Inspiration required… 10 best "natural" decents in the Lakes & Scotland

As per the title, I like to know what everyone thinks are the best decents they have done as we want some decents to put on the tick list, give us some ideas of where to go, and to plan a route(s) around, we like the natural/wild stuff with a bit of adventure thrown in, beautiful locations with beautiful singletrack preferred…

cheers! 🙂

ooooft, looking forward to getting me some inspiration here too!

For me Watendleth to Rosthwaite on the Borrowdale Bash is a brilliant descent, I imagine it would be cracking late on a summers evening or early morning when walkers would be limited.

A hard-slog but I loved riding the Hellvelyn Ridge from south to north – OK coming off the Dodds was awful and now I would come down sticks pass but it was a time when I didn’t have the guts for that stuff but wanted an epic adventure along the ridge.

Scotland, well the Coire Laire to Achnashellach in Torridon is top notch, not very original but still amazing. My favourite time of year is Autumn as everything turns golden. Bliss.

Less epic but still stunning are some of the descents round Stirling, North Third and Dumyat. All have amazing views on good weather days and prime singletrack too. Good little stop over on your way to more northerly adventures!

swindon..

In no real order (and there’s 11, but oh well)-

Nan Beild

Grizedale Pike (this is flippin’ amazing)

Ben Lomond

Ben Macdui to Glen Derry (also flippin’ amazing)

Pretty much anything around Torridon

Jock’s Road, Glen Clova

Lochnagar via the waterfalls

Skiddaw via Ullock Pike

Lairig Ghru

Ben Lawers (also flippin’ amazing)

Warnscale

Note some of these are cheeky. All are excellent.

excellent photos and quite a range of surfaces – thsnks for posting

With that post, munrobiker wins the internet for me today! Great pics, I really want to get out on my bike now!

Done all those lakes ones and they are cracking for sure…they are quite cheeky as well

I suspect we all want to go out riding now

Oh my days amazing! Total inspiration for some Scottish adventures there!

great stuff….
can we go now?! 🙂

My favourite in the Lakes at the moment is Helvellyn-Sticks Pass-Glencoyne

Videos from last september with JonT

Skiddaw-Ullock Pike has got to be on the list.

And many, many more…

You’ve done Warnscale Junkyard? Were you ok afterwards? 😛

Great list munrobiker – done a few but need to do the rest, cheers!

I’m sure there’s 12 in there Munrobiker – ‘cos it looks like you’ve got both sides of Nan Bield 😉

To the list so far I’d also add:
Whiteless Pike (to Buttermere),
Scope End,
Grains Gill (to Stockley Bridge),
Rossett Gill

Whiteless Pike is also top, definitely.

I’d regard the northern descent of Nan Bield to be superior, it’s really techy.

If we’re doing videos most of my suggestions are here-

Not particularly high starting point but the Old Coach road from Rookin House/Matterdale End to St John’s in the Vale is a great long stretch

Anyone got a link for the Ben Lomond route, going up to Fort William for the DH and would like to do a “natural” ride, any other suggestions for the Fort William area (not the Ben, I’ve walked it once, way too busy to be worth the push IMO)?

Blacksail pass too

bit short to be a true classic but as part of a bigger ride: mitredale forest

Ben Lomond you just go up the main walkers path then go back down again the same way. Either go late or early as it gets busy.

Anyone got a link for the Ben Lomond route, going up to Fort William for the DH and would like to do a “natural” ride, any other suggestions for the Fort William area (not the Ben, I’ve walked it once, way too busy to be worth the push IMO)?

Kinlochleven. Just down the road from Fort William. Lots of natural stuff

inigomontoya- The Ben Lomond route is pretty obvious, it’s just the main tourist path up and down from Rowardennan. Go down the same way you go up from the south to the summit.

Other good routes on the way up would be the Devil’s Staircase and Ciaran Path in Glencoe-

The Ben is pretty good craic, but you’ve got to be a bloody good rider!

There’s also the Dudes of Hazzard Trails in Kinlochleven and the descent from Binnein Mor above Kinlochleven is also meant to be pretty amazing.

Not seen it mentioned here, but I’d put Beinn Fhada (Kintail) in my top 10 – and I’ve ridden many of the above…

Write-up here…
http://unduro.co.uk/riding/beinn-fhada-the-most-beautiful-ride-in-the-world/

Another of my faves which may not have been brought up is the descent from Grisedale Tarn off Helvellyn, and then you may as well do the tough-but-satisfying step-fest that is Dollywaggon Pike above it first.

Thank you Munrobiker,gav and grum, I love the rangers decent off Snowdon, if that’s any measure of ability, the dudes trail has been mentioned by my traveling buddy so that might get done. Is laggan riding OK now, he was up last year and apparently lots of tree felling had been done and some of the trails changed? (Sorry for the post highjack Op)

Some great Ideas there

I only know the lakes…

Low
Parkamoor
The Fox
Breasty Haw
Seven Sisters (All in Grizedale)
Nan Bield either way!
Colthouse (Claife)
Watendlath
Anything round Ulpha

High
Ullock Pike
Walna Scar (either way)
Sticks pass
Stake pass Langstrath

Woah, stop, haud the bus! That last pic of Jock’s Road posted by Munrobiker. Are they in the nuddy?

Lots of cheeky in this list.

Whiteless pike – link up with Grizedale pike for a very satisfying loop.

Ben Lawers.

Binnean Mor – yum. I can confirm that it is indeed brilliant. Really fun switchbacks to ride down.

Ullock Pike.

St Sunday Crag into Glenriddinfg. Rode it in Jamuary in the snow and got blown off our bikes at one point. Brilliant though!

Rossett Gill down into Seatoller. Just brilliant. A bit of everything really.

Fairfield down into Rydal.

Angle Tarn down into Glenridding.

Glas Alt descent off of Lochnagar. Yup, very much a descent to revisit.

Derry Cairngorm down into Glen Derry. At the summit, you will despair of the boulders but then it transforms into something magical.

MacDui down to Loch Etchacan then via the Hutcheson Hut into Glen Derry.

The Carn a Chlamain stalkers path into Glen Tilt.

Sgor Gaoith down into Glen Feshie via the weather station. Bloody brilliant with the perfect blend of technical trails, scenery and tree lined loveliness.

Munrobiker

When are you up so I can show you Binnean Mor?

Sanny

Hellvellyn via Dollywaggon
A couple of cheeky ones in Borrowdale
Ullswater Lake Shore
Halls Fell Ridge Blen Cathra
plenty of others 🙂

[Quote]downshep – Member
Woah, stop, haud the bus! That last pic of Jock’s Road posted by Munrobiker. Are they in the nuddy?[/quote]
Look like sumo wrestler costumes, probably a charity run?.

So what constitutes as a ‘cheeky’?

Cheeky = Not BW’s so no right of use on bikes

Thanks for clarifying that.

As good as it is, I wouldn’t class Ullswater bridleway as a descent Mike! 😆

It’s pretty much all been said up there tbh.

A slightly left field suggestion, certainly not natural, but then neither are a lot of big mountain descents…

Fort William red dh. Yes, it’s pretty much a trail centre, but it feels like a big mountain descent and as you can squeeze in 10 runs if you eat a packed lunch in the gondola and don’t fanny about, that’s about 5000m/2hrs of descending.

An annual trip is due soon.

Sanny – sorry, forgot to reply to your email! We never managed to get up there but I’m mulling over a solo trip sometime soon which I’d appreciate some company on. I’ll let you know.

B.A.Nana – how dare you? 😡

(yes, there is a lack of clothing in that photo. Long story…)

What, no Capel Mounth yet? It’s a beaut!

Note some of these are cheeky. All are excellent.

Which way off Grizedale Pike is this please (not fussed about cheeky)

Down to the east over Sleet How, not north down to Hobcarton. It’s very steep and slidey at the top with loads of exposed bedrock then flowy rocky goodness. An amazing trail but not one for when it’s been wet as you’d just slide down the face of it.

Are any of the Scottish ones up there loops? I’m hoping to do more natural stuff (ideally within a couple of hours drive of the central belt) this year but not really a big fan of the 2hr push up / 30mins ride back down routes

Cheers,
J

Glas Alt descent off of Lochnagar. Yup, very much a descent to revisit.

Really? For the amount of effort needed to get up there, it doesn’t look all that great IMO.

Descent from Loch Dubh to Loch Muick is good, but an out and back.

Also from Loch Muick – Capel Mounth and it’s return Corrie Chash.

Mount Keen while certainly not in the top 10, is still decent and worth putting on any list because you can do it as a loop either way.

Glas Alt is amazing. Well worth it.

mcj78 – of the ones I listed Lochnagar, Devil’s Staircase/Ciaran Path, Ben Lawers, Ben Macdui,Jock’s Road and the Torridon routes are all loops.

I’d regard the northern descent of Nan Bield to be superior, it’s really techy.

I’d regard the northern descent as being mostly a walk 😆 I’ve come to the conclusion that steep, rocky, technical descents are not my forte nor my preference. It was bad enough going up, although in this pic the descent looks quite manageable. Many of the other sections I wouldn’t even attempt to ride. I value my face and my bones too much 😉

Lakeland hike-a-bike May 2016 by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

Great ideas, thanks. I’ll be up at Fort Bill too, so I’d love to tick off acouple of these.

I’d regard the northern descent of Nan Bield to be superior, it’s really techy.

I’d agree. The only negative is that, once you’ve done it Northerly, the only option that makes any kind of sense as a route is to turn around and hike-a-bike back up everything you’ve just descended and then do the South side.