GPC wrote:Hello Andrew, do you have any photos on the section south of Clatteringshaws please? The subject of the OP, I'm really not too interested on getting into an off topic discussion on another route.
If you put the route into cycle.travel, you can right-click on the route and "find photos".
These come from geograph.org, listed in a closest first order. If you click on one you go to the geograph page, with a bigger version of the photo, and a map below to show exactly where it was taken. They are mostly a bit old, but should give a good idea what to expect.
On the route after leaving the tarmac after Clatteringshaws and just before Craigencallie:
Craigencallie Lane NX500768
Munwhul NX489758
Poultrybuie NX486737
Black Loch NX494726
Murray's Monument NX484721
Old Edinburgh Road NX457691
Loch of the Lowes Strand NX455694
Auchinleck track end NX448706
(always assuming I got your intended route right)
All looks perfectly rideable on just about any bike, provided relatively recent forestry work hasn't ripped it up, which it hadn't by the time of my aerial photos (below).
If you're thinking of the "Old Edinburgh road" that leaves the south end of Clatteringshaws Loch heading SW, that doesn't look to go through in a rideable fashion.
Bing's 1:50,000 OS maps are correct, with the gravel road ending at the short side road on the north side of Brockloch Hill (at Strife Rig disused quarries), and the 1:25,000 OS, which shows track continuing on, is misleading.
It's probably rideable on an unladen mountain bike, but not on a laden touring bike. There would be about a mile of walking to regain gravel road.
(going by June 2018 25 cm aerial photos)
I do however note that cycle.travel prefers to take the A712, which should mean that it doesn't take much traffic, traffic flows being one of the things that go into its routing decisions.