopefully there will be more of these smaller books for different areas of Scotland.
Purchase at Adventure Books. (Thank you for using this link to buy this book because I receive a small commission for sales.)