Along with a group of old riding mates, we headed north to Scotland for a week to take on the Crieff Cloverleaf — four day‑routes looping out from Crieff in every direction. With the NC500 now suffering from its own popularity, these routes felt like the perfect alternative: quieter, less stressful, and importantly, still packed with stunning Scottish scenery.
We based ourselves at Leven House, a family‑run B&B that turned out to be absolutely ideal for motorcyclists. The owners, Nicola and Duncan, were incredibly welcoming and couldn’t have done more for us. There’s a private car park right behind the house—great for peace of mind—and they even offered to dry our kit every night (which, given the Scottish weather, turned out to be very necessary!). All in all, a perfect home base for a week on two wheels.
The Cloverleaf routes themselves are brilliantly put together: four full‑day routes, North, West, East, and South—radiating out from Crieff. Everything’s thought through: petrol stops, cafés, pubs, and all the good riding roads are already marked on downloadable GPX files. You basically just load up, fuel up, and enjoy the day.
North and West were the standouts for me. Proper motorcycling heaven, big views, flowing roads, and loads of great places to grab a coffee or lunch. Exactly the kind of riding that reminds you why you love doing these trips.
The East Loop was a bit more eventful. Between road closures, rough weather and some slightly chaotic “on‑the‑fly” navigation, we ended up improvising the second half. Still enjoyable, just not quite the ride we intended!
We split the South Loop in two: the first half we completed on the way in, with a stop at the Kelpies, leaving the second half for the way home where we visited the Falkirk Wheel. From there we diverted to the Jim Clark Museum, which is absolutely worth it for anyone remotely interested in motorsport or just passing nearby.
All in all, we had a fantastic week. Huge thanks to everyone we met on the road, to the Crieff Cloverleaf team for creating such well‑crafted routes, and especially to Nicola and Duncan at Leven House for making the stay so easy and enjoyable.
